Willa
Twenty weeks pregnant
I fought back a yawn as the bar filled up with MC brothers and their families. Today was going to be a celebration for everyone, and not just as a way to finally unwind from all the crazy that had been pressing down on us.
Shifting in my chair, I went to reach for my glass of lemonade on the table in front of me, only to have James beat me to it. He was standing two feet away, talking to Bash and Hawk, and his eyes hadn’t even been on me. Yet as soon as I so much as thought about moving, he was there, anticipating my every need.
It was annoying, but every time he did it, I fell a little deeper in love with him.
His lips touched my brow before he returned to his conversation with the other two like nothing had even happened.
Rolling my eyes, I took a sip of my lemonade and set the glass on top of my stomach. With all three babies thriving, my stomach was growing more and more every day, but I was still months away from being full term. The other women who were just as far along in their pregnancies were barely showing, yet I looked like I could pop any day.
I was sure there were three beasts in there and not three tiny babies. No one could convince me otherwise. But I loved them with every fiber of my being, and I was anxious to meet each one of them.
Lexa pulled out the chair beside me, moving it close so she could lean her head against my shoulder. I kissed the top of her head, wishing I could take away the new sadness that had invaded my precious little niece’s heart. If I didn’t know that the man responsible for this new Lexa was already dead, I would have sent James out to slaughter any and all who’d had a hand in it, even inadvertently.
Raven set a paper plate full of all Lexa’s favorite foods in front of her. “Here, baby. Eat and then we will have cake after the big babies’ gender reveal,” she said with an encouraging smile. “It’s your favorite. Strawberry shortcake.”
“Not hungry,” Lexa mumbled, hiding the side of her face that was still red and tender against my stomach. “I just wanna go home, Mommy. Everyone keeps looking at me.”
I felt Raven’s tension, but she didn’t let Lexa see a single sign of it. “No one is looking at you. They’re looking at Aunt Willa’s ginormous stomach. Can you believe you have three cousins in there? How is that even possible?” Raven placed her hands on my stomach, and I didn’t mind her manhandling my belly for the sake of distracting the little girl beside me. “Holy crap, feel here, Lexa. This one is trying to kick his way out already.”
Curious, Lexa lifted her head. Her dark hair fell forward, shielding the scar from onlookers. Carefully, she placed her hand beside her mom’s and waited. As if on cue, one of the babies kicked at her hand, making her gasp in awe.
“Does that hurt?” she whispered in amazement.
“Nope,” I lied. Yes, it hurt. Sometimes I was fairly sure those three were bruising my insides. Not that I would tell her or James that. “They kick me like this all the time. The only time it bothers me is when they kick my bladder and I have to go pee.”
Considering I was on modified bed rest, that was more annoying than anything else. And considering it was hard to so much as wipe, I had to have constant help. Raven spent a lot of time at my house when James was at work, though, and when she wasn’t around, one of my other friends was. Flick was just as much of a godsend as Raven was, and I would have died of mortification if my husband had to do half the things those two women helped me with every single day.
I picked up a slice of pineapple from Lexa’s plate. “Sweet baby Jesus, this is so good,” I groaned. “Taste, Lexa. Your momma picked the best pineapple in the entire grocery store.”
Reluctantly, she took a slice and nibbled. Before long, she was eating a second piece and then moving on to the sandwich. Raven and I shared a look as Lexa quietly ate her lunch, both of us hurting for the little girl we loved more than life itself.
“Where do we put these?” Jet asked as he carried a huge box, one of three.
The week before, we’d done a gender reveal for both Quinn and Gracie, both of whom had left the bar overflowing with blue balloons. In the coming weeks, we would be doing one for Rory and, not shockingly, Jos. The way Tanner couldn’t keep his hands off his new wife, it didn’t surprise me that he’d already knocked her up again.
Raven straightened, directing her brother and the two other men to place the boxes full of balloons in the middle of the bar where a space had already been cleared. My hands began to itch, needing to know what color balloons were in each of those huge boxes. I had my suspicions they were all boys, but I really wanted there to be at least one girl swimming around in there. Not for my sake, but James’s. I knew he wanted a daughter so bad he could taste it.
But we hadn’t let the doctor or tech tell us when they were doing the latest scan just a few days before. We wanted to be just as surprised as everyone else. The only person who knew was Raven so she could put the boxes together, and she hadn’t dared even hint at the secret she was keeping.
Glancing down at me, she smiled. “You ready for this?”
I nodded in a rush, causing her to laugh. Offering me her hands, she helped me stand carefully.
James glared at both of us as he broke away from Bash and Hawk again. “No standing.”
“I think she’ll be okay for the five minutes it will take to do the reveal, Spider,” she told him with a roll of her green eyes. “Let her have a little fun. You keep claiming this is the only time she’s going to get to do this, so let her enjoy it.”
“Five minutes and not a second longer,” he growled.
I beamed up at him. “Thanks, baby.”
Raven positioned us right where she wanted us, each of us standing in front of a box, with one box left in the middle. The goal was to open the outside two at the same time, then do the middle one together. I was practically dancing with excitement as I waited for her to give the signal to open my box.
“Five. Four. Three. Two…” She paused, making me do a little growling of my own at her. Laughing, she cried, “One!”
I opened my box so fast, it took a moment for me to realize what color balloons flew toward the ceiling.
Pink!
I looked over at James and saw his eyes were on his own balloons.
Pink…
Wait.
I had been sure that every single baby was a boy. All the pink balloons kind of disappointed me a little. I wanted a son, someone who looked just like his daddy, whom I could dress in little jeans and miniature biker boots and leather jackets. I even had an online shopping cart full of all those things I wanted to dress our boys in.
“Last one,” Raven said, urging me toward the middle box.
James had the biggest grin on his face as he bent to kiss me. “Best day of my life,” he murmured by my ear.
The disappointment melted away at those words, and I leaned into him, soaking up all the love that was radiating off him.
Each of us put a hand on the box as Raven counted down again, and I was sure the entire room held their breath as they waited for us to open the box.
A dozen blue balloons floated up past my face, and I screamed in delight, only just barely containing the urge to jump up and down in my excitement. The whole bar was cheering, congratulating us, pounding James on the back like he’d done his job as a man and then some. It all had me rolling my eyes, but he was eating it up.
“You do realize I’m the reason we’re having more than one, right? Different genders means more than one egg,” I told him. “I feel like I should be the one getting a pat on the back here.”
“Actually,” Raven spoke up. “The notes on the scan said they were sure the girls are identical, so it seems like you’re both responsible for these multiples.”
“So there,” Bash said with a laugh, teasing me like always. “You’re both to blame.”
James snorted, then picked me up in his arms. “Five minutes are up. Sit and stay there, or I’m taking you home.” He placed me back in my chair then bent and kissed me. “This really is one of the best days of my life,” he said as he pulled back. “Thank you for our life, Willa.”
Emotions choked me as I grabbed his cut and jerked him back down when he would have straightened. “I love you so much, James.”