But she was marrying two younger men. Callie felt a well of sympathy. Holly was a gorgeous, luminous woman, but Callie was pretty sure she’d be a little intimidated by starting over again. “Do Caleb and Alexei want kids?”
Holly stared out the window, a far-off look on her face. “Alexei wants one so badly. I don’t know about Caleb. I don’t think Caleb really has an opinion, but when I think about neither of those men ever knowing what it means to have a child in the world, well, I wonder if they made a mistake.”
Callie reached out, her own problems dissolving in the face of Holly’s pain. “Those men love you.”
Jen put an arm around Holly. “They would never want another woman.”
Holly’s eyes were bright with tears. “What if I can’t do it? What if I’m too old?”
Rachel shook her strawberry-blonde head in that way that told Callie the ballbuster was about to make an appearance. “You are not old. You’re forty, Holly. Let’s not pretend you’re geriatric. Are the girl parts still functioning on a monthly basis? You don’t have to answer that. We all know that you go on a crying jag in the middle of every month. Don’t try to hide it. You cry at commercials, Holly.”
Holly shrugged. “The one with the little girl who morphs from a baby to a preteen.” Her eyes watered and a little sob came from her throat. “I just really like the song they play. That’s all.”
Rachel pointed at the calendar. It was the fourteenth. “She’s like clockwork.”
“You made her cry, Rach. You have to stop doing that. Do you know that people around town are calling you the new Marie?” Jen asked.
Rachel’s balls-to-the-wall attitude really did remind Callie of a younger Marie Warner.
Rachel sat up a little straighter. “Well, if telling it like it is makes me Marie, then I will gladly take the title of New Marie. And I’m not trying to be mean to Holly. I’m just pointing out that her parts still work and she can’t sit around and worry about a decision like this. There is never a good time to have kids. There’s always something in the way. There are always doubts and insecurities, and Holly knows damn well that after you have the kid, those just double and triple and they never go away. She’s been through this before and that’s what she’s really afraid of.”
Holly had a son. Nicky Lang was in college at Adams State University now, but her ex-husband came from a very wealthy family and he’d kept Holly separated from her son for years. Was she worried she could give birth to another baby and lose him or her again?
“Holly, Caleb would never take your baby from you.” Caleb was the problem, or rather his family was. Caleb came from an old politically powerful family that made the Langs look like gnats.
Jen gave Holly a tissue. She dried her eyes and seemed to try to pull herself together. She glanced down at the babies as they cooed and kicked, longing plain in her eyes. “Caleb wouldn’t. Not ever. But I don’t know his family very well. I’ve only met his brothers once. He’s got extensive family even though he doesn’t have much to do with them. What if something happened to Caleb? What if they decided they didn’t want a Sommerville raised by someone like me?”
“Then I suspect there would be a whole lot of dead Sommervilles,” Callie said. “Alexei isn’t going to allow anyone to take his child. Never.”
“I heard he made your ex pee in his pants.” Jen had a grin on her face.
Holly nodded. “Yes. He’s kind of fierce. I tried to explain to him that threatening to kill people isn’t very polite, but then I heard Caleb telling him to just nod and agree with me on stuff like that and then they would sit down and Caleb would teach him new ways to kill people.”
“Hey, they’re a team.” Rachel leaned over and patted Holly’s leg. “And they always will be so it’s safe to start over. If you want to.”
“I missed so much of Nicky’s childhood. I love my son so much, but I want to be a full-time mom. I want to know what it feels like to tuck my baby in every night, but I’m scared. I’m scared that I won’t be able to get pregnant. I’m scared that if I can’t, I’ve sentenced those men to life without kids.”
Callie took her hand. “They knew what the odds were and they would still do it again.”
“And I can’t imagine Caleb hasn’t worked up a wholly invasive set of medical tests on you.” Rachel reached down and rolled her baby over on her tummy, patting her diapered behind. “He would have told you if there was something wrong.”
“I just worry.”
