“Because this fucker cursed me,” I snap, and grab the bottle of whiskey from the barman as he passes.
“Hey,” he barks, but Mason waves him off, letting me keep the bottle.
“You don’t have money for that,” Myles warns.
“I still have some shares in here,” I bark. “I’m going to have to quit my course. Take a teacher’s job. Then I can be around for the holidays so Lake can still work.”
“What are you going on about?” Maverick asks. “You can still do your course.”
I meet his gaze dead on. “No, I can’t.”
“Yeah, you can. We’re all managing to do it,” Malik tells me.
“Your mind will never settle on a teacher’s job,” Maverick warns. “You need a challenge.”
“And you’ll end up killing the kids,” Myles points out.
“Don’t speak to me,” I snap, before turning to Maverick. “I have to do what’s best for Lake. And this is what’s best for her. For all of us.”
“I bet she won’t see it like that. She will go ape when she finds out you’ve changed all your career plans for her and the babies.”
“She won’t, because none of you fuckers will tell her and I’ll act like it’s my dream fucking job,” I tell them, pointedly glancing at Myles, who is the only one living at the house now. “And if you fucking tell her, I’ll never forgive you. I mean it.”
“Max, you’re being dramatic,” Malik warns. “I know I make it look hard, but it comes with benefits too. It’s not always sleepless nights, nappy changes, trying to keep them from sticking their fingers in sockets, or getting vomited on. I swear.”
I wipe away the whiskey that dribbles down my chin. “It’s easy for you to say that.”
“Why?”
“Because you have twins. We’re having fucking triplets,” I yell, and the entire bar quietens down at my outburst.
Stunned silence greets me and I sit down, grabbing the whiskey bottle again and downing it.
Maverick is the first to laugh, collapsing across the bar. Mason, Malik, then Myles follow.
Wankers.
My shoulders slump and I hunker down with the bottle. “That’s it, all fucking laugh.”
Maverick takes the bottle from me and pushes it aside. “Stop drinking yourself stupid.”
I snatch it back. “Fuck off, all of you.”
“How has Lake taken the news?” Myles asks through bursts of laughter.
“Okay, I think. She didn’t freak out or anything,” I reluctantly admit. I want to be alone, goddammit. I need to plan for the future, one that involves three tiny humans.
“Where is she?” Maverick asks.
I grimace as I rub the back of my neck. “She told me to get lost after I dropped her off at her mum’s. She needed time to absorb the information without me whispering, ‘three babies’, every two seconds.”
Malik grins. “Triplets.”
“That doesn’t explain why you are here drinking yourself stupid,” Maverick declares.
“Because I need to come up with a plan.”
“What plan?”
“A plan to make sure she never leaves me. A plan to make sure my kids know never to fuck around and pinch my food. It can be a rule from the minute they take their first breath. And I need to figure out how the fuck I’m going to afford to raise three fucking kids.”
“And drinking is going to do that?”
“It helps me fucking think,” I snap. “None of you have to worry about this. None of you.”
“We’ve all got kids,” Maverick states.
“None of you are me—as much as you wish you were.”
“I don’t even know what you mean by that,” Maverick replies.
I grit my teeth as I take in a deep breath. “I can’t lose her. I can’t. She gets me. All of me. And I’m so fucking scared I’m going to fuck this up. I know I teased you all throughout the pregnancies, but I’m fucking serious. I’m not Mason, I’m not Myles, and I’m not Malik. I’m not you,” I tell Maverick, meeting his gaze. “Words don’t come as easy to me as they do to you.”
“Have you met me?” Malik asks.
I scrub a hand down my face. “I can’t fuck this up.”
“Of course you can,” Maverick states, slapping me on the back. “We’re Carter’s. We’ll always fuck up.”
“You don’t get it.”
“Yeah, I do, because believe it or not, we’ve all been where you are right now. We’ve all had the same fears, the same insecurities, and the same troubles. But you’ll be a great father. I think you’ll surprise everyone by how good you’ll be.”
I snort. “Yeah right.”
He claps my shoulder, gripping it. “Max, you’ve done nothing but surprise me your whole life. The first time you got expelled, you somehow managed to talk yourself back into school. When you did your SATS during your sickness bug, you surprised me by passing. And again when you did your GCSEs and A-levels. You surprise me at every turn. But nothing surprised me more than the day you realised you were in love with Lake. Be that person, Max. Be it for her, because she loves that person. She doesn’t need you to change. She wouldn’t want you to.”
I swallow past the ball in my throat. “It’s still Myles’ fault for jinxing me,” I whisper.
Acknowledging I don’t want to talk about it, he moves away.
Myles clears his throat. “So, what are we doing, because I have an hour before I have to get back to Kayla.”
“Why aren’t you with her and Charlotte?”
His cheeks burn red. “She’s getting fed up of me waking up Charlotte just so I can hold her. She told me that if I didn’t leave for a few hours, she’s going to kill me.”
“Hormones.” Malik shudders. “I swear, they’ll be the death of us.”
“I guess now isn’t really the time to tell you guys that Denny is pregnant again. We found out yesterday. It’s still early.”
“She’s just had one,” I screech, thinking back to the nightmare Denny was through her pregnancy with Ciara. “Did you two not listen to the six weeks of no sex thing?”
Maverick rolls his eyes at me before turning to Mason. “Why didn’t you say anything?” Maverick asks, as the rest begin to congratulate him. I stay seated and whimper, knowing it’s going to be a long year.
He briefly glances at me. “It’s still really early. It’s come as a shock to us too.” He pauses, glancing at me. “And she didn’t want to deal with Max, since he’s only just recovered from all the women being pregnant close together.”
Great. Just great. I turn to the barman, holding up my hand. “Give me the tequila, whiskey, and fuck it, throw in the scotch,” I demand.
“Max,” Maverick warns.
“We might as well celebrate it now. Because let’s face it. I’ll either be unable to drink until they turn eighteen or become an alcoholic before they reach one. And that’s even if I survive starvation for the rest of the nine months because everyone is bloody pregnant again,” I snap.