Kristen laughed.

“Are you going to use your baby as an excuse to go buy a new vehicle?” she teased.

“I am going to use the reality that this truck is absolutely not fit for any child of mine to sit in the back of for at least twelve years,” I said. “New truck it is.”

“Well then,” she said, “why don’t we just head up to the dealership now? We still have a couple of months before the baby comes. Nursery shopping can wait.”

“Are you sure?” I asked, a grin breaking wide across my face.

She nodded, smiling.

“It’s your celebration day,” she said. “Why not cap it off with something big?”

As we drove into the parking lot of the bed and breakfast in my new truck, having left the old one at the dealership to be picked up later, the boys came out to admire it, and we joked and laughed there before we got inside. Victor handed me a beer, and we all clinked glasses together as Kristen joined the ladies inside.

“Hell of a thing,” Ryan said.

“What is?” I asked.

“Well, when I came back to town, we were all scattered to the wind. All except you. You stayed here and made something of yourself in Murdock. You helped me settle again, and then I was the first of the dominos to fall.”

“Yeah,” Graham said. “We all ended up back in town and finding our partners in, what, five years?”

“Something like that,” Mark said. “What are the odds that a bunch of dumbasses like us ended up as lucky as we did? And together?”

“I don’t know,” Victor said, “but I am damn glad for it.”

“Hear, hear,” I said.

“We are all super proud of you,” Ryan said. “For being the one who didn’t run away, for building your empire while the rest of us were still finding ourselves, for helping us all when we moved back to town… all of it. And especially for pushing yourself to become more, for finding Kristen and for becoming the man we all knew you could be. Congratulations, Camden.”

“Thanks, Ryan,” I said. “And for what it’s worth, I am proud as hell of all four of you too. And I am prouder still to call you my friends.”

“Brothers,” Graham said. “We are brothers.”

“Forever,” Mark said.

“Forever,” we all repeated, clinking our glasses again and then taking a big, long sip.

“Now,” I said as I finished off the beer in my hand, “I think I am due another one of these.”

“Hell yes, you are,” Graham said. “Come on, it’s time to party.”

As I walked into the house, my eyes met Kristen’s from across the room, and I felt the warmth settle over my heart like a blanket. My friends surrounded me, my wife among them, and I knew that while this was a celebration, it was hardly the only time even this week that we would get together.

Home isn’t always where you were born or where you grew up, but for us, home turned out to still be Murdock, Texas.

As I embraced Kristen, relishing the way the bump in her stomach pressed against my abdomen, I sighed and kissed her head. Our children would grow up in the growing expansion of our crew and would know the same kind of love and affection we had for each other, but in an even better situation. For that, I was eternally grateful and proud.

I ran my hand over Kristen’s belly and felt something thump against it. Our eyes locked on to one another as I stood in silence. It happened again. And again.

“That’s our baby,” Kristen said, her voice an excited whisper.

“That’s our future,” I said. “And I can’t wait to meet it.”

The End

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