Chapter 418) Family Reunion

Windenburg Old Downtown
Waterlock Redoubt Home
Nick & Adrianna's housewarming party

The beat of the music playing in the background was pounding through the air, when Adrianna joined Nick in the kitchen, humming along to ‘Levitating’ while planting a peck on her husband’s cheek who turned to her smiling, when she sing-sanged a few lines.

“..my sugar-boo … I am levitating.”

“Is that so?”

Nick pulled her closer for a more intense kiss when a brief hiss and a black cloud appeared next to them, interrupting the moment.

“I am levitating too … look mommy and daddy!” Blaine blared out, while, well … actually levitating, smirking.

“Great job, grandpa. You can have a cookie now.” Nick snickered, making Addy giggle.

Landing, Blaine smirked bigger, while shrugging.

“Hey, I’ll take one, or a bunch actually, if you point me in the right direction to all the toddlers. I need to spend some time with a crowd that’s on my mental level. Adulting is hard. By the way, if Scarlett comes by looking for me, you have NOT seen me.” Blaine smiled.

“Hiding from grandma again, huh? I honestly couldn’t tell you where my son is right now. Last I saw him, he was greeting Sophie and seems to be BFFs with her and Stryker’s kid now. I know he’s in good hands with Soph, so I never worry about him around her.” Nick told him.

“Ah, perfect! I wanted to go fuck with Stryker too, that little douche still owes me a few songs, that little bastard seems to think now that money and fame has avalanched on him, he can retire. Ha – WRONG! Gotta light some fires under his ass for him to remember to pull his junk out of Sophie long enough for some blood to go back to his brain so he can compose and write music or he’ll be moving his growing family onto a park bench next and I end up holding the flaming bag of shit having to pay for the Cameron – sorry – Hayes Estate again. Oh, by the way – LOVE your new house kiddos. I can tell she picked it out, Addy always had great taste, despite of that father of hers.” Blaine grinned big, winking at Addy.

“Seriously grandpa, YOU, faulting anyone for being active in the bedroom is the height of irony. They’re still newlyweds, even though they are about to drop kid number two.” Nick laughed.

“And well, thank you Blaine. Nick and I actually picked it out and furnished it TOGETHER, every choice was a mutual decision. Your grandson has impeccable taste too, you know?” Addy gracefully diverted the topic back out of the gutter it was heading to, smiling.

Blaine grabbed her hand and kissed it, before telling her

“Yeah, with parents like his he was bound to become some metrosexual fancy-shit afficionado. Well, works for him, after all, he picked you, sweetheart, and we all knew he had a good one from the start. Now, where you hiding them cookies? I got toddlers to spoil and get on sugar-highs for their parents to have some fun with later.”

Nick pointed, grinning, watching Blaine take the whole box and vanish. Addy nudged him.

“Baby? Maybe we should look at what’s going on out there?” she pointed out the large panorama windows at the patio area.

Nick saw Stryker speaking unsubtly with another man.

“URGH! You stay here, I’ll handle this.”

Nick had spoken with a determined tone and headed off, Adrianna at his heels.

“WE will handle!” she corrected.

“Hey, buddy, what going on here?” Nick investigated carefully upon reaching Stryker, who was obviously already red hot for anger.

“Why didcha invite this fucker?!” Stryker directed the question at Nick.

“Stryker! Watch your tongue! That is my brother-in-law!” Adrianna answered.

“Your WHAT?! Ah, come on now, still up to your old tricks, are ya, old fuck?!” Stryker shot Addy a disgusted glance, before directing the rest at the older man.

Sophie now joined them, instantly uncomfortable, about the party in general, but particularly her husband’s behavior.

“How dare you!? I don’t even know you!” the older man now expressed his dislike of the situation.

“Of course, you don’t! How could you!? But I know YOU, you jackass!” Stryker snarled.

“Stryker! Not at Nick and Addy’s party!” Sophie tried.

“I don’t care, Soph! You know who that there is?! That’s literally the LAST man I wanted to run into – EVER! Yet, my life still loves nothing more than giving me the one-finger-salute.” Stryker ranted.

“Oh crapcakes, that’s HIM, isn’t it?” Sophie deduced.

“Yup, the sperm donor!” Stryker confirmed.

“Excuse me?” the older man was starting to get agitated.

“Stryker’s right. You’re Marco DiLaurentis, aren’t you?” Sophie asked, but Addy answered in his stead.

“Yes, he is. Pardon me, what is going on here? Marco? Sophie? Stryker? Could anyone PLEASE clue us in?!” Adrianna interjected.

“He’s his father! Very absentee father, to be exact!” Sophie said.

“WHAT?!”

All eyes went to the older man, who shook his head.

“This is ridiculous! I have never seen that young man before! Is this to extort money from me?” he shot back.

