Family in All its Colours

Family in All its Colours
By the time we make it to the garden, the music is louder, the laughter brighter, and I’m starting to understand why Kaiden said family gatherings here are “a full-contact sport.”
There are people everywhere. Tables stacked with food, kids darting between adults, and at least three different people trying to take pictures of us all at once. Someone’s Nonna keeps trying to feed me biscotti, and I’ve stopped saying no because, honestly, it’s a losing battle.
“Eat, bella,” she insists, pressing another cookie into my hand. “The baby will come out strong!”
“At this rate, he’ll come out looking like a pastry,” I mutter, but she just laughs and pats my cheek.
Hunter’s chatting with one of the guys near the grill, both of them pretending not to be competitive about who can flip sausages better. While Kaiden’s doing his best to keep track of about fifteen different kids asking when “Bean” will be old enough for boxing lessons.
Ariana’s the picture of calm chaos, commanding the whole scene like a general at war. She gestures for the music to turn down, her voice slicing through the chatter like silk and steel all at once. “All right, everyone! It’s time!”
The crowd quiets in an instant. I glance at Kaiden, who’s grinning like a man about to burst. Hunter squeezes my hand and whispers, “You ready, Kitten?”
“As I’ll ever be,” I breathe.
Ariana beams. “We’ve waited long enough to find out what our newest Donatello is going to be, and now, we finally will!”
There’s a massive cake at the centre of the table, layered in pink and blue icing with a little fondant baby sitting on top. The crowd chants—Cut! Cut! Cut!—and Kaiden picks up the knife, but before he can move, Ariana shoves it into my hand.
“You do the honours, Mamma.”
My heart does a funny flip at that. Mamma.
Hunter’s hand rests over mine as we slice through the cake together. The knife sinks in smoothly, frosting squishing under the blade. The first piece lifts free, and bright blue spills from the centre like a flood of sky. For half a second, there’s stunned silence. Then the garden explodes. Cheers, whistles, someone pops a confetti cannon too close to Kaiden’s head, and Ariana’s crying and laughing all at once. “A boy! Mio Dio, a boy!”
Isla squeals so loudly that the neighbours probably hear it. “I knew it! I told you I had the auntie instinct!”

The cheers keep going, laughter bouncing off the walls of the garden. Confetti rains down, blue smoke fountains erupt somewhere near the pool, and someone’s Nonna is sobbing into a napkin like it’s the most beautiful thing she’s ever seen. I can barely keep up with the hugs and kisses being thrown my way. Bean’s name is on everyone’s lips already, even though we haven’t picked one yet. It’s all so loud and warm and overwhelming, in the best way. Hunter disappears for a moment, and I assume he’s gone to get more food because, well, that’s very him. But when I turn back toward the crowd, Kaiden is standing in front of me, and suddenly the noise fades to a low hum.

There’s a look in his eyes I’ve never seen before—nervous, but certain. My heart skips, confusion flickering in my chest. “Kaiden?”
He smiles, soft and trembling just a little. “Alina,” he says, loud enough for the crowd to hush around us. “I know we didn’t come together in the most ideal way. Hell, nothing about us has ever been simple or perfect—but you…” He steps closer, reaching for my hand. “You’ve been everything we didn’t know we needed. You’ve been patient with our chaos, gentle with our scars. You’ve been the light in the dark parts of us we thought no one could love.”
And then my breath catches as he gets down on one knee.
The garden erupts in gasps, and someone yells, “Finalmente!” (Finally), as Ariana starts crying again, her hand to her heart.
Kaiden takes a small velvet box from his pocket, flipping it open to reveal a ring that glitters like a drop of starlight. “You’ve given us a home, a family, a reason to be better men. You’ve given us a son.” His voice cracks slightly on the word. “And I want to spend the rest of my life proving that you didn’t make a mistake choosing us.”
Before I can even respond, movement to my left catches my eye, and Hunter, my calm, collected, always-composed Hunter, comes to kneel next to Kaiden.

“What are you doing?” I whisper, tears already blurring my vision.
He smiles, that small, crooked grin that undoes me every time. “Trying not to let him steal my thunder,” he says softly, then glances up at me. “Alina, you walked into our lives and turned everything upside down. You made us laugh again. You made us hope again. You taught us what it means to love without fear.”
His eyes flick to my stomach, his voice low but sure. “You’re the mother of our child, the reason I get up in the morning and the reason I believe there’s a future beyond all the things we’ve done. You are it for me, Kitten. You always will be.”
The crowd is silent now. Even the kids have gone still. The world feels smaller, like it’s just us, me, my boys, and the life we built out of the ashes of everything that once hurt.
I press a hand over my mouth, trying not to cry and failing miserably. “Are you sure?” I whisper, voice shaking. “Forever is a really long time.”
Kaiden laughs through his tears. “Forever would be longer without you in it.”
“You sap,” I manage to choke out, laughing and sobbing all at once.
Hunter and Kaiden exchange a quick, wordless glance—one of those silent conversations they’ve mastered—then they both hold out their rings, one silver, one gold, both glinting beneath the fairy lights.
“So,” Kaiden says, voice trembling with laughter. “What do you think, Mrs Donatello?”
I don’t even try to hold back the tears this time. “I think…” I hiccup, laughing. “You’re both out of your damn minds.”
Hunter smirks. “So that’s a yes?”
I nod, hard, tears spilling down my cheeks. “Yes. A thousand times, yes.”

The garden explodes again. Cheers, whistles, confetti cannons—Ariana’s screaming, Isla’s jumping up and down, and someone starts blasting romantic Italian music. Kaiden stands first, wrapping an arm around me and spinning me gently while the crowd claps, and Hunter presses a kiss to my temple, then to my lips, slow and full of everything we’ve been through to get here.
I can barely hear myself over the chaos, but I whisper it anyway, into the space between us, where it all began. “I love you both. So damn much.”
Hunter grins against my skin. “Good. Because you’re stuck with us now.”
Kaiden kisses my forehead, his voice thick. “Forever, baby.”
As the music swells and the crowd dances around us, I rest my hands on my bump and think—yeah, this is it—my perfectly imperfect, beautiful kind of forever.