“Agreed. Okay, I am done, I’m going to go find Blake where ever she is,” I announced, shutting off the desk lamp and motioning for Noxx to go.
“She is outside with Makena and Daxx.”
“What are you doing here, anyway? I thought you had Mack on lockdown,” Noxx laughed as we headed out of the office and out to the main part of the house.
“She threatened me with bodily harm if I didn’t get her out of the house, then she started crying great, heaving sobs. After that, I agreed to anything she wanted.”
Slapping Noxx on his back, I chuckled at my brother. “Now you can see why I am staying away from your wife until she gives birth. The woman is crazy.” I shuddered, remembering the last time I saw Mack coming at me with a leather belt for taking her food.
“She isn’t crazy, she is pregnant,” Noxx argued, glaring at me, “ and I am enjoying every second of it. Missing out on seeing her pregnant with Daxx and his birth, trust me when I say I am soaking up every single mood swing, even the tears.”
“Good for you, but I am staying over here for the next month. It’s safer dealing with Blake.”
“You will be laughing on the other side of your face after you knock Blake up, mate, something tells me she is going to put you in an early grave dealing with her pregnant.”
My smile instantly fell from my face, all the humour of ribbing Noxx suddenly evaporated and was replaced with blood-chilling terror.
Kids?
Me? A father?
Fuck a duck.
***
I hurried down the front steps taking three at a time, ignoring the outright laughter coming from my brother behind me. My only concern was finding Blake and asking her if she wanted kids.
Blake was my forever. Of that, I had no doubt. We may be in a new relationship, but we were very familiar with one another. Shit, I have known Blake her entire life, there wasn’t much I didn’t know about my beautiful, blonde cowgirl, except for one thing.
Did she want kids?
I loved the shit out of Daxx, loved being an uncle. I also loved handing him back to his parents at the end of the day after the little bugger ran me ragged and talked my ear off.
I didn’t cope well with tears, vomit, or any other bodily fluids. Innocently asked questions such as how did Mummy get a baby in her tummy, made me break out in a sweat.
A week and a half into my relationship and I had to deal with this shit.
Losing Blake was not an option, I finally manned up and made her mine. If she wanted children of her own, she wasn’t going to carry anyone else’s kid. Not a chance in hell.
“Big tough Hendrixx Hott is scared of something after all,” Noxx challenged, still laughing like a hyena as we strode over the cobbled courtyard and rose garden that separated the main house from the rest of the farm. When Dad first built the homestead, Mum insisted she wanted the house to look perfect, like out of the pages of House and Garden, not Stock and Land. So the Triple H ended up with two entrances, one for the SUVs, Mercedes and Porsches and one for the utes and cattle trucks.
Vaulting over the fancy, wrought iron gate, I continued down the dirt road that led to the stables. If Mack was here, then I would find her with a horse, and where there was a horse, there was Blake.
Kids! Jesus, give me strength. I had enough trouble keeping up with Blake and her stunts, let alone a mini clone of her.
I could see it playing out in my mind, a little girl with blonde ringlets scolding me for not letting her ride Lancelot’s offspring, or climbing a roof and refusing to get down.
Breaking into a jog, then faster. I had to get to Blake.
Practically sprinting down the hill, my feet skidded to a stop when I saw Blake standing with a very pregnant Makena, Daxx there too, dancing around his mother’s legs a toy car in his chubby hand.
“Look Mama, watch me!” he shouted, demanding Mack’s attention. I could see that Blake and Mack were in the middle of a conversation, I could only guess about horses. Mack didn’t admonish Daxx for interrupting the adults, she simply put a hand on her son’s head, smiled down at him as if he was performing the greatest stunt on earth, and continued talking to my girl. Even Blake didn’t scowl or frown at Daxx’s intrusion, and her smile was indulgent and sincere.
Hell, she will make a fantastic mother.
The thought that my insecurities dealing with parenthood could very well hold Blake back, that I could be the reason for her not realising all her dreams, didn’t sit well. My own parents put up with a lot for us boys, and they sacrificed time together in order to have one parent home with us at all times. Mum was well and truly on her way to being a champion barrel race rider when she found out she was pregnant. She gave it up, let her dream go to become a mum. Our mother was the strongest woman I knew, and she put up with Dad’s rough and gruff ways. One baby could send a person into a tailspin, let alone three at once, triplets for the first pregnancy and one with—
Fuck, what if the same thing Fenixx was born with happened to Blake’s and my kid?
Memories of those days bombarded my head, travelling to and from the children’s hospital in Melbourne, always without Dad. Mum handled three kids all on her own: Blake would never have to experience that—I wasn’t my father, nothing like him, none of us were, she would never feel abandoned or neglected. Not while I had breath in my body.
“Hey, brother-in-law,” Mack greeted me when I got closer, “are you