“Fuck you! FUCK YOU! I got my OWN money, more than you, I bet! You can choke on your fucking money you fucking fucktard!” Stryker got aggressive, Nick held him back, shaking his head at him.

“Chill, bruh!” he warned.

“Wait … are you Theresa’s boy?” Marco DiLaurentis had connected the dots.

“Well .. yeah. How many more like me are out there?!” Stryker snapped back.

The older man was clearly affected, when a female voice sounded from the patio door.

“So what? I happen to know for a fact that Marco paid his dues. If that really is his son, he should ask his mother about why his father wasn’t in his life. She didn’t let him. That story is neither a secret, nor a mystery. We all mess up, so Marco nailed his secretary at some point. Not unheard of. No use riding around on it 30 years after the fact.” Sandrine, one of Adrianna’s older sisters came into view.

She was Marco DiLaurentis’ current wife, mother to a young boy by him, even though only in her mid-thirties, clearly making her at least 30 years younger than him, probably a lot more, and this was her fourth marriage already and his fifth, not counting his many affairs through the decades, one of such created Stryker.

She walked over to her husband now, wrapping her arm around his waist, signaling loyalty.

“I have to say though, Addy – and Nick, I am very disappointed in you. I expected more from you regarding the type of guests you invite. That guy there is known to cause trouble, if only to keep up with his rock musician cliché, and you thought he would be good at a housewarming party with high level people around? I think we best leave, Marco.” Sandrine’s tone was icy.

Marco DiLaurentis agreed, and both left the patio and the home.

Stryker said and did nothing, but was visibly fuming, it was Sophie’s presence that seemed to keep a lid of what might otherwise have been a terrible eruption of emotions, bottled up for too long.

“I am sorry Stryker, Addy and I didn’t know about this … ahem … “

“I think the word you’re looking for is ‘shitshow’. Yeah, it’s fine, you guys couldn’t have known. And I didn’t know her sister was married to that douche or my ass would have stayed home. Everyone here keeps staring at me, just waiting for me to fuck up anyway.”

“No, they don’t!” Sophie protested, making Stryker regret his harsh words, those two left too, talking softly, evidently looking for a quieter spot to talk among themselves and probably somewhere for very pregnant Sophie to sit down.

Nick looked at Adrianna, with a big sigh he spoke

“Stryker got that right, what a shitshow. Do you regret this yet? Moving closer to my family?”

“No. Absolutely not. I am busy patting myself on the back for not laying into my sister in a very unladylike manner, but be sure, I will have a talk with her about this. No, I love our new home. San Myshuno was great when we were single and before we had a child. The city life really has gotten old. I love this small-town charm of Windenburg, so different from the downtown atmosphere of San Myshuno, but we agreed, the work stress was killing us, we needed to downsize all aspects of our lives and take a step back to be able to stop and smell the roses. While it’s fall now, there will be plenty of roses here for us with all the nature. And we can finally have a dog. Plus, clearly, this is a much better place for Ryan to grow up with all the family around. No, I regret nothing. I am gonna miss not living so close to Rohan but he and Harrison are so busy with their new baby by the surrogate mom now we hardly saw them much anymore anyway. And even they traded in city life for the suburbs.”

“Speaking of, where the hell IS Rohan? I saw him briefly when they arrived but I was talking to AG and Max, his parents recently died, so I couldn’t exactly just leave that conversation. Haven’t seen Rohan since. This house is not THAT big.”

“Oh, they left again. Baby Arvind threw up all over his white shirt. I offered to wash it and give him one of yours to wear, but you know Rohan. Harrison and I both tried to change his mind, but he was stubborn as get out. He said we’d have dinner together soon.”

“Blockhead! When I really need him, he pisses off. Figures!”

“Nick, hello, I am still here.”

“I wanted to curse like sailors, Addy. I don’t want to do that around you.”

“Since when? Caro mio, I hate to break this to you, but you’re a Cameron. You curse. A LOT. All the time. It’s fine. I might just curse with you, today the occasion calls for it. I don’t think Rohan would enjoy that as much as you think anyway, poor guy!”

“He’s used to it. Tougher than he looks. And when you curse, you do it in Italian, and it just sounds sexy A.F. I just sound like a cheap Blaine-imitation.”

“No, you will always sound like the perfect man to me, babe.”

“Okay, what’s the best way to get rid of all the guests as soon as possible? I want to be alone with you now so we can christen this new house – again. And again.”

Adrianna giggled.

“How very Cameron of you, Nick. Let’s keep and enjoy the guests around for a while longer. There is time for all that other stuff later.”

“Tease!”

With a wink and a purposeful sway of her hips, Adrianna kissed him, then let go, turned and went inside to be the good hostess she always was.

“Yeah, I am a lucky bastard. And we we made the right choice moving closer to my bozo relatives. Ryan needs to grow up here and around all of them, like I did. Now he will.”