Weak in the Knees Ch. 07

Diego gathered Zach in for a bear hug, sniffling back even more tears. He wanted to say quite a bit but he was at a loss for words. Zach held him tightly, resting his cheek against the top of Diego's head. He rubbed Diego's back soothingly and kissed him on the side of the temple.

"I asked you to marry me because I love you and can't imagine a life where you aren't my husband," Zach told him quietly. "And I want nothing more than for you to be a legal parent to Nadya, and any other children we may have. I don't want anyone screwed over, I just want our legal ducks in a row."

It was just a little after the wedding that the house next door to Zayne's went up for sale. It wasn't perfect, by any means, but it had a good layout and set up, and it wouldn't be difficult for Zach to redraw it to what they would need, so they bought it and got to work on fixing it up. Zach was just beginning to work with his doctors to get an electric wheelchair. They would go through insurance first, but if insurance didn't cover it, then Zach would pay out of pocket.

Zach drew up the plans for what they would be doing, and then Ty took over on the construction. Zach went to this site more than he did any of the other ones, though, because he wanted everything perfect. It was gorgeous once it was done, with wooden flooring, paint colors that were meant to be relaxing, and a nice open layout.

Nayda loved her new room, and excitedly showed everyone who came over to the housewarming that she had a big girl bed with a princess canopy over it. She was so proud of her room and new home.

While everyone kept getting together for dinners, events, and more, Zach and Zayne noticed that Ty was getting particularly close with Brielle. They seemed to seek each other out whenever the group got together. Much to everyone's surprise, Brielle seemed to react to Ty much more romantically than she ever did to Daniel. No one was really shocked when they announced their relationship, and even less so when they got engaged.

Zach heard some gossip about Daniel being furious at the news, but that just made him like this match all the more. Anything that annoyed Daniel was good in his book.

Once they were more settled in the house, they spoke about possibly getting a surrogate to have another baby. Zayne and Brinxton were already pretty far in that process after Brielle had been happy to donate eggs for it, and their surrogate was halfway through a pregnancy with twins.

Zach did a lot of the legwork while Diego got settled into a teaching job at a public high school near them. He was a good teacher, teaching math and sciences, and all of his students adored him, which did not surprise Zach in the least. They had gotten Nadya into preschool once she had turned three and she was excelling as well.

Nadya was just a little over five years old when they brought home her baby brother, Carlos Lennox. He was also born with that ever present auburn hair, but he also had Zach's gray eyes, while still having the darker complexion of Kali. This time, the birth certificate came back with both of them on it.

Nadya was a very calm and attentive big sister and she adored her brother. They made the most of their paternity leave, since it would probably be their last baby.

Zach still missed Kali like crazy, and wished she could see their children and how beautiful and happy they were, but at this point, he wouldn't want to change anything. Sure, if he could have had Kali live and still meet Diego, he would have taken it in a heartbeat, but he liked how his life had turned out.

And he knew his husband would take every new symptom and every little loss of ability by staying by Zach's side. All he had to do was look at the way Diego looked at him, and he could never doubt that.