#the6ofus

Tate had a small baby in one arm, sleeping peacefully, and one arm around Remi. Ariadne was cuddled up with Grayson, him with his trademark pencil behind his ear and Moleskine in hand. Drew sat at the piano, not playing, but just fingering the keys, with Annalisse leaning her head on his shoulder.

They watch as a little boy with a head full of dark, curly hair and soft brown eyes toddled into the room carefully, as if each step took a lot of thought and hard work. When he came within arm’s length Drew scooped him up and plopped him in his lap.

“Collin, my big guy! You wanna show your aunts and uncles what you’ve learned from Ol’ Daddy-o?” With the boy still in his lap, he turned to fully face the piano and the boy leaned forward and put his hands on the keys. He found the B, and then the A, G, and A again. Slowly, and with a few mismatched notes, he played out Angel of Music from the Phantom of the Opera. Drew positively beamed at his son.

“God damn, Drew! You’re starting him this early?” Tate chuckled kiddingly.

“Don’t mind him; he’s impressed, he just won’t ever say so.” Remi poked him in the side, giggling.

“Do you remember the year we did Phantom of the Opera as a school musical?” Grayson had resurfaced from his Moleskine. “What was that, junior year of high school?”

Annalisse chuckled memorably as she bounced Collin in her lap. “That was a good year for all of us, wasn’t it?”

“I honestly think everything was good,” Ariadne put in.

"Everything? What do you mean everything?" Remi replied with her usual level of somehow endearing snark.

"I don't know..." Ariadne struggled to find the right words. She turned to Grayson, seeing as he was the one who was better at talking, and always knew what she was trying to say.

"Our friendships, our relationships," Grayson supplied. "Have any of you ever thought about that? How over the course of like...six to eight years, we turned into this indestructible group of people who always had each others backs? Every first day, first kiss, fight, birthday, school musical, party, and Doctor Who marathon fell on top of each other like bricks in a building, until we had this huge, complex piece of architecture. Our friendship." He looked at each of them in turn, and then at the small children some of them cradled.

NOW BE WARNED.

It is a romance novel.

If that sort of thing makes you puke, DON'T READ IT.