A Moosehead Spring: Max and Rose
“Mama,” he says touching my face. Tears fall down my face. I hate how selfish I am. I love my children, but I have more love to give.
“Yeah, baby,” I say, running my hand over his dark hair. He looks the most like me. His tanned skin and brown eyes are just like mine. His brother and sister look more like their daddy.
“No cry, but more juicy,” he says, tossing his now empty cup at my face.
“Coming right up,” I say chuckling.
I get up to get his juice but when I get back to the couch, he’s asleep. Picking him up, I carry him back to his bed and go back out on the couch. If I go back to bed, I won’t sleep. I’ll plot, and plotting’s bad.
I hate how much I love this show too. I hate a lot of things right now, but nothing so much as my body. It failed me and nothing can make that right, at least not in my husband’s eyes.
My anger at Max from earlier has all but dissipated for now. I won’t do anything drastic, something that can’t be taken back but I know that I can’t contain my sadness when I am around my sisters in law. They are all pregnant and their husbands are alpha macho men about it. I’m totally jealous. Max was like that when I was first pregnant. Is it really so wrong to want that again?
Even with everything going on with the store, all I can think about is a baby. I really need to get my priorities straight but that’s hard when I literally can’t think about anything else.
Something's got to give.
CHAPTER THREE
MAX
“Fellas, we need to figure this out and flush out whoever the hell it is before another one of our wives gets hurt,” Hamm states pacing the floor.
“I agree. I called Sven Jorgensen; he has a pal in the IT field. He offered to lend his assistance with the hacking part. He has some guys looking into the system to see if he can find a worm or trojan or some shit he said.” shaking my head at Torran’s obvious dislike for all things tech, I put in my two cents.
“Sheriff Leif pulled a latent print off of the lock. He is going to reach out to an Army buddy of his that is in the FBI and see if they can find a match in their system. Until then, I can’t think of anything else to do but to keep the women and kids at home.” I inform the guys before grabbing my red bull. I look up and see them all staring at me like I have grown three heads. “What?” I ask, checking my face.
“Do you want to tell Penny she can’t leave the house until who the fuck knows when? Be my guest.” he deadpans. I see the nods of the other men in the room, and I know they are right. This is going to be a shit show. All of our wives are stubborn as fuck. We spend about another half hour trying to figure this shit out before we disperse to go pick up our women. I leave first, anxious to get some alone time with her while my mom has the triplets.
My mind wanders to the argument we had the other day about more kids. I don’t know what to say or do to get her to understand. I just...can’t. The problem is, though I know last night ended the way it always does, me balls deep inside of her showing her how much I love her, I could still feel the rip between us. Not to mention the fact that when I woke up, once again, she wasn’t in the bed with me but on the couch. It’s killing me that I can’t give her what she wants. But I find that in this one thing, I am scared as fuck. Call me a coward. Call me anything you want. I don’t give a shit. What I won’t be, is a widow.
I idle my truck for a few minutes, my mind still spinning before I take a deep breath and get out. This time, all the women are at Jace’s place, so I open the door and walk in. “Hey ladies.” I address the room. Talk about a cold front. The looks from all of them could make a hitman run. All I see is disappointment and chastisement. Interesting. I see my baby has been getting everyone all riled up. That’s fine. Smirking at the room, I walk over to my shit starter, grab her around her neck and force her mouth to mine, showing her and all the pregnancy hormones in the room that they can give the evil eye all they want. This woman is still my life. She squints at me before she melts into the kiss and reciprocates. After a minute, I pull back and rub her cheek. “Let’s go, trouble.” the other ladies snicker, knowing I just won this round.