“Not happening,” Sam said.
“But the dog is, right? See what I did there? The dog looks pretty good compared to homeschooling. And P.S., I call Dad for my homeschooler.”
“That’s a good call, and nice try with the outsmarting of your parents.”
“Back to the dog…”
“We’re thinking about it.” Sam leaned in to kiss his forehead. “I swear we are.”
“Think faster. I’m not getting any younger over here.”
Sam tried not to laugh, but failed miserably. “You’re too much, Scott Cappuano.”
“You know I’m only joking, right?” He looked up at her with a vulnerable expression that tugged at her heart. Even after all the time they’d been together, did he still worry about doing or saying the wrong thing with them?
“Of course I do. And I know you really want a dog. Dad and I are thinking about it. That’s the best I can do for right now.”
“We’ve had a lot going on with Gramps dying and everything. I don’t want you to think I’m being selfish.”
“Buddy… Make room for your mother.”
Rolling his eyes, he moved some of the papers so she could sit close enough to hug him as tightly as she could. “You don’t have a selfish bone in your body, and the number one reason why you don’t already have a dog is because we have to resist the urge to give you everything you want the second you ask for it. We’re trying to do this parenting thing right, and not giving you everything you want is apparently how we keep you from being completely spoiled.”
His snort of laughter was muffled by the tight hold she had on him. He pulled back to look at her. “Did you read that on some how-to-be-a-good-mom website?”
She play-punched him in the arm. “What if I did?”
“You’re funny. I promise if you get me a dog, I won’t turn into a spoiled brat.”
“That’s good to know, and it’s not lost on us that you never ask for anything, which makes you the best kid ever.”
“Could I ask you something kind of weird?”
“Anything you want. We specialize in weird around here.”
Once again, Nick laughed behind her.
“What does it mean when people ask if you’re going to have ‘real’ kids?”
Chapter Four
Sam felt like she’d been sucker-punched. “Where… where did you hear that?”
“At school. Someone said they asked if you were having real kids, and I didn’t know what that meant. I think it means babies, but I wasn’t entirely sure.”
Sam wanted to weep and wail and throat-punch the insensitive reporter who’d asked that question at a recent briefing. “What it means is that people are stupid.”
“Well, I already knew that much,” Scotty said with the cheeky grin she loved so much. It was very similar to Nick’s.
“A reporter asked me if Dad and I were going to have kids of our own, and I went off on her, letting her know I already have three kids of my own who I love with all my heart.”
“So she meant babies are real kids?”
“Who knows?”
He gave her the withering look that was her trademark. Apparently, he was borrowing from both their playbooks. “They meant babies that you would have, right?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“For what it’s worth, pal,” Nick said, “I lost my shit with that reporter’s boss and let them know how offensive we found that question. You, Alden, Aubrey and Elijah are our family, our kids, the only kids we need, and we love you all very much. You know that.” Elijah, a sophomore at Princeton, was the twins’ older brother and legal guardian, but Sam and Nick had let him know he had a family in them now that his father and stepmother were gone.
“I do. Of course I do. We all know that. But, if you want to have babies too, that’d be cool.”
“That’s kind of a tough subject for us. Have you heard the word infertility before?”
“Isn’t that what your speech was about that time?”
“Yeah, it was. I have trouble getting pregnant and staying pregnant.” Sam really hoped she wasn’t giving him more information than he needed, but it was important to her to tell him the truth—always.
“Oh, so like you can’t have babies?”
“Right. I would if I could, but it just hasn’t happened.”
“And that’s why you adopted me.”
“No! We adopted you because we fell madly in love with you and needed you in our family. It had nothing to do with whether we could have babies. It was entirely about you.”
“Mom is right,” Nick said. “From the first time I met you, I couldn’t stop thinking about you or wanting to see you again. Making you part of our family was the best thing we ever did. You made us a family, buddy.”
“That’s really nice of you to say.”
“You know I mean it,” Nick said. “We love you, Scotty. We have from the very beginning. Please tell me you know that.”
“I do.”
“People say the most insensitive things sometimes,” Sam said. “Making it sound like adopted children aren’t our own is the most insensitive thing anyone could say to someone who has adopted children. I wanted to stab her.”
“With your rusty steak knife?”
“Yes! With the rustiest steak knife ever.”
Scotty laughed. “I’ll bet you were pissed.”
“You have no idea.”
“We both were,” Nick said. “I went ballistic when I saw that. Her network got an irate phone call from the vice president.”
“That must’ve made their day.”
“I’m pretty sure it made their day very shitty, which is exactly what they deserved,” Nick said. “There was a lot of outrage over it, not just from us. People wrote op-eds in the Post and the Star about the importance of adoption and the need to respect the sanctity of families, however they’re composed.”
“I think our family is pretty cool,” Scotty said. “It’s not just us and the twins, it’s also Elijah and Shelby and Avery and Noah and the grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, not to mention all the friends, like Graham and Laine, who’re like extra grandparents. And then there’s my biological father…” Since meeting the man who’d fathered him, Scotty had maintained contact with him and saw him occasionally.
“That’s right,” Sam said. “Our family is the coolest. I’m going to be honest with you about something really big. Are you ready for this?”
Scotty glanced at Nick. “Is it normal to be afraid when she says something like that?”
“Completely normal. You never know what she’s going to say.”
“I can hear you two,” Sam said, amused as always by them. “Before you joined us, my most pressing need was to have a baby. It was all I thought about. I’ve had a lot of disappointments in that regard.” The statement glossed over years of infertility, miscarriages and heartbreak her son didn’t need to know about. “But after you came to live with us, and I got to be your mom, that stuff doesn’t hurt me the way it once did. I’m still sad about the fact that I can’t seem to do what comes so easily to other women, but I’m not heartbroken anymore, and that’s because of you.” She placed her hand on his face and looked him in the eyes. “You made me a mom, and you’re the realest and bestest kid I’ve ever known. I wouldn’t want any other boy in the world to be my son but you.”