One Chance, Fancy (Bear Bottom Guardians MC 5)

“When are you having one?” she teased.

I shook my head. “Not any time soon. I’m fairly sure that if I was pregnant, I’d be fired from my job from the most overprotective man in the world.”

Pru made a snorting sound. “That I can more than see.”

I could, too.

The moment that I turned up pregnant, Bayou would go into super protective mode and either fire me or temporarily sideline me until I was no longer pregnant. Either way, it wouldn’t be good—at least not for my sanity.

“Anyway, as for now, we’re going to focus on Isa there.” I gestured to the girl that was sitting on the counter next to where Pru was bathing the twins. “And honestly, we haven’t even discussed kids. I don’t even know if he wants anymore.”

Pru looked at Isa, then smiled. “He hasn’t had much time with Isa. Nor have you had it with each other, if I’m being truthful. But, saying that, neither did I with Hoax, and I couldn’t be happier. Though, I would recommend not having two at once.”

I looked at my sister and laughed. “Like that is something that I can control.”

She sighed. “You’re right. My luck, I’ll have another set of twins the next time we decide to try, and you’ll have all singles.”

One could only hope.

I sighed. “I have to go check on Phantom and exercise her.”

“If you’ll go out there and hand him off to Hoax, I’d love you forever,” she pleaded.

I did as requested only after I situated a new diaper over Dean’s cute little tushy.

“Here ya go,” I said as I handed Dean to Hoax and then tossed him the cute little sleeper with baby owls on it that I’d managed to grab as I’d put the diaper on. “I have to go.”

Hoax took Dean into the crook of his arm, then squeezed his eyes tight as I hit him in the face with the sleeper.

“You know, my favorite sister is Piper,” he teased.

My brows rose. “Piper is a bitch. I love the bitch, but still, she’s a bitch.”

He snorted as he pulled the sleeper away from his face. “I wouldn’t really know. I’ve only met her a handful of times, and talked to her about twice that.”

I yawned wildly as I turned to head to the other room.

“You’ll get there,” I told him. “She’s in the nice stages right now. Making you unable to hate her while she reels you in with her false niceness.”

He snorted. “Duly noted.”

When I got back into the bathroom, Isa was helping Pru dry Sam off with a towel, and I watched from the doorway with a small smile on my face.

“She’s good with them,” I said softly.

“All the more reasons to have more as soon as possible,” Pru teased.

I rolled my eyes and walked over to where Isa was standing. “You ready to go play with a bird, Isa?”

Isa’s eyes widened. “Yes!”

Surprised by the excitement in that answer, I held my hands out for her. “Come on, pretty girl. We’re going to visit my dad, and I’ll show you the bird.”

Isa launched herself at me. “Awww, Isa has the same obsession with birds that Bayou does. How cute is that?”

Grinning, I said the only thing I could think of. “Like father like daughter.”

***

I was unstrapping Isa from the car seat in front of my dad’s place when Bayou called me to tell me he’d gotten out a little earlier than he’d intended.

“Find anything else?” I asked.

“No,” Bayou grumbled. “Yes. Some. Shit. I’m hungry. Where are y’all?”

I hitched Isa up onto my hip. “We just got to my dad’s place. I’m going to clean out Phantom’s mew and give her a little exercise.”

“Cool,” he grumbled. “I’m going to head that way on my bike.”

He sounded like he was excited by the prospect of a long ride, so I didn’t point out the part about it looking like the bottom was about to drop out of the sky just a half hour drive away.

“Okay,” I said as I closed the truck door with my hip. “I’ll see you when you get here.”

Bayou agreed and we hung up. Glancing up to look where I was walking, I wasn’t surprised at all to see my dad and Elliott, one of my dad’s good friends and another member that lived on the compound, standing on the front porch watching me walk up.

“Hey,” I called out to the two of them as I moved. “Why is the front gate open?”

“They’re fixing it,” Dad muttered as he watched me head his way. “They’re in town getting a new part for it. It just kept opening slower and slower until it finally didn’t open at all today. They said it was the solar panel, but apparently, they don’t have a big enough solar panel on their truck to run the size of our gate. Therefore, they had to go get one.”