Jen reached for her second sandwich. “Well, stop worrying and start practicing. The practicing part is the best.”
“And you have twice the men to practice with,” Callie said with a grin. “Poor Jen only has one.”
“Oh, trust me, Stef tries to make up for that all the time.”
And then they were off, talking and laughing. Callie sat back because it felt right to be here with her friends.
But she still felt a little on the outside. How could she talk to them about her problems? Holly’s were serious. Callie just weighed a little too much. She just needed to exercise more. And surely the babies would sleep one day. Surely.
“Hey, Paige is crawling.” Jen pointed down at the blanket.
Paige was up on her hands and knees, and she was crawling right toward Zander, who didn’t seem to mind when she planted her little hand right on his leg.
“I think she’s trying to get in between Charlie and Zander.” Holly wiped her tears and smiled down at the kids.
Sure enough, Paige was maneuvering between the two boys and Charlie was giggling, trying to turn toward her. Zander just smiled at the baby who would likely be crushing his man parts if there weren’t such a thick diaper between them. Paige moved with purpose, her eyes on the prize, and that seemed to be making her place in between the younger babies.
“I don’t think that’s normal,” Jen said, shaking her head.
Callie watched as Paige managed to scoot in between the twins, a triumphant smile on her face. She rolled on her back and the sweetest grin crossed her face. “Oh, she was born in Bliss. I think it’s perfectly normal.”
“She is going to be the death of Max, I swear. If I didn’t know better, I would say she’s constantly on the lookout for Charlie and Zander. She caught sight of them at the Trading Post and wouldn’t stop crying until I started walking next to Callie and Nate.” But Rachel didn’t move her. She let Paige have her way.
The babies were all content, but Callie wondered if she would ever find herself in between her husbands again.
* * * *
“I see the way those boys look at my Paige.” Max Harper was an idiot, but he was also practically family so there was no way to just punch him and move on no matter how much Zane thought it was the best way go.
Zane sighed and stopped the shopping cart in the middle of the store. The Trading Post was practically deserted at this time of day, which was exactly why he liked to shop here. “The boys don’t even have full focus yet. They can’t see very far, but they sure do see a whole lot of Paige since she’s always drooling all over them.”
His boys were good. Paige was a little infant siren calling out to them. He could see their futures clearly. They already ceded everything to the girl. Zander, who squalled whenever he lost his pacifier, gave it up when Paige plucked it from his mouth. He just kind of gazed at her and nodded with that dumbass “male in love” look. He was six damn weeks old, and he was already following a chick, and Charlie wasn’t any better.
Max’s face flushed red. “Paige is a good girl.”
“For god’s sake, Max, Paige is an infant.” Max’s infinitely more reasonable brother stepped in. Rye shook his head as he looked at Max. “Can we let her get to a dateable age before we start killing her suitors? And she seems to have gotten Rachel’s stubbornness, so I don’t know that we’re going to have an easy road with that one.”
Rye looked down into Zane’s basket. There were two bottles of white wine, some massage oil, and a big bouquet of flow
ers. Pink roses. Callie’s favorite. He’d been lucky Teeny had some in.
Zane felt unaccountably embarrassed, like a kid caught buying condoms—which he also needed to buy. “Just came in to pick up some stuff.”
He would bet Max and Rye hadn’t been this nervous about sleeping with their wife after Paige was born.
Max looked inside, a thoughtful frown coming across his face. “You got a date?”
Zane shrugged. “Maybe.”
“You sure you’re ready for this? Are the twins sleeping through the night? Because let me tell you no one can cock block you like your own baby. They’re vicious. It’s like they know. They have some sort of superpower when it comes to figuring out you’re about to get busy.”
Rye sighed, his eyes closing briefly. “I swear Paige has a radar when it comes to sex. The minute I get an erection, she starts crying. The minute she starts crying, the erection goes away. She’s reverse Viagra.”
“She’s trying to be an only child,” Max explained. “Baby girl is determined to not share her momma with anyone.”
