One Chance, Fancy (Bear Bottom Guardians MC 5)

“I’m fairly sure that it’s customary for the father to attend the birth of his children,” he said. “And since she isn’t doing it naturally, and they can only have one person, it should be him.”

I bared my teeth at him. “There you go being rational.”

“Do you think you’d be willing to rent that house to Phoebe?” Hoax asked. “I know that you bought it in hopes of fixing it up and moving into it yourself, but you’ve been saying that for two years now and haven’t done a single thing to it but maintenance.”

Bayou owned the house?

“Uhh,” I started to say.

“Sure.” Bayou turned to me. “But rent’s not free.”

My mouth parted, but no words were forthcoming.

“How much, exactly, are we talking?” Pru questioned.

“Five hundred and fifty a month,” he answered. “Plus, you’ll have to pay utilities.”

“Deal,” I blurted.

That was actually a steal. I was paying seven hundred a month for a one-bedroom apartment. Though, granted, the utilities were covered. But based on the size of the house down the road, it was at least three bedrooms.

“You’ll also have to allow me to come in and start fixing it up. I do randomly go over there and fix a thing here and there. I’ll give you a couple of day’s notice before I do, though,” Bayou continued.

I smiled then.

“Deal!” I cried.

“Good. Now, let’s go have our babies,” my sister ordered as she stood up.

I bit my lip as a wave of fear rolled through me.

Today was the day that the scheduled delivery of her twins would take place, and I was scared shitless.

Something in which the man that’d just offered me the deal of a lifetime noticed.

I turned away. “Ready when you are.”

***

My dad was standing in front of me holding a baby.

I was sitting down on the couch, holding another.

My sister and mom were cooing over pictures that Hoax had taken in the delivery room, and Hoax was lying on the couch looking green.

Apparently seeing his wife’s stomach laying open, and her uterus laying on her lap, was too much for him.

Novice.

“You should’ve totally let me go into the operating room,” I called out to him.

Hoax cracked one eye open and lifted only a single arm, flipping me off.

I grinned.

My father laughed. “Just you wait, boy. The fun times have only started. Though, I can’t say I know how to help you with boys…I’ve only really dealt with girls.”

“There was Justin, Luca and…” I started naming off all of the boys that the other members of Free had produced over the years.

“But those weren’t mine,” he said. “Sure, I hung out with them. Babysat them. But ultimately all the hard stuff was left up to their parents.”

That was true.

“I think I’ll survive.” Hoax sat up and swayed.

Pru giggled. “Everything okay, honey?”

Hoax stuck his tongue out at his wife. “Peachy.”

“Anyway, is the one I’m holding Sam or Dean?” Dad asked.

He’d arrived about five minutes before and stolen the baby from my mom. He’d then walked over to me so he could inspect them both.

“Dean,” I said. “Sam has a cute little birthmark on his head right here,” I pointed. “Dean doesn’t.”

“Interesting,” he said. “At least there’s an easy way to tell them apart. Your mother had to tie ribbons in Pru and Piper’s hair so that everyone else could tell them apart.”

“Everyone else?” Hoax asked, walking over.

“Yeah,” Dad said, not offering to give up his armful of baby. “I could tell them apart and so could Cheyenne. Everyone else, though? They had a hard time.”

“I used to paint their fingernails, too,” Cheyenne called, smiling at a certain picture that my sister had stopped at. “Can’t do that with boys, I don’t guess.”

“I guess I didn’t think this whole thing out,” Hoax muttered. “I just thought it’d be easy to tell them apart.”

“At least they’re not identical,” I said just as there was a knock on the door.

“Come in!” Pru yelled.

Bayou pushed the door open with his elbow, and my breath hitched in my chest.

He was dressed for work, and God, was he divine.

So tall and good looking.

And the smile he aimed at my sister was disarming.

“Congratulations,” he rumbled.

A shiver tore down my spine at his words.

“Thank you,” Pru returned his smile. “I didn’t think you’d be able to come.”

Bayou had been on his way to an early meeting when he’d learned of my sister’s impending C-section. He’d waited until we’d loaded her up and were on our way before he’d gone to his meeting—a very important one with the county and the city that surrounded the prison.

Instead of looking at the babies, he turned to face Pru and Hoax.

“I didn’t, either,” he admitted. “I went to the meeting that I had scheduled and slipped out about thirty minutes earlier than I thought I’d be able to. They weren’t too upset. They understood that it wasn’t every day that your neighbor goes into labor.”