“We have to see your parents before we leave in the morning, though.” I did promise them I’d bring her back to them. Doing so literally might just win me some epic son-in-law points in the future.
“Oh, the joys of family,” she sighed with a dramatic eye roll. “Promise me you’re not walking me into a trap?”
“Never,” I laughed. “Too bad I can’t promise the same with my brothers. Luke is a bit of a nut. And his son Linc? Good luck keeping up with that little shit.”
I would die if Luke greeted her butt-ass naked like he’d done to Jason’s poor wife.
“Do both of your brothers have kids?” she asked.
“Luke adopted his wife’s son, and she’s expecting their first, and my eldest brother Jason’s wife is also pregnant. But neither brother knows the other is having a baby, so it’s a bit of clusterfuck.”
“How would you feel about being part of the clusterfuck?”
I flicked my eyes to hers. She wanted a kid? Now that caught me off-guard. “You want to give Stanley a human sibling? You aren’t concerned he’d eat it?”
She laughed, a wrapped hand sliding down to rest just below her belly button. “We might want to invest in a trainer, babe.”
Wait, what? “Hold up, are you saying you’re…?” I stared at her slack-jawed.
She nodded, and I hauled her in, crushing her against my chest. “Oh, Kee, I promise I’ll make you the happiest woman alive.”
Holy fuck.
“You can’t,” she murmured against my flesh.
I pulled back, her words making my chest tighten with unease. “What? Why?”
She feathered her lips across mine, her strawberry lip balm as sweet as its wearer. “Because I’m already the happiest woman alive.”
Ethan Four Years Later
“She looks just like her mom,” Luke noted, watching my daughter, Liliana gently smooth her doll’s hair, the curls atop its head as spirited as her own. Kee and I had scoured Boston for the Lili-lookalike toy, victorious after a day of store-hopping.
“That she does,” I breathed, our pride and joy the spitting image of Kee with her hazel eyes and huge smile. “Thank God. She’d be an ogre if she took after me.”
Luke and Jason both laughed, the living room that once held us Barrett boys now teaming with girls, Jason’s daughter Nora and Luke’s twins Ruby and Hazel sitting with Lili on the carpet, all jabbering toddler nonsense about their new dolls. Poor Linc was outnumbered, sitting on the outskirts with his remote-control car, likely counting down the days until Elena had Leo, at long last a little boy joining the mini Barretts in a few short weeks.
The men were on peace-keeping duty with the kids, our wives all fluttering around the kitchen preparing Christmas dinner. After the catastrophe of a Thanksgiving at Jason’s, I was pretty sure they didn’t trust us near a group meal again. I liked to cook, but I didn’t mind, really. Kee looked hella cute in an apron. Especially at home with nothing under it.
“Dinner is in the oven! You know what that means: adult present time!’ Elena announced, waddling around the counter with her hands resting on her bump. Jason patted his lap, his pint-sized wife happily taking a seat on him.
Josie appeared a moment later with a dinner roll in one hand and a beer in the other, every bit Luke’s other half. He looked on with his heart in his eyes, fully expecting her to hand him the drink before she threw back a sip. Burn. It was exactly why they worked so damn well together. Luke could dish shit better than anyone, but he’d married someone unafraid of serving it back to him in spades.
Jason and I laughed at the two as Kee came in, stopping to admire the girls’ new dolls before joining me on the couch, sexy as all hell in her mom uniform of a black sweatshirt and leggings. I eyed her, thinking of every which way I’d have her later when she smacked me, seeming to read my mind.
I smiled, lifting her hand to my lips to press a kiss to the knuckles. “Love you, too, Mrs. Barrett.”
And God did I. After a few Ever releases early in her pregnancy, we switched gears to focus on charity, starting an adoption foundation with Kee at the helm. She was a natural, and in just a few years, she’d helped countless families welcome little ones into their lives from beginning to end, counseling them through every curve in the road. She accomplished more than I ever did as Ever, and she loved every second of it.
As for Ever, he was on a bit of a hiatus, and honestly, I wasn’t sure if or when he’d be back. For now, finger-painting with Lili was the only painting I planned on doing.
“First up is Luke!” Kee announced, plucking my gift to him from the top of the gift pile beside her. She handed him the red rectangle, its silver snowflake design catching the light.
His bear hands rotated as inked fingers felt for signs of what it was, his bushy brows furrowing. “Is it a dog trainer that’ll teach me to sit down and shut up when Josie asks?”
“No, but I can buy her a shock collar for you,” Kee offered with a laugh.
“Oh, don’t threaten me with a good time!” Luke winked at my wife as he peeled back the paper, coughing to clear his throat when he saw the gift. “Oh, you guys suck for making me open this in front of everyone.”
“Let us see!” Elena pleaded, the commotion getting the kids’ attention who all wandered over to watch the adult gift-giving. Hopefully Luke didn’t get me ass-less chaps again.
Luke spun it to reveal his gift, a hand-sketch of our families together making the bear of a man tear up, no detail skipped, from the painstaking precision of his tattoos to Lili’s painted nails matching Stanley’s. Even Tally made a gray-haired appearance beside her much-smaller boyfriend Stanley, their
