9 years later

"Hey." A voice said, knocking on the kitchen door to grab my attention. I glanced up, only to see Chase, with his girlfriend of four years, Anne, behind him. Anne was a pretty, yet mousy, girl two years younger than Chase. They balanced each other out and were, in my opinion, perfect for each other.

"Hi, guys." I greeted, smiling, as I abandoned the salad I was attempting to toss to go and hug my brother. His ridiculously tall frame and my severely bloated stomach, however, got in the way.

Anne quickly kissed me on the cheek while my brother stared at my stomach almost in awe. "Tay, you're huge." He commented, not turning his gaze.

Before I could say anything, Anne smacked his arm. "Don't be rude." She admonished, glaring.

"Being eight months pregnant will do that to you." A new voice said, and I turned to see Romi standing there with a wore grin, Brad on her arm, and her growing brood of three by her side.

"Romi! Brad!" I exclaimed, excited to see them since we didn't meet very often. The two of them had moved to Los Angeles for college and had settled there after. Brad was looking after his father's company, while Romi was an interior designer. The rest of us were in New York, which made meeting up a little difficult.

After hugging both of them, turned my attention to the kids. Jamie was the oldest at the age of three, and the twins Natalie and Iris were two. Brad and Romi had gotten married a year out of high school and were still madly in love and giving us all permanent goals.

Once I'd squeezed the kids enough, I picked up the salad bowl and headed outside with all of them in tow. The others were already waiting on the spacious balcony. In terms of our apartment, we'd gotten lucky.

"Look who made it." I announced, stepping aside so the others could see.

Greetings and hugs ensued. Chris and Charlie, who'd been manning the grill, came over immediately. Those two had made up in college, when they'd ended up in the same place. Charlie, apparently, had begged to have his forgiveness. He was nothing like the idiotic boy he was in high school.

Ally monopolized Romi as soon as she saw her, showing off the ring her boyfriend, Max, had put on her finger a week before. Once Charlie had reformed and had groveled so that she'd forgive him, they'd gotten back together for a brief period. However, despite Charlie being a much better boyfriend this time around, they hadn't been able to click since they were just very different people. Ally, however, was very happy with Max and Charlie was seeing a girl named Jane, but it wasn't anything too serious.

Ryo, who'd never gotten too close to any of the others, came over to Chase. Those two were basically best friends. It was actually kind of cute. Anne and Ryo's girlfriend, a Russian ballet dancer named Yuliya, got along pretty well too.

Chris' boyfriend, Xavier, was nowhere to be seen, however, and I was informed by Chris that he'd had an emergency at work but sent his love anyway.

A few of Julio's friends from work had formed a little circle and were chatting. Brad, Romi and Chris soon joined them. The kids went off to play with the tiny group of other kids that were running around.

While the others exchanged pleasantries and conversation, I went to stand beside my husband, who pressed a kiss to the side of my head and placed a hand on the small of my back.

"This is nice." I commented, enjoying the way Julio's eyes warmed as he smiled. He smiled much more often now.

"Yeah." He agreed, observing everyone talking and laughing around us. We didn't join in on the conversation, and that probably made us terrible hosts, but I didn't really care. None of the others minded, either.

Life had been good these past years, better than I'd ever imagined it could be. I had a stable job at Melton Incorporated, Julio had found his passion in, surprisingly, teaching and was a history teacher at a private school, we were married and stronger than ever, we had amazing friends, and I was now pregnant with our first child.

So, despite the circumstances that had brought me to these people, I loved them more than anything else. After years of searching for a huge, perfect family, I'd found one. This, among these people that I adored, was home.

"I love you, princess." Julio said, briefly resting his forehead against my head, as one hand went to my stomach, where our daughter was ready to pop out sometime soon.

"I love you too, Rage."