"Aunt Dolly!" Tara yells from Caroline's arms as my brother and sister in law walk into the bar.
"Hey Tara." I say as I go over and take her from Caroline's arms.
Thank every God in heaven that Tara looks like Caroline and not my brother, Mackenzie. She has short jet black hair that usually stays in pigtails and clear blue eyes, Tara is a cute little girl.
I walk back over to Nikki and the rest of the bands and I sit back down with Tara on my lap. Nikki starts to play with Tara and wraps one of his arms around me. Nikki's so good with little kids, he's going to be a great dad one day. He looks up to see me looking at him and Nikki smiles at me before kisses my lips.
"I love you." He tells me quietly. "Maybe we should try have a baby." Nikki makes sure to say that quietly so no one else hears.
I smile and kiss his lips quickly and my fiancé kinda laughs before he starts to kiss me back. Tara starts to laugh which makes my Mackenzie and Caroline laugh. Nikki pulls back and smiles at me.
"Can I take that as a yes?" He wonders and I nod.
"Yeah." I agree and his smile broadens.
"So what is everyone doing for the Fourth of July?" Caroline wonders.
"Daddy, can we do fireworks at the house?" June asks CC. "We can invite everyone."
"I guess we're doing fireworks at our house." CC kinda laughs.
"We can do a barbecue too." Dakota adds as she sits down with us.
"And we can get sparklers!" June almost yells.
When the bar reopened Dakota hired enough employees and a general manager so she could step back from the bar. So now my cousin can sit back and watch her bar flourish. For the first time since she lost her baby I honestly think my cousin is at peace and happy.
Nikki steals Tara from my lap and starts to tickle her which makes me smile. Nikki is going to be a good dad and I think we're in a good place to try for a baby. I mean I doubt that we'll have very good luck at first, I mean look at our progress for wedding planning. I'm sure us trying doesn't mean we'll get pregnant as soon as we start trying.
"So are you two ever going to get married?" Caroline asks. "You two have been engaged as long as I've been around."
"We both so busy it's hard to be able to sit down and plan a wedding." Nikki explains what I've been explaining for years now. "We will get married though, one day."
"I mean you two got mad when we talked about running to Vegas." I say and nod towards my cousin and my brother.
"Our parents would roll over in their graves." Mackenzie mumbles and I roll my eyes.
"Why don't you guys just hire a wedding planner?" Dakota offers and Nikki looks over to me confused.
"Is that a real thing?" He asks and I shrug.
"Of course it is, I know a really good one." Caroline says. "He planned our wedding and made sure everything ran off without a hitch. I can get you his number."
"Is that something you'd consider, babe?" I ask and grab Nikki's hand.
"Yeah, I mean it wouldn't hurt to talk to the guy." Nikki says and squeezes my hand. "Then we can at least say we're working on the wedding thing." He laughs and kisses my knuckles.
"Dakota! Can you help me for a second?" Kari, one of the new bar tenders, calls.
My cousin gets up from the table and walks over to the bar. CC looks around before leaning into the table to face Mackenzie, Caroline, Nikki, and I.
"I need to talk to you two Andrews." He says then looks at Caroline and Nikki. "Three Andrews and one Sixx."
"Uh, okay." I kinda laugh.
"I'm going to ask Dakota to marry me on the Fourth of July with the fireworks in the background." He explains. "Now Mack and Dallas, you're the only family Dakota has left so I need your permission to marry your cousin." Mackenzie and I look at each other and CC groans. "Dakota and I have been together for seven years now and you gave Nikki permission after them being together a few months."
"As far as I'm concerned they've been together twelve years, if Dallas and I didn't move away they would've been." Mack explains. "What are you thinking, Dallas?"
"No don't ask that." CC groans which causes all of us to laugh.
"I don't know what I think." I admit.
"I've already knocked her up." CC tries and I roll my eyes.
"For some reason you make her happy, I approve." I say.
"Yeah, me too." Mack agrees as Dakota comes back over to the table.
Nikki
Dallas was quiet the whole ride home and it was kinda worrying me. I put my hand on her thigh and she looks over to me.
"What's bouncing around that skull of yours?" I wonder and she half smiles.
"A little bit of everything." Dallas admits. "I'm just thinking."
"About?" I pry and she smiles before kissing my cheek.
"Do you remember when we got arrested?" She asks and I laugh.
"I thought your old man was going to murder me." I admit.
I don't even think we were doing anything illegal at least I don't remember doing anything illegal, I think we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. All I could remember was the back of the police car.
I guess because I was bigger than Dallas I was shoved into the back of the cop car first but I was used to being in the backseat of cop car. What was bothering me was Dallas being patted down by the cop, I didn't like him touching her and it was making me mad. They had Dallas bent over the hood and they were feeling her legs and upper thighs which makes me uncomfortable.
Eventually the door opens and they put Dallas in the back seat beside me, in all honesty they were a lot gentler with Dallas than they were with me but I was thankful for that. My little fourteen year old girlfriend was composing herself relatively well but she's been arrested before too. Dallas' hands are cuffed behind her like mine are but I want to hold her hand and tell her that everything will be okay.
"Everything is going to be okay." I tried to tell her and she smiled.
"I know." Dallas promised me.
When we got to the police station and got locked in the holding cell they went to call our parents, my mom was used to it by now but Dallas' dad was what I was worried about. I didn't want to let her go home with him, I knew he'd hit her before but after tonight he might actually kill her.
I don't remember what her father said to me but it wasn't nice or in a quiet tone. Dallas, my tiny girlfriend, made me stand behind her while her father yelled at the both of us. In the end Dallas was yanked roughly out to her father's car and she had bruises on her wrist for about a week afterwards.
"I swear to god he broke my wrist that night." Dallas mumbles.
"I-I saw your bruises but I could never figure out the right thing to say." I admit and she shakes her head.
"It's okay, I don't know what I could've heard to make it better." She admits.
"Do you think he ever felt bad about what he did?" I wonder and she shakes her head again.
"Impossible, to feel remorse he'd have to be human first." Dallas tells me. "I don't know what he was but he wasn't human, not even a little bit."
"What made you think about this?" I ask and take her hand in mine.
"Promise me right now that we won't become our parents." She mumbles. "I don't want to become my old man."
"Then don't." I say and she looks over to me. "Become your mom, or your aunt Elizabeth, or your gramps, or your grandma. Be the people in your life that treated you the way you should've been treated. Your old man was insane because he treated you and your brother like garbage, you deserve the whole world, Dallas. I plan to give you and our future children the world."
Dallas smiles at me and kisses my lips. She brings her hand up to my jaw and cradles my face gently. When Dallas pulls back she keeps her face close to mine.
"I love you so much." She tells me quietly.
"I love you too, baby. So much." I tell her and put my forehead on hers.
We're going to have a family one day and we're going to be amazing parents because we're going to avoid being our parents.