Rye held up a hand. “You see, you gotta learn from your more experienced brothers. You and Nate need a plan. One of you has to distract the baby. Yeah. You sneak in and just start the mobile going. That’s right. Daddy loves his baby. All the while, other daddy is giving it to momma real good if you know what I mean. But I turn that mobile up loud because Rachel’s a screamer.”
“Now, it works best if the partner with the least stamina goes first,” Max explained.
Rye turned to his brother. “Are you serious, asshole? I last way longer than you. I just hurry because if I don’t you whine about your balls falling off through the baby monitor. I already have to sex my wife up to you singing ‘Wheels on the Bus.’ And then you start moaning and complaining.”
God, sometimes he really loved Nate. “So what you’re saying is there is a sex life after baby. Somewhere down the road.”
If he didn’t stop them they would start brawling in the middle of the canned vegetables.
Max crossed his arms over his chest. “Yes, but it’s tricky. Are you going to try to take Callie out tonight? Do you need a babysitter?”
“We can take the twins,” Rye offered.
Max’s eyes got steely. “And I’ll have a nice long talk with those boys.”
“Yeah, we already have a sitter. We’re going out to Stef’s.”
Rye nodded. “Nice. I’m glad for you, man. It took us a real long time to get back in the saddle. Babies are great, but they change everything.”
“It also took Rye some time to get over watching our baby girl get born on a table at Stella’s. He wouldn’t even eat there for a while. Where the hell are we supposed to go if we can’t get breakfast at Stella’s? Trio doesn’t open up until lunchtime.”
Rye went a little white. “You didn’t have to watch it, Max.”
“No,” Max agreed. “I had to go and kill mobsters.”
“She was in pain. There was a lot of blood.” Rye sounded a little haunted.
Maybe they didn’t have it so easy. Maybe no one had it easy. Maybe the transition from trio to family was just tough. Something inside him eased. He’d worried that perhaps it was his fault. He hadn’t grown up with a father and his mother hadn’t been good at relationships.
Max had a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “It won’t be the same the next time.”
“I know. I just remember her being so fragile,” Rye said. He turned to Zane. “But they’re not. Our women are anything but fragile. They’re strong. You have to take control because if Callie is anything like Rachel, she’s going to get so involved with being supermom that she’s going to forget she needs her men. It’s our job to make sure they feel like wives and not just moms, if you know what I mean.”
He knew exactly what Rye meant. And he was going to make sure Callie remembered who she belonged to—and who she could count on.
* * * *
Callie stared up at her gorgeous husband. Nate had come home a few hours after Callie’s luncheon and immediately changed into a button-down and jeans that hugged his entirely perfect ass. “I don’t understand. I haven’t heard anything about a dinner party at the Talbot estate. I had lunch with Jen this afternoon. She didn’t mention it.”
She couldn’t go to one of Stef’s parties. She didn’t fit into any of her old clothes. She would have to pull out the maternity dresses that hung on her like a tent. And who else was going to be there? Rachel, who seemed to have dropped all her baby weight with ease? Laura, who looked like a damn supermodel? Jen would definitely be there. Jen was younger, and she was elegant and slender.
She hated the fact that she was thinking that way about her friends, but she felt so lost. She’d never struggled with her body before. She’d always been a little bigger than the norm, but she’d grown up around nudists so body issues hadn’t been a problem. But now she couldn’t seem to make them go away. She didn’t even walk around naked anymore. It seemed like tempting fate. What would happen if she caught Nate or Zane with a look of distaste on their faces? How would she ever handle that?
Without her friends here to buoy her, she felt a little adrift. She knew her problems weren’t as heart wrenching as Holly’s, but she couldn’t help how she felt.
“It’s not really a party,” Nate explained as he packed up two diaper bags. He seemed to be packing for the apocalypse, not a few hours at a friend’s house. “I just ran into Stef and he mentioned he hadn’t seen us much since the babies were born, and he asked if we would like dinner tonight. I said yes.”
“But I took out a casserole.” She was still making her way through the multitude of casseroles and frozen dishes the town had brought in a show of support.
