"You guys are making a big deal out of things. I personally feel like I'm still young enough to get married again." Melinda said while we all stared at her and tried to individually decide on how to process the information and handle the situation as best as possible.

        This was nothing to be taken lightly, not at all. Which was why one of my eyebrow shifted up when I looked between James and Felix who where staring at each as if communicating telepathically, right before they both burst out laughing. I frowned.

         What the hell did they think was funny here? Their mother, who not even four months ago was happily single and never mentioned having a boyfriend, just announced that she was getting married to a man we had never heard of before, ever. So I was really freaking curious to know the punch line in this situation because for the life of me, I couldn't figure it out.

         I shook my head and decided that I would be the one to speak if neither one of her sons would, because she and I had gotten really close since James and I had gotten back together and she was now like a mother figure to me.

         "Melinda, listen_" I had started saying when I felt James' hand on my shoulder. I looked over at him and he smiled slightly, this letting me know that he would take over whatever I was going to say. He then turned to meet his mother's gaze and stared at her and then at the bald man sitting next to her with his hand covering hers on the table. James shook his head.

         " You are not getting married, especially not to this stranger." James basically told her. Melinda frowned and looked over at me as if she wanted me to say something. Too bad I was on my fiancé's side on this one.

         So when she realized that I certainly wasn't going to say anything in her favor, she turned her attention back to James. "Of course I'm getting married, and as I told you, Rick isn't a stranger. He's Rick, my Rick, and I love him." She said which made Felix laugh before pulling a chair out to sit down at the table next to me.

        "Mom, How long have you known this man?" Felix asked and before Melinda could answer her son's question, the man beat her to it and answered.

        "About three months, and my name is still Rick, in case you both were wondering." Rick said calmly. Felix on the other hand, was glaring at the man as if trying to intimidate him. Rick didn't seem the least bit intimidated and I had to wonder if Melinda hadn't already told him to expect her sons to act this way towards him.

        "So, why you did wait this long to let us know that you had met someone?" James asked, also in a calm manner, but unlike Rick's demeanor, I knew there was something brewing underneath his calm collected facade.

        "Because I knew how you two would react." Melinda answered curtly then got up. "By the way, thank you for not disappointing." She added.

         "Exactly what did you expect us to do? Jump from happiness?" That was Felix talking. He's always been very protective of his mother and that was understandable enough. And because of what she's been through in life, one wrong move and she'd find herself back to those dark days. And even though he wasn't there when she was going through it all, he knew first hand how shitty it was, thanks to his biological mother.

         "Certainly wouldn't have killed you two to show some respect and be happy for me. I just told you I'm getting married and that's the responses I get? Did you think I want to be alone for the rest of my life?" She angrily replied.

         A part of me knew that maybe now was the time to intervene and put a stop at all this arguing before it went any further and damaged things beyond repair. I knew this all, yet, the messy part of me wanted to sit there silently and watch all this juicy family drama and see where it would go. Maybe I was going to hell for this, but couldn't help but find this funny until I heard Sebastian start crying through the baby monitor. James sighed.

         "Well, thank you guys for waking the kid up with all the yelling and the bickering. And while it had been fun to sit there and watch this unfold, I'm going to need you guys to calm it a little because he doesn't need to hear all of that." I said strongly to make sure they knew I meant business, and waited to see if anyone would object. When I realized no one would complain, I looked over at Felix and smiled, which I was sure he knew meant that I wanted him to go get Bastian. Felix simply got up and before leaving, sent a not so nice glare towards Rick.

        My eyes landed on the older man and smiled awkwardly. "So Rick, got a last name?" I asked because James would need that last name if he was going to do try to find any information about the man. My baby and I were one in the same when it came to this, so I had to help out.

        Rick took a few seconds to answer, seemingly taken aback by the question. But then shrugged and answered. "Smith," he said. "Rick Smith." I nodded once and turned to meet James' eyes to see if he had been listening. He smiled at me as if to say, good job babe and maybe you deserve some loving tonight. I turned my attention back to the people at the table, right as Felix was coming down the stairs with Bastian who was babbling happily to him because he loved he uncle Felix.

