Ava was too busy trying to keep up. Dylan and Hannie she’d met previously when the two couples had gone out for dinner together, and she’d taken an instant liking to the woman who would marry Caleb’s twin brother, Dylan, who looked so much like Caleb and yet not quite, a slightly different flavour of the same DNA. The Knight cousins and their partners had flown in from Brisbane and Melbourne today, and now she sat tucked up on one of the chesterfields between Caleb on one side and Dylan, who had his arm draped around Hannie’s shoulders, her arms crossed at the wrists on her knees, one ring amongst her chunky silver rings sparkling in the lights. Adjacent to them sat Logan, tall and broad-shouldered like the rest of the men, and Arabella, or Bella as she preferred to be called, with her choppy bob of blonde hair and gorgeous blue-green eyes, while on opposite sat a very pregnant Darington, or Dare as she told Ava to call her, her long body nestled with her feet up on the sofa against her fiancé, Lachlan, who preferred to be called Lock. If Ava managed to keep any of their names straight, it would be some kind of miracle.
“Who would have guessed it six months ago?” Logan said, raising his beer to the group. “All four of us hooked up and heading full steam towards the state of wedded bliss within the space of half a year.” He shook his head.
“And nobody,” Dylan added, “would have taken bets that my little brother, he who had sworn off marriage for life, would be first cab off the rank.”
Beside her, Caleb growled, but there was a smile underlying it. “You only got a ten-minute head start, bro, because I move a whole lot faster.” He squeezed Ava’s shoulders and smiled down at her and Ava was warmed by the love in his eyes. “And with good reason.”
Lock coughed. “Well, I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but you’re not actually going to be the first cab off the rank.” He wrapped Dare’s hand in his as he smiled over at her. “We’ve already tied the knot.”
“What?” yelled three Knights in unison.
“When was this?”
“When were you going to tell us?”
“Why weren’t we invited?”
Lock laughed and held out his hands. “Settle down, you lot. Dare and I made it official while we were back with Dare’s family in the States in March. We were planning on doing it again over here sometime.”
The first beer coaster hit him smack in the middle of his forehead. “You bloody better,” said Caleb.
The second thwacked him on the ear. “Bloody nerve, not even telling us,” said Dylan.
The third knocked over his glass, spraying what was left of his beer down one leg. Logan laughed, along with everyone else. “Bloody well deserved that too. Reckon it’s your shout, you secretive bastard.”
“It’s funny,” said Dare, in her soft southern accent when the laughter and the ribbing died down again. “It’s almost like Leonard was sprinkling fairy dust down on us all the day of the memorial service.”
“Who are you calling a fairy?” said Lock, putting his hand on her swollen belly. “How do you reckon these two got in there, divine intervention?”
“Please,” said Logan, holding up one hand, a look of distaste on his face. “This is getting perilously close to being too much information!”
“And this is a family show,” agreed Dylan, nodding wisely.
“Indeed it is,” Caleb said, clutching her hand in his. “What do you reckon, about your new family, Ava? You reckon you can put up with these turkeys?”
Surrounded by four fine specimens of the masculine kind where broad shoulders and chiselled cleft chins abounded, and shirts and trousers moulded to every movement of muscle beneath, it was like sitting in the midst of some kind of testosterone soup. Even the pregnant Dare, angular and strong featured, with her shock of platinum hair in a closely cropped style, exuded power and strength, while the other women, she thought, lent the broth sweetness and spice, not to mention a whole lot of bling given the number of engagement rings on show, and made it whole.
She smiled at them all, soon to be her new family, or a part of it at least. Caleb had warned her about all the various uncles and aunties and the thirty to forty cousins heading to Adelaide next week for the celebration, the concept of such a huge family unknown to her with numbers that made her head reel.
“What I want to know is, is everyone in the Knight family as buff as you guys?”
“They wish,” said Dylan.
Dare snorted. “Not likely.”
Logan just folded his arms behind his head, making his shirt buttons cling on for dear life, and laughed.
“Then, seriously, I’m honoured to find a place in this family, and I want to thank you all for making me feel so welcome.”
The group cheered and toasted Ava and the soon to be wed couple, after which the toasts kept right on coming. For Logan and Bella, for Dylan and Hannie, and for Dare and Lock who had beaten them all to the punch line.
“Oh,” Dare said, her hands clutching her belly.
“What’s wrong?” said Lock, frowning beside her, ready to spring into action.
She sat herself up, stretching out, her black tube dress clinging to her baby bump. “Your babies are kicking up a storm in there, that’s all.” And they were
