Noticing everyone staring at them and how pale some of us were, Isla sighed and stood up.
“Surprise!” she cried weakly. “And yes, it’s twins again.”
“Mama,” my niece, Dewi, called. “Do these ones get normal names?”
I blinked at the question. Normal names?
Layla leaned into me and explained.
“Last week, Dewi and Kali told Isla that people couldn’t pronounce their names properly even when they told them how. Dewi’s being called Dewey, like in Ducktails, and Kali keeps getting called Kayley.”
“Sounds like ignorant little shits trying to bully them, if you ask me.”
Luke stood up and motioned at his kids to come over to him, wrapping them up in a hug as soon as they were close enough.
“Your names were chosen because of a special place your mom and I found when you were in her belly. If someone can’t pronounce your names properly, that’s their problem. I’ll bet their parents just chose a name because they liked it, but we chose yours because we met people with those names and fell in love with it.”
Both kids grinned at their dad and then ran back to their food.
I’d been guilty of assuming Dewi’s name would have been spelled Day-wee when I’d first heard it, and Kali’s I’d assumed had been Cali, as in California, but Luke had a point.
They were special names that were relatively rare in this country, and they had struck a chord with them when they’d been in Bali while Isla was pregnant. Mind you, Luke had already been groveling because he’d been a dumb asshole when they’d first gotten together, so he probably would have agreed to call them Santa and Rudolph if Isla had wanted to.
“Well, there goes our news,” Layla murmured, sounding slightly disappointed.
“Why? We can’t have two announcements in the family on the same day?”
“Announcement? Did you say you have an announcement to make?” Linda asked, looking at her granddaughter with eyes that said they already knew what we were going to say.
As I stood up, I pulled Layla with me and then shifted until I was standing behind her with my arms around her waist.
“We’re also having a baby.”
No one moved for a moment, but then they all stood up and started talking excitedly, moving between Luke and Isla and me and Layla.
“My baby’s having a baby,” Colette cried, hugging her tightly and then doing the same to me. “When are you due? How are you feeling?”
Leaving Layla to talk to her mom, I turned to face Jack, almost laughing when I saw how hard he was scowling at me.
“Congrats, Grandpa.” The little eye twitch the two words caused had me biting my lip.
“You’re a dead man,” he rumbled, glancing over at Colette to make sure she hadn’t heard him.
Walking up next to his son, Hurst glared at me. “I’ll help you.”
“I thought you’d be happy for us,” I said, doing my best to sound hurt. “We were so excited to tell y’all our news.”
I knew from my brothers that it was hard for a man to even think about his daughter having a man in her life. Their daughters may be little kids still, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t planned for the future and what they’d do when they told them they’d met someone, and they had to accept that sex was going to happen. And everyone knew how babies came to be…
So, yes, I was poking the bears. I also hadn’t taken any offense at their reactions. I was enjoying them way too much for that to happen.
Linda saved me from them by pushing between us and hugging me tightly. “Congratulations, Daddy-to-be. I’m so happy for you both.”
Hurst crossed his arms over his chest. “Are you bringing it up in that sex house?”
Linda glared at him over her shoulder. “Oh, hell no. You know full well it hasn’t been like that for years. And didn’t you both say you like Mark—again—just yesterday, and you were relieved Layla had married him?”
“That was before he defiled her,” Jack clipped.