Zane shook his head, patting Zander’s back as he walked into the room. Zander’s little head was up, his big eyes taking in everything. “You took out something with tofu and squash. Stef has a chef. We have Nell’s ‘message food.’ I vote for the chef. We might even get meat.”
Nate held a hand up. “Me, too. I vote for dead cow or chicken or whatever.”
Zane pointed at the baby in his arms. “Zander’s drooling. You know that means a yes.”
Charlie gurgled from his perch on his bouncy seat, his legs kicking, making the whole chair bounce.
“I take it that’s a yes from Charlie, too,” Callie said with a little smile.
She was helplessly outnumbered now. Well, if it was only Stef and Jen, she might not have to get too dressed up. It would be good to get out of the house for a while. And maybe she could talk to Jen about working out. The Talbot estate had a workout room. She could go up there a couple of days a week. Or maybe not. When had going to see her friends become a chore? She had to find a way to come out of this.
“Stop fighting it. We’re going to have fun.” Nate cupped her cheek, leaning over to brush his lips against hers. She shivered when he lightly bit at her bottom lip, dragging it briefly between his own, sucking just for a minute. She felt a sweet stir of arousal. Nate winked down at her. “Come on, darlin’. I don’t want to miss this meal.”
She took a long breath and forced the arousal down. That wasn’t going to happen. But she was going to try to have some fun. She forced a smile on her face.
Nate picked up both diaper bags and grabbed the cooler. She found herself in front of the Bronco in no time at all. Nate held the door open for her while Zane locked the babies’ car seats into place.
“There you go, baby.” Nate put a hand on her back and helped ease her up. He was still treating her like an invalid. Except that his hand slipped and she felt him skim the curve of her ass. She might have taken it as a mistake, but his palm lingered, squeezing just a little. When she looked up at him, he had the slightest smile on his face, his eyes slightly hooded. “Go on now, baby. Get in the car.”
But she didn’t want to get in the car. She wanted to jump her husband. She wanted to wrap herself around him and ride him until she screamed. It had been so da
mn long.
Charlie gave a little giggling cry, and she remembered where she was. She was a mom with two babies. She wasn’t some crazy sex kitten anymore.
She got into her seat and buckled up for the short trip to Stef’s.
Ten minutes later, she was greeted by her oldest friend and one of her newest. Stef and Jen Talbot were waiting outside along with Stef’s father, Sebastian, and his beloved stepmother, Stella. Stella started moving toward the Bronco with deep purpose as they rolled to a stop, her arms already outstretched. Stella had on her red boots, jeans, and a fringed shirt, her blonde hair in its normal helmet. She smiled as she approached.
“Give me one of those babies!” Stella beamed as she opened the door and affectionately pushed past Zane. She had Charlie’s car seat unlocked with expert skill. “Oh, I have been dying to get my hands on these babies. It’s been so long since I got to cuddle with a little butterball. Look at you, baby boy. You are so handsome.”
Jen gave Callie a hug. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Why didn’t you mention it to me this afternoon?” Callie asked. Behind her Stef talked to Nate and Zane.
Jen winked. “Because I didn’t know then. And really, sweetie, don’t you think surprises are the best? I know I have a few up my sleeve for Stef. Maybe your men have a few for you.” She turned and picked up Zander.
“Surprises?” Callie wasn’t ready for surprises.
“This one is mine.” Jen cooed down at the kicking baby. Zander was lifted and taken away, his fat little hands reaching up for Jen. The babies were used to affection from everyone in Bliss.
It didn’t take more than a minute before the babies and all their accoutrements were whisked away into the big house.
Callie was left standing in the driveway with the men, feeling a little self-conscious. She started to follow her babies, but Zane reached out and grabbed her hand.
“Not so fast,” he said, pulling her close.
“But I’m hungry,” she said, gazing up at him. Zane was six and a half feet of pure-grade alpha male. And he was all over her personal space. Her mouth went a little dry as she stared.