Amanda laughed. “Well, of course he knew that. It’s Kink 101. You should’ve known that trick.”
He didn’t. But it was one lesson he learned the hard way.
But luckily after that, he and Leah had kissed and made up. And now look at them. About to have their third kid.
Ignoring the stroll down kinky memory lane between Amanda and Marc, Leah grabbed Teddy’s hand and put it on the side of her belly. “Feel that?”
At first, Teddy jerked his hand away, surprised. Then he placed it back where it was. “Oooh. He’s a feisty one.”
“She,” Leah corrected him.
“I thought you didn’t know.”
“We don’t.”
“Well, the odds are it’ll be another miniature Bryson buck. Ron passed down those strong male genes.”
Leah lifted crossed fingers. “I’m holding out hope because of Hannah.”
Amanda perched on the couch’s armrest, next to Marc. “Hannah’s just an anomaly, that’s all. She lured us into the false hope that more estrogen could be born into the family to even out all that testosterone. It was a trap.”
“There’s nothing wrong with all the testosterone in this family. I, for one, am not complaining.” Teddy leaned over Marc, waved his hand under his own nose and inhaled. “That alpha scent’s an aphrodisiac.”
Marc grinned and puffed out his chest.
“Maybe for the adult male gorillas, Teddy,” Leah said. “But the baby gorillas are just stinky creatures.”
“Just a warning,” Teddy said, now leaning into her. “They get worse before they get better.”
“Great,” Leah moaned. “Another reason to want a girl.”
“Do you care what you two have, Marc?” Amanda asked him.
“I want whatever makes my wife happy.”
Amanda whispered loudly to Leah. “Ask for an Infiniti SUV. Tell him that will make you happy.”
The sound of the front door closing got the adults quiet. Max’s heavy boots came in their direction and when he appeared in the open entryway to the living room, he had an armful of a squirming ball of fur.
“I think this is the last present of the day,” Max announced, catching the kids’ attention. And Greg’s.
Everyone ten and under squealed or screamed and ran up to Max, surrounding him and trying to pet the twelve-week-old puppy Amanda and Max adopted from a local rescue. Trouble, Menace and Chaos also rushed over to see what the fuss was about and meet the newest four-legged member of the family.
“Aw, whose puppy is that?” Hannah asked, her eyes alit with excitement.
“Officially? Greg’s.” Max answered his daughter.
Greg slowly got up from the floor where he was playing with one of the kid’s new toys and approached Max. “He— He’s for me?” he asked, his eyes rolling, his hands twisting in impossible directions as his arms jerked.
“She,” Max corrected. “And yes, she is, Bud. Santa delivered her to us, so we could give her to you.”
“I... I didn’t ask S-santa for a puppy!”
“You didn’t?” Max asked. “Well, then maybe it was a mix-up and we need to give her back to Santa.”
“No!” Greg laughed, reaching out to pet the puppy’s head. “’Manda, Santa gots me a puppy!”
“I see that, Bud. You get to name her, too,” Amanda said from the couch, a huge smile on her face.
Mary Ann called out, “Please don’t name her something crazy like Havoc.”
Greg boomed out another laugh. “Havoc!”
“That’s a perfect name,” Adam said with a laugh. “She’ll fit right in.”
Mary Ann covered her face with her hands and shook her head.
“There you go, Mom.” Marc snorted. “You did it. It’s your fault.”
“Havoc,” Leah repeated. “I like it. No worse than Menace or Trouble.”
“Or Chaos,” Amanda added.
“What is she?” Leah asked Greg’s sister.
Amanda lifted a shoulder. “They think she’s a mix between a Border Collie and a whosey-whatsit. Which means they have no idea.”
“But you got her from the Border Collie rescue?”
“Yes. They had a whole litter.” Amanda lowered her voice. “Just in case you want a third dog to go along with the third kid. You can name it Disaster.”
Leah turned her head and hid her laugh from her mother-in-law, who scowled at Amanda and complained, “Whatever happened to normal dog names like Rover or Duke?”
When she could manage it, Leah answered Amanda. “I think we have our hands full. Trouble is still a damn puppy at a year old. She chewed up Jax’s slippers and then pooped them out in pieces.”
Amanda snorted. “Did you try to sew them back together?”
“Unfortunately, my sewing skills are lacking.”
Greg was now sitting on the floor with a licking puppy in his lap. Chaos laid by his side, his tail thumping slowly against the floor and accepting licks from the puppy when she got tired of eating Greg’s face.
“Chaos has slowed down a lot,” Leah whispered to her sister-in-law.
“It’s why we decided to do this now.” Amanda also kept her voice down so the kids wouldn’t hear them.
“Same reason we got Trouble. I know it’ll devastate the kids when Menace goes. He’s been around their whole lives. Plus, this one,” Leah reached over Teddy to pat Marc’s knee, “will take it way harder than the boys.”
“Hey, I had him before I met you. He was my first true love.”
“Yes, he was and I doubt you would have tolerated me shitting in your shoes like he did,” Leah teased her husband.
“I might have given you a pass if you did it while you were naked.”
“Eww,” Teddy screeched, jumping up from the couch and rushing over to Adam. “Hold me, handsome. Your cousin is giving me nightmares.”
“C’mere, wife,” Marc ordered, pulling Leah closer to him. “Havoc wasn’t the last present.”
“No, it isn’t,” Amanda said with a pointed look.
“I’m not talking about that one. I’m talking about the one I asked Carly to bring.”
Leah stared at Marc. “For me?”
“Yes...” Her husband lifted his chin at Carly, who got up, dug through her
