Page 128 of The Deals We Make

“Can I babysit him?” Avery asks.

“Not yet,” Spark says gently. “When you’re a bit older, maybe.”

“Okay.” She touches her lips to Archer’s hand and then dances off to the kitchen.

“So, I got some news,” Halo says.

“Yeah?” King says, then takes a swig of his beer.

“Ari and I are going the surrogacy route.”

I squeeze Halo’s shoulder. “That’s huge, brother.”

Halo glances in Ari’s direction. “Yeah. Well. The whole jerking off into a container was weird, but we want to try before we go the adoption route.”

“How’s Ari doing?” King asks.

“Surprisingly okay. She’s been doing a lot of work to accept she can’t physically have kids. Lola helps. I said we should skip this step and go straight to adoption, but she was adamant if she couldn’t have kids, she wants them to be part of others she loved. Lola is half her sister. Our kids would be half me.” Halo gets a little choked up, and coughs before he takes a chug of his beer.

“Big move, brother,” Clutch says. “Hoping to join you next year.”

King eyes him carefully. “Are you saying my sister is pregnant?”

Clutch shakes his head. “Not yet. But I’m sure you don’t want the details of how I’m working on it.”

I almost spit my beer out in laughter.

Niro pulls out a chair and sits. “What are you losers talking about?”

“How you have zero dance moves,” Bates says, without missing a beat.

“I had an idea,” Niro says.

“Oh, fuck. Not another one.” Clutch laughs at his own joke.

“No. It’s a good one. Hear me out. We should buy the land behind the clubhouse. Expand. And build, like, activity shit for the kids and a skateboard park.”

“None of us skateboard,” Switch says.

“I do. Or, I used to. Was thinking of starting again. Got watching some videos and now I wanna do it again. And, uhh…”

“What?” King asks, with warning in his tone.

Niro glances at Bates. “I just promised Avery I’d teach her.”

Bates rolls his eyes. “You can negotiate that one with Vi.”

“So you say yes?” Niro asks.

“No. I said you need to talk to Vi because I like it when my wife isn’t looking at me like I’m an irresponsible asshole.”

“Haven’t been on a skateboard in twenty years,” I say. “Might be fun.”

“For fucks’ sake,” Clutch says. “Don’t encourage him.”

Lola toddles over to Halo and opens her arms out wide when she sees him. He picks her up and kisses her cheek. “Hey, cutie.” He settles her on his lap. “I think a play area for kids is a great idea. Think about it. Cookouts in summer with more kids. Somewhere safe and secure they can all play.”

“See?” Niro says. “It’s a good idea, right?”