I’d been around kids before. Hell, I’d practically raised Auggie. But to say that I was prepared for my two twin terrors would’ve been the understatement of the century.
We’d just breached the courtroom door when I heard Swayze’s name called from down the hall.
We both turned to see the judge crook his finger at her.
She squeezed my hand and left me standing there watching her go.
When she reached the judge, she smiled at him and said a few things, then her eyes went wide and her shoulder blades drew back in surprise.
Just as she was nodding her head and looking back at me in surprise, my phone went off.
I pulled it out of my pocket and absently looked at the readout.
Lynn.
Lynn: Sadler was killed today in a riot.
I grimaced.
That was too good of a death for him.
I’d wanted him to rot in hell for the shit that he’d done to my wife.
My wife who now limped because she had a bad leg on each fuckin’ side.
My wife who didn’t complain in the least about her circumstances.
She just lived and enjoyed life.
“What’s wrong?” I asked the moment that she reached me.
She blinked at me. “Um, the judge was just telling me that Ignacia was almost killed in a prison riot today.”
I blinked and showed her my phone.
She read the text and her mouth fell open.
“Well that wasn’t a coincidence,” she murmured.
No, it sure the hell was not.
“Mommy!” Moore screamed from across the courthouse. “We got a slip n’ slide at Target! Daddy bought it for us!”
“He said that we could ride it down the hill in the back yard.” Demi clapped her hands as she ran toward us. “Can we do that? Please, can we?”
I raised my hand at Hunt in thanks, and he disappeared with his wife in tow toward his bike.
Swayze’s eyebrows rose in curiosity as she looked at me in surprise. “Sure.”
I grinned at her.
When we became parents, Swayze was, unsurprisingly, the more authoritative of the two of us. She was the one that was stricter. More strait-laced, and more unwilling to bend. So the kids going down the hill in our back yard was actually a fifty-fifty shot because it was just as possible that she’d say no. Especially since Swayze had an irrational love of her grass.
One time, a contractor had pulled into it because it’d been the closest spot he could take without having to park in the mud.
She’d lost. Her. Shit.
I’d seen her upset quite a few times.
But seeing her tear that contractor a new asshole for parking on her grass had been the highlight of my life.
Speaking of contractors…
“There was a problem with the pool house,” I sighed. “They fucked up majorly, and there’s now a leak in the pool. They’re having to fix it, and that’s going to set us back another six months or so. At least.”
Her mouth went tight.
For some reason, she’d said that we needed a ‘pool house’ or bathroom/bar/kitchen area so that the kids and the adults didn’t have to come into the house when we were having gatherings. She’d then asked me to find a contractor, and apparently the contractor that’d bid for the job at the best price, and had the best reviews, wasn’t the right man for the job.
For instance, a building that was supposed to take four months to complete was now going on eight.
He’d blown past at least six deadlines, and now we were at the breaking point.
“Just tell him.” She paused, taking a deep breath. “We’ll discuss this when the kids aren’t right here.”
Meaning she was about to lose her shit, and she didn’t want to do it in front of the kids because they were like little sponges and soaked up every single word said.
There was one time that she heard Six say something to Lynn, and the two of them had repeated it, verbatim, to us an hour later in the middle of a club function.
It was along the lines of ‘I want to suck your dick’ and Swayze hadn’t been happy.
Not that she hadn’t said similar things a time or two. But it was embarrassing to her since the kids had said it in front of quite a few people.
“I figured that,” I said as I hooked my arm around her neck and tugged her close. “How are you doing today?”
She looked up at me, her eyes narrowing.
“Why do you ask?” she hedged.
We both knew she was pregnant.
When we’d found out she was pregnant with the twins, it’d been the day that we signed for our house.
It’d been more than obvious to me that she was pregnant, too. My girl barely ever cried. But that day she’d been emotional about the grass. The driveway. How beautiful it looked from the street. Me going to work. Her talking to her assistant. A flower that she’d accidentally stepped on in the yard.