Money had been tight for a few years, but we’d made it work and eventually grew comfortable on Cody’s income. I never got a job at a salon again. We wanted me to be able to stay at home with Cecilia, and by the time she’d been ready for kindergarten I’d been pregnant with little Lily, so the whole thing had started all over again.
Callie and Grease had ended up buying the house they’d rented when we first moved to Oregon, and then they’d filled it up with kids. Two more boys, Thomas and Michael, had followed Will, and then a few years after that they’d had a little girl they named Rose. I think Callie would have kept on popping them out, but Grease put his foot down after they’d finally gotten the little girl they were hoping for. She never had an easy pregnancy after Will, and I knew Grease hated it when she was sick. Frankly, I’d been surprised that he’d gotten her pregnant again after Michael, though maybe I shouldn’t have been. Grease had always given Callie anything she’d wanted.
I sat down at the kitchen table and lifted my feet to the seat across from me. I was tired as hell. We were having a barbeque for Gram’s birthday, and the preparation for feeding so many people was insane. I knew Vera, Brenna, and Callie would be bringing food with them, which helped, but I still had a ton of shit to get done, and just the thought of it made me want a nap.
I was seriously debating lying down on the couch for a power nap when Cody and our twelve-year-old daughter came into the house laughing, their cheeks ruddy.
“Go on up and get changed,” Cody said to Lily, meeting my eyes as he leaned down to kiss the top of her head.
“Hi, Ma! Bye, Ma!” Lily called as she raced up the stairs, making me giggle.
“You guys have fun?” I asked as Cody strode toward me.
“Always have fun with our kids, Ladybug,” he answered with a smile. “Unless one of them is being a pain in the ass.”
“Speaking of, I think you need to talk to Cecilia or Cameron, or both, about Leo.”
“What’d the little fucker do now?” he asked, lifting me from the chair.
“Well, nothing—yet.” I sighed and leaned my head against his shoulder as he carried me up the stairs.
The way he took care of me and always wanted me with him, that never got old. And even though I was quite a bit bigger than when we’d first gotten together, he continued to carry me all over the place as if I still weighed a hundred pounds soaking wet. There were a million things I needed to get done in the kitchen, but I didn’t say a word as he carried me into the bedroom with him. I’d learned along the way to never take for granted the time I spent with Cody or the kids. The food could wait.
“I think he wants Cecilia,” I informed him, bracing for the blowup.
He didn’t disappoint. “Oh, hell no.”
“Yeah, that’s what Cam said too,” I said as he set me on my feet and started to undress me. “They were fighting about it when they got home from the store.”
“He actually took her with him to the store?” he grumbled. “Brave man.”
“Be nice.”
“I got nothing but love for all of my brothers’ offspring. You know that. But Leo isn’t getting within spitting distance of either of my daughters.”
“Maybe talk to Dragon about it?”
“Fuck that. Leo’s a man. I’ll talk to him.”
“Cody,” I said with a frown. “He’s only eighteen.”
“Don’t remind me.” He shuddered, then reached behind his neck to pull his T-shirt off. He looked stiff, and I made a mental note to give him a massage later. His old bullet wound had begun causing some muscle issues a few years before.
“Is there a reason I’m standing here naked?” I asked as he moved toward the dresser and started emptying his pockets.
“Yeah, I’m gonna fuck you and then we’re taking a shower.”
I made a fist and brought it toward my face before jerking my entire arm down sharply. “Yes!”
He looked at me oddly for a moment, and then started laughing hysterically at my move. “You remember when Cam did that for a whole year? God, I thought he’d never stop with that shit and he’d be a virgin forever.”
“Are you kidding me? I encouraged it for the same reason,” I said dryly as he started laughing again.
“Come here, Ladybug,” he called gently, sitting on the edge of the bed. As I moved between his spread knees, all laughter between us stopped. “You got something you want to tell me?”
“How the fuck did you know?”
“Baby, I’ve been staring at your body for almost twenty years. Not a whole lot I don’t notice.” He reached up to pull the ponytail out of my hair, smoothing it to cover my sensitive breasts.
“I can’t believe it happened again.”
“Doctors told us it could.”
“Yeah, but then it didn’t for so long,” I said with a shrug, searching his face for any trace of emotion. “I guess I just thought we were done.”
His hands moved to my belly, still unlined and relatively smooth after my two pregnancies so long ago. “You feeling okay?”
“Yeah, just tired mostly.” I ran my hands through his hair, loving the way he’d let it grow long enough to pull back into a short ponytail at the base of his neck. “You want a boy this time?”
“Already have a boy.”
“I know, I just meant—”