“There are just so many babies,” I say in awe as I look around the room.
Gigi’s daughter Amelia is the oldest right now and getting ready to start school and the ages range down from there. My son will be the newest, but I know he won’t be the last. I look across the room to Ivy whose cheeks are bright pink.
I’ve grown closer to her since we worked together for that brief period of time. I haven’t gone back to work, and Nate hasn’t said anything about it. I’ll be more comfortable once I know there are no threats to my unborn baby.
I wink at her, and she blushes further. She’s completely embarrassed to make her announcement, despite having been with Griffin for years. They live together for heaven’s sake. They’re married. And yet she looks like she wants to disappear into the floor at the prospect of people knowing that she has sex.
She is the complete opposite of her twin sister Gigi.
“Everyone,” Griffin says with a wide smile on his face.
Ivy clings to his arm, a pleading look on her face.
“No!” Misty yells, always quick to read the room. “Really?”
Griffin shakes his head. “Seriously, Mom?”
Misty rolls her lips between her teeth to keep from smiling.
“We’re having a baby!” Griffin says, his smile wide, even though some of the wind was forced out of his sails with Misty’s reaction.
The room erupts into cheers as Ivy hides her face in Griffin’s chest.
Misty has tears rolling down her face, as does Emmalyn. Kincaid even gets a little choked up as he congratulates them, hugging his daughter and clapping Griffin on the back.
I love Cerberus celebrations. The praise and happiness are always genuine. There’s never someone hiding in the corner with bitterness, or people chattering and gossiping negatively like I’d always seen in California. How so many genuinely nice people have been able to find each other is beyond me, but I’m ecstatic to be a part of it.
“You knew?” Nate asks as he walks up behind me and wraps his hands around my protruding belly.
“Of course, I knew,” I tell him, rocking back and forth because my hips are killing me from sitting down and unwrapping tons of gifts. “There’s no place in our room for all the things we got today.”
“We’ll figure it out,” he says, his lips on the top of my head as we watch everyone swarm Griffin and Ivy. “Kincaid needs to build a damn daycare for all of these kids.”
“I’m pretty sure Emmalyn mentioned that to him last week. He didn’t seem to throw the idea out completely.”
“He’s getting so big,” he whispers in my ear when the baby kicks, moving under his hands. “So strong. How weird is it for you?”
“It would be fine if he could get with the program and sleep when I do, but he’s constantly active. I feel like I have an alien growing inside of me.”
“When do we get the pictures back?”
“Next week,” I answer, just as excited as he seems to be about the maternity photoshoot we had done a few days ago.
“We’re going to have a meeting later. I don’t know if we’re going to be sent out again.”
I lean further back into Nate, hating that he may have to leave again, but I know I’m going to be okay here. The last several months have been a combination of pure perfection and missing him. He calls daily and texts even more often than before when he’s gone, but it’s a poor substitute to being able to have his arms around me at night.
“I’ll be okay. Now that Ivy and Griffin have announced their pregnancy, I know she’s going to want to start on her nursery and do some shopping.”
“She should go shopping in our room. We have more than enough.”
I chuckle. “I’ll ask her.”
“I can’t wait to get you alone.”
I bite my lower lip, hiding a smile. “You always want to get me alone.”
“When the house is done, we’re going to have to christen every inch of the place.”
“Sounds like a plan I can wrap my head around.”
“We can go over there right now,” he suggests, a slow roll of his hips telling me exactly what he has in mind.
I squeeze his hands under mine. “Would you stop? They haven’t put the windows in yet.”
“I’ll keep you warm,” he promises. “The doors are up on the walk-in closet. That will keep the breeze out.”
“You two look like you’re just waiting for the chance to escape and go do naughty things,” Gigi says as she walks up to us.
Nate freezes behind me, but he has to know by now that the things Gigi says no longer bother me. Months ago my mouth would’ve hung open in shock, now I just roll with it.
“Think you can cause a distraction, so no one knows?” I ask, grinning at my friend.