Inferno Part 3

~4~ Happy

Ellie's POV

Today we are headed over to Jake and Sarah's. It's Zoe's birthday today and they are throwing her a party.

As I'm wrapping her present, I smile to myself. It wasn't long ago I was wrapping presents for both Zoe and Ethan, getting ready to head over to their adoption party. What an amazing day that was.

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We are all getting dressed in nice clothes, and about to head to the courthouse. Today is the day my brother is legally becoming a daddy. I couldn't be more excited. If you want to talk about a success story, it's my brother.

He went from a miserable, angry, and abusive guy, to a sweet, caring, and loving man. He is still gruff, but that's just his nature. However, if you look past his deep, intimidating voice and his huge, scary muscles, you see Jake. He's funny. He's goofy. He wears his heart on his sleeve.

When the kids first got there, I wasn't sure about Zoe. Ethan immediately gravitated towards Jake. They immediately bonded over sports, and Ethan was interested in learning how to fight. They clicked crazy fast. Sarah and Ethan clicked fast too.

Zoe did not click fast with Jake. She didn't care about sports. She didn't care about fighting. All she cared about was reading, science, and school. Jake hasn't read a book since high school, I'm completely sure.

That is until now. My crazy, beautiful brother took Zoe to the bookstore one day. Together they picked out several books for Jake to start reading. They were sport player's biographies, but still. Zoe helped him pick the books out. Now, every single night, the two sit next to each other and read books.

I'm completely convinced that Zoe loves Jake as her true dad now. When I think about how my brother pushed away his pride, and made himself be interested in what she was, it brings tears to my eyes.  So many times, we work hard to get our kids to like what we do...Not Jake. He's such a freaking natural. He just naturally knew that he needed to work hard to be interested in what she was.

It worked.

These kids are flourishing. Sarah and Jake are glowing.

Today, we go to the courthouse and they become mom and dad, and son and daughter. How beautiful is that?

We are about to leave for the courthouse, when Luke and Shay come down. They look great. Nolan comes out of his room, and I can immediately tell something is wrong.

"What's wrong, buddy?" I ask, fixing a piece of hair that isn't laying right on him.

"Nothing," he says simply.

Taylor looks at him hard, as he finishes putting his dress jacket on.

"What's wrong, Nolan?"

Nolan sighs, and shakes his head. "I don't know how to tie this," he says, holding a tie, embarrassed.

Taylor's face immediately softens. "Luke didn't even tie his quite right. I was about to go over and fix it. Tying a tie is hard."

Taylor goes over and takes the tie from Nolan, kisses his head, and ties his tie for him. As he's doing it, he's going over how to do it.

Once it's on and straight, he goes over to Luke and fixes Luke's tie.

"What did I do wrong?" Luke asks.

"Not sure. You almost had it, kid."

Luke rolls his eyes. Nolan is feeling better though. He hates not being able to do what everyone else can. He hates feeling like he isn't apart of the family.