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We gave him jewellery, Kodi argued with his animal. And we told my parents about the mating. It all counts.

It was then Nigel’s nose twitched, and he came forward. “Squirt—”

“Dad, let’s go find Mom.” Lennon, for all his diminutive size, maneuvered Nigel through the throng of people calling out hellos.

Jonny was right, Nigel clearly could smell the change in Lennon. Kodi walked behind Lennon, working to keep his breathing under control at the sheer number of times they stopped and he was introduced to people. He’d never remember all their names. The level of anxiety coursing through him left him more jittery than the one time he’d drunk eight large cans of red bull and thought he was having a heart attack.

A line of sweat ran down the middle of his back by the time they made it into an enormous kitchen that had counters laden with plates of delicious smelling food, not that Kodi could eat anything with how dry his throat was.

“There’s my boy,” a woman who was the same size as Lennon said. Her attractive features were where Lennon had inherited his good looks. The only difference was the deep brown eyes. A glass in one hand and an overflowing plate in the other, she shoved both at Lennon.

“You’re late, you better have a good reason,” she admonished, while her keen gaze swept over Kodi.

“Mom, have you got any more of those peanut cupcakes?” A woman at least ten years older than Lennon, judging by the lines around her chocolate brown eyes, came to a halt in front of them, apparently unaware that anyone else in the room was having a conversation.

“Giselle, you’ll find them in the cupboard—”

“I brought some. Kodi has them in the yellow lidded tub,” Lennon interjected. “This is Kodi… my fiancé.” The announcement was aimed at the full kitchen and a woman that had been standing over by a large set of double doors leading outside to an area festooned with fairy lights, swung to glance at Kodi.

He barely had time to brace for the gaggle of women that surrounded him, peppering him with questions they didn’t give him time to answer. In the end, he gave up trying, wearing a bemused look and wondering if he was going to need an Advil by the end of the evening when they didn’t seem to speak in anything other than decibels.

No one let the other finish a sentence before they were leaping in, talking over each other. No one seemed to notice. Lennon was as bad as his sisters. Kodi was introduced to Giselle, Loris, Anna, and Charlie. They all took after their mother, pretty and tiny. Only they made up for their size by the volume they projected their voices.

Kodi gawped at Nigel when he slung an arm around his shoulder and whispered in his ear, “What are your actual intentions towards my son, who it appears is pregnant. I’m assuming you are the father.”

Swallowing past the sudden lump in his throat when he couldn’t determine if Nigel’s stare was threatening or not, he said, “I want to mate him, sir. Marry him.” Did he sound convincing, or was that trembly voice as bad as he thought it was?

“Good answer. I wouldn’t want to have to kill you when Lennon is so smitten with you.” He laughed, his head tipping back, the sound drawing his family’s attention.

“Leave that poor boy alone, Nigel. We don’t want you scaring him off.” His wife gave Nigel a hard stare that the other man took seriously, dropping his arm and wearing a sheepish smile.

“Lennon, got anything to share?” Nigel enquired, causing his daughters to pause long enough for Lennon to give Kodi a nervous look.

“We’re expecting a baby,” Kodi announced to take the pressure off Lennon, only to find himself in the eye of a storm of his own making. It seemed the entire house had heard him when the kitchen flooded with people.

Gods… look at them all. It’s like an ant colony invading.

Two hours later, exhausted and unsure he could handle any more hugs or answer any more probing questions from nosy relatives, Kodi, who had been left to fend for himself, escaped into the coat closet.

His brothers would find this highly amusing if they ever found out, but Kodi was tapped out and didn’t know what else to do. He was buried in the back of the closet so no one would see him if they opened the door. Not that he thought that would happen anytime soon with the amount of food and alcohol remaining. Everyone had congregated out the back of the house where there was a large canopy over a seated area with outdoor heaters to keep people warm. They’d set up a small area for dancing, which was where Lennon had been dragged to by a cousin that Kodi couldn’t remember the name of.

“I can’t find where Kodi went? I was hoping to drag him up on the dance floor.”

Kodi froze at hearing Giselle speak on the other side of the closet door. “Not on your life,” he muttered under his breath.

“I think I saw him heading to the upstairs bathroom.” Lennon's voice floated through the wood. “You need to leave him be though, Giselle. I could see you and Loris giving him the third degree. It’s a lot being part of this family. Please don’t frighten him off!”

“He got you up the duff and you aren’t mated! Of course we’re going to want to know his intentions. If we frighten him off, then he’s not the man you thought him to be.”

His breath caught as he waited for Lennon’s reply.

“He’s exactly the man he portrays himself to be. He was the one to announce we were expecting a baby. He stood with you guys for over an hour and when you let him, answered all your nosy questions. I’m not mated yet, granted, but he wants that. And he told you he wants to marry me.” There was a few seconds of break in the conversation. “You looked at this several times, and you know the bracelet has meaning.”

“A gem for all the times he didn’t want to leave you. Alright, I’ll admit it’s all kinda romantic.”

Kodi’s lips quirked up, edging his way closer to the door.

“He is, and he loves me, sis.”