“Hey! Don’t call me fat! I’m the best built one out of all of us.” Wyatt comes into view flexing, making Aubrey laugh at the whole ridiculousness of the situation.
“You guys couldn’t even get it together for a family photo?” I call out.
“At least we aren’t sitting on the job! Look at this. He’s not even set up.” Liam jokes with me.
“I mean, you definitely get what you pay for.” I wipe off my hands and scooch Lily off my lap so I can get this tripod set up.
“Good thing we aren’t paying anything!” Evelyn adds.
“Yeah, lucky me. Start setting yourselves up. I want guys lined up first.”
Hunter salutes me. “Anything you say, sir. Right away, sir.”
He and Gunnar crack up at themselves. Probably some inside joke from the military.
Rolling my eyes I grab the tripod from Lily who picked it up for me. “Thank you, princess.”
After directing them where to go, I start to fill in spouses and test my settings at the same time before joining.
Aubrey is still sitting off to the side. “Come on, you two are with me.”
“Oh no, we aren’t family.” She shakes her head. But, Lily is up and running to me.
“Aubrey Peterson! I know you’re not pretending like we haven’t adopted you and this beautiful little girl on our own without Cooper.” Emma yells at her, adjusting Olivia on her hip.
“Coopa,” Lily whispers. “I go be wif Wibby?”
“Of course you can.” I step out of line. “Ems, let’s put the girls up front together.”
By the time they get situated Aubrey is still arguing with the women that she doesn’t need to be in the photo. So I fix that.
Running over to her, I throw her over my shoulder and carry her over to my spot.
“Cooper! Put me down!” She smacks my back.
“Yes, ma’am.” I place her down in front of me but pull her back close to me. “You are family. You’ll be officially my family one day, I’m not letting you go.”
“Oh, look at our boy getting poetic!” Wyatt laughs.
“You're just jealous.” I spit out.
When he doesn’t fire back, I feel like I potentially hit a nerve I didn’t know was there. Staring at him, he fidgets under my gaze. Guess we’ll be discussing this later in the group because all the girls have caught on to the interaction too.
“Let’s get this show on the road!” Willow calls.
I give a few different directions for different poses within the same setup.
“Okay last one! One, two—” I count down, but Liam cuts me off.
“Three, everyone yell Vi’s pregnant!”
Some of us fall for it and yell, the others let out a collective gasp and then it’s chaos. They all descend on Liam and Violet, and I keep snapping photos with my remote. Not wanting them to miss a second of this big announcement.
While we have two grandkids in the family, this is the first Keaton sibling pregnancy. Emma’s daughter Olivia was a surprise baby from one of Roman’s one night stands, and Lily.
“Ma is going to lose her shit.” I say, hugging Liam.
“She’s known for a few weeks. She was excited though.” He laughs.