Chapter 123

Chapter 47 I picked up my cell phone from the coffee table to check the time, sighing when I saw it. We had to leave in five minutes and Grayson was still having his very long nap. I got up from the couch and crouched down beside Ryder, who was sitting on the floor as he chewed on his stuffed otter. "Want to go wake up your dada?" I asked before picking him up. I walked into our bedroom with Ryder, seeing Grayson sleeping. I placed Ryder in the middle of the bed and he quickly crawled over to Grayson. Ryder blew a raspberry, right in Grayson's face to be exact. Grayson stirred a bit before groaning, keeping his eyes closed. "Flower, is that you?" he asked in a groggy voice. I didn't have to reply, because Ryder started babbling and stuck his hand on Grayson's face. "I'll take that as a no," Grayson muttered. I sat on the edge of the bed, right beside Grayson. "Are you okay?" I asked, rubbing his arm. "Why wouldn't I be?" Grayson asked, finally opening his eyes to look at me. "You've been napping for three hours," I said. "You never nap for that long." "I'm fine," Grayson assured. "I've just been a bit tired lately." "Are you sure?" I asked. "Because we can go to the doctors and..." "Flower, I promise I'm fine," he said. "Taking care of a baby is just tiring, especially this little baby." He gestured to Ryder, who was now lying beside Grayson as he babbled on and on and on. "Okay," I said. "Can you get out of bed now? We have to head over to Tony's." "Why?" "Because it's his birthday," I said. "And he wants to see his sister and her boyfriend and their son. And he loves us. Mostly me, but he loves you too." Grayson sighed deeply before sitting up and rubbing his eyes. He picked Ryder up and sat him in his lap. "As much as I love him, I just wish he would sleep through the night," Grayson said. "Here, I'll get him ready while you get changed," I said as I took Ryder from Grayson. I was about to walk out of the bedroom when Grayson called my name. I turned around to see Grayson tap his cheek. I sighed and walked over, leaning down to kiss his cheek, but he moved his head at the last minute so I kissed his lips instead. He then gave me a smile. "Go get Ryder ready," he said. "I'll be ready soon." Just because, I gave him another kiss before heading out of the bedroom. I placed Ryder on the floor while I went to get his jacket hanging in the closest beside the front door, as well as his shoes. By the time I put it on, which was quite the struggle because he loved moving around, Grayson was all ready to go. We left the apartment and went to Grayson's car to go to Tony's apartment. He was now twenty-four years old and I couldn't wait to bug him about how old he was. Even though he wasn't that old. We got to Tony's apartment and he let us in. My parents weren't there yet, but they were going to arrive soon. "Poppy, let me see my nephew," Tony said, holding his arms out for Ryder. "No," I said. "But..." "No." "Poppy..." "Fight me for him." Tony sighed. "Why did I have to get you as a sister?" I smiled, handing Ryder to Grayson before wrapping my arms around my older brother. "Happy birthday, Tony," I said. Tony chuckled and hugged me back. "Thanks, Poppy. How's everything going?" "Same old, same old," I said. "Ryder crawls around too much, Grayson is lazy..." "Hey," Grayson said. "I'm not... I mean I... Yeah, that's true." Grayson then handed Ryder over to Tony. "Here, you can see your nephew since your sister is too mean to let you see him." Tony smiled as he looked at Ryder. "Hi, Ryder," he said. "It's your uncle Tony." "Ta!" Ryder announced before laughing and placing his hand on Tony's face. "Aww!" Charlie gushed from her spot on a nearby couch. "Tony, that's so cute! You're a great uncle." "I barely see him," Tony pointed out before sitting down beside her. I grabbed Grayson's wrist and pulled him to the loveseat. "So I can't really act like an uncle." "Still," Charlie said. "It's cute to see you with a baby. Unlike my sister..." Tony furrowed his eyebrows and looked at her. "She had the baby?" "Not yet," she said. She then sighed. "Sorry to talk about that now. It's kind of hard to forgive her when she never apologized." "Is she married to your ex now?" I asked. Charlie nodded. "Yeah, she is. Tony went to the wedding with me so I could at least try to push aside the hatred I was holding for her, but she never apologized. She just told me get over it. My parents and other sister told me the same thing." "I'm sorry about that," I said. "I really hate when family's favor one kid over the other. I've never felt it, but my best friend did." "And me," Grayson said. "Well, I am your best friend, so..." "I was talking about Belle," I said. "Ouch," Grayson muttered jokingly. Tony placed Ryder on the floor since he was moving around too much, and he soon began crawling around. My parents shortly arrived, both giving Tony a hug and one sitting on the last seat on the couch and the other sitting on the chair. "Where's Ryder?" Dad asked. "Crawling around," I said right as he crawled into the living room, babbling away. He stopped in the middle and sat down, looking around the living room. When he spotted me, he exclaimed, "Mama!" before crawling over to me and pulling on my leg. I picked him up and sat him between me and Grayson. Grayson reached into the diaper bag, which he set beside the loveseat when he came in, and grabbed Ryder's otter. He handed it to Ryder and, like always, he began eating it. "Why is he so cute?" Mom asked. "Neither you nor Tony was that cute as a baby." "Probably because he has Grayson's genes," I said, squeezing Grayson's cheeks. "Because he's a cute wittle baby." Grayson glared at me and swatter my hands away. "Funny." "So," Tony spoke up. "Now that you're all here, Charlie and I kind of have something to announce." "Are you having a baby?" I asked. "What? No," Tony said. I frowned. "Pooey. I wanted Tarlie babies." "You and me both, daughter," Dad said with an approving nod. "Right?" Tony sighed. "We can never have a normal family conversation, can we?" "Tony, darling, this is as normal as we get," I said. "So, what's this announcement?" "Well..." Tony said slowly, intertwining his hand in Charlie's. "Charlie and I are getting married." "Yes!" I exclaimed. "Yes yes yes yes!" I hurried over to them and gave them a hug. "Congratulations!" My favorite ship was getting married! This was officially the happiest day of my life! Well... Second. Ryder being born was first. Even though I got hit by a car on that day... "Thank you, Poppy," Tony said with a smile as I set back down. He then looked at Mom. "Mom... Are you crying?" Mom nodded and wiped her tears away. "My little boy is growing up!" "And that means Tarlie babies will come after," Dad added. "Really, Dad?" Tony asked. "Really, Tony." Tony sighed and rolled his eyes, so used to Dad's awesome fangirling. We would fangirl together at the wedding. That would be fun. "Poppy?" Charlie asked. "Would you like the be my maid of honor?" I gave her a smile. "I'd love to." I honestly couldn't wait for them to get married. I know they made each other really happy and after what Charlie went through, she needed someone like my brother to be there for her. That and I wanted to be an aunt. "And Grayson, would you like to be the best man?" Tony asked. "Yeah, of course," Grayson said. Now it was the second wedding Grayson and I were going to be the best man and maid of honor at. We were on a roll. We stayed for about two hours, just talking about basically everything, but mostly the upcoming wedding. It wasn't going to happen until the summer because they were going to be so busy with their jobs, though. But I really couldn't wait for it. I thought Charlie was perfect for Tony and I couldn't wait until she was my sister-in-law. Things were finally going well in life.