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his father with his black hair always purposely messy on top of his head and chestnut eyes that gleamed playfully. We’d heard the stories from Craig about what a troublemaker Sean had been growing up, but despite all of his prior mischief, Sean was an amazing man.
    Matt had a hard time adjusting to all of these men in his life when it had been him, Linda, and Maddie for so long, but he acclimated well and seemed to enjoy his new extended family.
    Craig smiled from his chair on the patio, his now-silver hair shining in the sunlight as shook his head at Josh.
    “I didn’t see any traveling.”
    Josh burst out laughing and gave me a side hug. “Like he would argue with you.”
    We had spent the entire day before shopping for Maddie’s wedding dress and our bridesmaid dresses, and now we were one step closer to the wedding. There hadn’t been any time to rest once we’d been done since Maddie and I had our final shifts at our waitressing jobs. I hadn’t put in hardly any hours over the past month between being so tired and getting my mom ready to move, so I wasn’t sad to see my last day come. My checking account was a little upset, but it’d survive. We’ve served until after midnight and then Sydney had wanted to talk the second Maddie and I got home. We had stayed up another hour dissecting her relationship with her dad and by the time I went to bed, I was exhausted. I still hadn’t told anyone about my pregnancy.  At thirteen weeks, I was sicker than before and constantly tired. I had almost bowed out of Sunday dinner in hopes of a nap, but Maddie had basically told me I had to go.
    Jenny and I had moved Mom into the home that morning. She didn’t take much, just a couple of boxes, but it had been an emotional time that I didn’t share with any of my friends. I would have skipped dinner to stay with Mom that evening, but she insisted that she spend the first night getting to know the fellow residents. Jenny and I had hugged for a long time in the parking lot after we’d walked out and when I pulled away, she had tears running down her face.
    “Keep in touch, okay?” She pushed the hair behind my shoulder and put her hands on my cheeks. “I want to be kept in the loop about the baby, too.”
    I gaped at her for a moment and she just smiled.
    “Your mom told me. She’s been so proud she could burst. Take care of yourself, Amanda, okay?”
    I nodded and pulled her in for another hug. “You too, Jen. Thank you so much for all you’ve done for us these past few years. You’re family and I’m gonna miss you so much.”
    I’d cried all the way back to the apartment and when Maddie had come to drag me to dinner I wanted to cause her bodily harm. In a loving way, of course. I was tired, sad, and sick, but after getting to Linda’s I was glad I had come. When I was down about my mom, the rest of my family- surrogate or not- was great at cheering me up.
    I grabbed the basketball when Maddie missed her shot and passed it to Sean who sank it into the basket smoothly. Maddie turned to look at me, her head shaking.
    “They make us look ridiculously bad at this.”
    I laughed and nodded my head in agreement. I was actually fairly decent when it came to basketball, but these guys lived and breathed it which made me look terrible.
    “I don’t even know why they asked us to play.”
    Sean dropped his arm around my shoulder and let out a chuckle. “We just enjoy watching you ladies run around. It’s entertaining and morale boosting.”
    “We can’t all be hot-shot college basketball stars,” I teased, gesturing towards Josh.
    Josh Richards could have gone to the NBA if he had wanted to, but he played basketball entirely for the fun of the game. He still had the body of a basketball player, though: tall, lean, and agile. Topping it all off with chocolate brown curls on his head, Josh was a pretty gorgeous man.
    I snatched the ball from Sean’s other hand and made another shot for the basket. It missed,