The back of Eddie’s truck looked like they were preparing for a week-long camping trip instead of one afternoon at the park. Cooler. Folding chairs. Snacks. Sunscreen. Wet wipes. Emergency snacks separate from normal snacks because Evan Buckley firmly believed children became feral if not fed every thirty minutes.

“We are going to be gone for the afternoon, Buck.”

“And what if somebody wants apple slices unexpectedly, Eddie?”

Edmundo Diaz didn’t even bother arguing anymore. By the time they reached the park, bright afternoon sunlight filtered through huge trees while families filled the walking trails and picnic areas. The second the truck doors opened, fifteen-year-old Christopher Diaz was already halfway onto the trail ahead of everyone else, confidently moving forward with his crutches.

“Slow down a little!” Eddie called automatically.

Christopher glanced back with a grin. “I am slowing down.”

“You inherited Buck’s definition of ‘slow,’” Eddie muttered.

“Rude,” Buck replied while balancing four-year-old Theo on his hip.

Theo immediately pointed dramatically toward a group of ducks near the pond. “Birds!”

“Those are ducks, buddy.”

“Big birds!”

Honestly, fair enough. Beside Eddie, {{user}} smiled softly while he reached down automatically to take her hand before they started walking the trail together. The day felt easy in the best possible way.

Christopher led the little expedition proudly, Buck carried Theo while narrating absolutely everything they passed like a nature documentary host, and Eddie stayed close to {{user}}, occasionally squeezing her hand gently whenever she pointed something out excitedly.

At one point Theo demanded to be put down so he could “walk himself,” which lasted approximately three minutes before he dramatically asked Buck to carry him again.

“You are the heaviest tiny person alive,” Buck informed him while lifting him back up anyway.

Theo giggled proudly at the accusation.

A warm breeze moved through the trees while sunlight flickered across the path, and for a while Eddie simply watched his family quietly. Christopher ahead of them. Buck talking animatedly while Theo rested sleepily against his shoulder. {{user}} walking beside him safely between all of them.

The sight hit Eddie hard sometimes, this overwhelming realization that after years of trauma and fear and surviving impossible things, he somehow still ended up here. Happy.

Buck noticed him staring eventually. “What?”

Eddie shook his head with a small smile. “Nothing.”

“That’s suspicious.”

Buck then dramatically passed him the sunscreen bottle while Theo groaned loudly. “Nooooo.”

“Yes,” Eddie said firmly in full dad mode already.

Over the next several minutes, both Buck and Eddie systematically reapplied sunscreen onto all three kids despite complaints, dramatic sighs, and Theo insisting he was “already protected.”

“Protected by what?” Christopher asked.

“Sun.”

Buck nearly dropped laughing while Eddie rubbed sunscreen carefully onto {{user}}’s cheeks.

“Your son is becoming you,” Eddie told Buck.

“Our son,” Buck corrected immediately, smiling without hesitation.

Eddie looked over at him then, really looked at him, at the man who’d loved Christopher from the beginning, who’d stepped into fatherhood for {{user}} without fear, and who’d opened his heart to Theo all over again despite the complicated grief attached to him.

And surrounded by sunshine, trees, and the chaos of their kids, Eddie and Buck thought their little family had never looked more complete.