       "I don't know about you guys but I'm starving."I commented and then got up. "I'm craving some Chinese so I'm gonna call to place an order." I reached for my purse sitting on the table and grabbed my phone out.

        The table was silent and beside Bastian who was still talking nonestop to Felix, the grown ups were simply brooding and glaring at one another. I rolled my eyes and kept searching in my contacts for the restaurant's number.

         "Are you staying for dinner, Rick Smith?" I asked not to be mean, but to know who I should be ordering for. Melinda frowned.

        "Of course he's staying. Jesus, Charlotte."

         I raised an eyebrow innocently as if I had no idea why she looked annoyed. "What? I need to know if I'm going to order for us all."

         Rick smiled lovingly at Melinda and got off the chair. "No, I should go. You guys have a lot to talk about so I'm going to make myself scarce for the night." He replied. Not to me, but at Melinda who didn't look one bit happy.

         "Good idea. I'll open the door for you." Felix said and walked over to the main door with Bastian still in his arms.

         Melinda scoffed as if she was too shocked to be saying any words. I shook my head and stopped myself from laughing. This family definitely was something else.

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        I found James half naked in bed, his laptop open on his lap and his back leaning on the headboard of the bed, looking completely focused and immersed into whatever that was on that screen that he had been reading since I had taken Bastian into our room for his goodnight kiss. I smiled, closed the bedroom door behind me and started taking off my Pajamas because I still wanted that baby and so I needed to have sex with him. Simple as that.

         I got on the bed, completely naked from head to toe and still fresh from the shower I had taken soon before putting Sebastian to bed. I started to move seductively towards him on the memory foam, incredibly soft, yet somehow still firm, king side bed. I moved on the bed until finally reaching him, then started kissing his shoulder, then his neck and all the way up to his strong jawline and kept moving to his soft lips.

When I realized that James was putting little to no effort in the whole kissing thing and was still focused on whatever that was he had been reading, I sighed my defeat and stopped kissing long enough to grimace. "Babe, I'm trying to have sex with you." I complained, already knowing that it probably was not going to happen this very night.

         Janes took a second to finally look at me and smiled. "I've been reading the information Dimitri sent over about Rick," he started and I sighed, letting my body fall dramatically next to him before turning my attention to the computer, my head on his shoulder.

        "Okay, tell me then."

        James nodded and shut the computer screen half way. "So, what we have so far is pretty basic information until Dimitri is able dig deeper."

          I nodded and kept listening, wanting to know more about the man who wanted to be part of our family because we knew nothing about him.

        "So, Rick Gérald Smith. Fifty five years old Physician - Anesthesiology, born in Chicago, went to college for many years, moved to North Carolina, married at twenty-seven years old, divorced at thirty-two, married again at thirty-five, divorced at thirty-nine years old, married for the third time at forty-two and widowed by the age of forty-nine. He has a son who he was estranged from until recently which I'm guessing is the reason why he moved back to Chicago. And now, he just bought the house across the street from here." James finally finished.

         I frowned. "Wait, didn't you say the couple that lives there weren't wanting to sell that house when you made the offer?" I asked. James nodded.

          "Exactly, which is one of the reasons why I'm confused as to how he managed to acquire this 1.3 million dollars house cash." He said.

          I frowned at him. "But didn't you buy this house as a cash transaction too?"

         "Yes, but I literally have billions so I can afford this big of a cash transaction. Babe, the man is doing well but I don't see how a guy who's supposedly making 250k a year can buy house cash at this price when only a few years ago, he did the same thing in Chicago and still has that house." James explained.

        "Wait, so you think he might be doing other things beside being a good old doctor?" I asked him.

          He shrugged, closed the computer, then moved it to the table before finally laying properly on the bed and pulling me in. "I'm not so sure, but we'll find out soon enough. I put Dimitri on it. He's going to be heading to Chicago and find out what he can." James told me before placing a soft kiss on my forehead. I sighed and closed my eyes to relax into his hold, but couldn't help but think that there was something really fishy about that man. Something just didn't feel right and the sooner we figured out, the better this whole thing would be.

      I opened my eyes again.

        "James?"

       "Yes, babe."

        "Do we know by any chance what happened to his ex wives?"

    "Two of them are dead."

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