“This one you name after your parents. However you want to do that, I’m good,” I murmur.
“Okay, Cowboy.”
Turning my head, I touch my lips to the top of her head. I inhale her sweet scent mixed with Texas dirt and I close my eyes, still in awe that all of this is mine—is ours.
THREE YEARS LATER
WYATT
I hear my son let out a cry as he starts to toddle toward his big sister. “Harlan, you wait right there, boy,” I shout.
He looks back at me, grins, then continues to run. I hear Rylan let out a guffaw of laughter. It’s easy for him to laugh, his youngest is six and Brooks is a sweet girl, just like her mama and always listens.
Harlan, well I think he got more of the Lindsay blood in him than anything else, in simple words, he’s a hell-raiser.
“Just let him be,” Channing calls out. “Reese, you keep an eye on Harlan, don’t let him get into any trouble, okay?”
“Yes, Mama,” Reese calls out.
At eight years old, he’s more mature than most kids his age. But he’s a good kid and I don’t know how it happened, but neither one of Rylan’s kids are giving him payback for his youth, instead I’m getting it, and I wasn’t even a bad kid.
“You should have had one more,” I mumble as I make my way over to Rylan.
“And tempt fate? No thanks. I got a good boy and a sweetheart of a girl. I’m not chancing that shit,” he chuckles.
We’re all out at Ford and Steph’s place for dinner, though I’m not sure why they insisted we come out here. I mean, we like it and everything, but it was Beaumont’s turn to host, Stephanie was insistent though.
It hits me. Lifting my eyes, I find her and narrow my gaze. “She’s pregnant again,” I grunt.
“Who?” Rylan asks.
“Stephanie.”
Channing and Exeter are standing with her, they’re helping her put all of the food out on the picnic table. It used to be no big deal for all of us to get together and grill dinner, but now, with all the kids. We have to plan and prepare to feed the army that we’ve created.
“No way.” Beaumont snorts as he joins us. “She’s our age.”
“Guaranteed, she is.” I chuckle.
We watch the kids run around, my lips twitch into a smile at the sight of them all. Fourteen in total so far. A wild mix of boys and girls, all different ages, but all close enough that they will grow up together the way me, Beaumont, Rylan, Ford, and Stephanie did.
The sleepy town of Gallup isn’t ready for this brand of wild, but they’re going to have to buckle up, because this bunch of wildings are on their way.
Ford makes his way toward us, carrying his younger daughter, Shelby. She’s almost one year old and named after Stephanie’s mother. Their three-year-old twin boys are off with Louis and Tulip’s almost three-year-old twin daughters.
The four of them have some kind of twin bond thing happening, we all just kind of let them do their own thing when we’re all together. None of us really understanding them.
“Havin’ another baby?” I ask Ford.
He grunts, then lets out a sigh as his eyes flick between all of us men. Louis has just joined the group and I hear him cough.
“Another one?” he asks. “That’ll make five, brother. You almost got a baseball team.”
Ford rolls his eyes to the sky, then flicks them back to us and his lips curve up into a huge smile. “How’d you know?” he asks.
I shake my head with a laugh. “Didn’t for sure. But the fact that y’all insisted we come over, it just seemed like that could be it.”
“It’s the last one,” Ford announces. “No more.”
Louis laughs. “That’s what I said last time.”
“Louis?” I ask.
He shrugs a shoulder. “Told her it was just gonna be another girl, but honest to fuck I’m okay with that. Four girls, sounds like the kind of chaos a man like me can handle.”
Beaumont whistles. “I have two, I can’t imagine doubling that. My house already looks like it throws up tulle and lace. The fact that I know what that means is mildly disturbing as well,” he mutters.
“Face it, boys, our lives definitely aren’t what they were ten years ago,” I say, a smile on my lips, one that I don’t think a damn thing could wipe away.
“They aren’t, thank fuck,” Rylan chuckles.
“Two more babies to the mix,” Beaumont murmurs.
“Couldn’t think of anything better,” I point out.
Rylan lifts his arm and slides it around my shoulders. “Fuck no. Nothin’ is better than this, cousin.”
SIX MONTHS LATER
FORD
“We have to take the baby out now. I’ve already called in the anesthesiologist and ordered the operating room to prepare for her.”
The doctor’s words, they rattle me. We knew the risks, we knew there could be complications. Hell, we’re both over forty. Bottom line is that Stephanie probably shouldn’t have even gotten pregnant.
We weren’t trying, it just fucking happened, and we both weighed our options, in the end, we knew we had to have him. There’s no way we couldn’t.
She’s had all the tests, damn near weekly visits, too. Everything has been normal. That is, until now. Her blood pressure is too fucking high, the doctor is afraid that we could lose her, or the baby, or both.
Lifting my hand, I run my fingers through my hair. “Okay.”
Leaving him, I make my way in to talk to her. She’s got tears running down her cheeks, her bottom lip is trembling, and she nods her head.
“C-section, right?” she whispers.
Walking over to her, I wrap my hand in hers and I give her a small smile. “Yeah, but it’s okay, honey. He’s ready to meet us, it’s time for our family to be complete.”
Her lips tremble in a small smile, but the tears continue to flow. Four babies, even the twins, she never had to have one, she’s scared, I know she is. I don’t want to admit it, but I’m terrified too. Every time she’s been in this hospital, I’ve been downright fucking scared.
I can’t lose her, couldn’t live this life without her, never could. Leaning over, I touch my mouth to hers. I ignore the taste of her salty tears and press my forehead against her own.
“I love you, honey. It’s time for Sawyer to meet his mom and dad, his brothers and sisters too. No more after this, Stephanie.”
“No more,” she breathes. “No more.”
The doctor doesn’t take long. He comes back in and I stand to the side helplessly as they prep my wife for surgery.
They’ve been monitoring her blood pressure and Sawyer’s heart rate, it’s time for him to meet us. It’s a little soon, but the doctor is convinced he won’t have to stay even a minute longer than Stephanie, that we’ll all be able to go home together.
I watch as they wheel her away, taking her back to the OR. They get me cleaned up and prepped as well, then finally reunite us. I stand to the side, in the small cramped room, holding my wife’s hand and watching as the doctor cuts into her belly.