“Very sloppy,” Ivan lied, giving my shoulder a squeeze.
“You’ll tell me if I’m sloppy, right?”
I glanced at Ivan and raised my eyebrows, watching as he made a face at me because we both knew the truth. Him telling his little baby she did something wrong? Get real.
“I’ll tell you if you’re sloppy,” a seven-year-old voice came up from the direction of the floor too. “You were yesterday.”
“No, I wasn’t!” the six-year-old shouted, sitting up so I could see her dark head for the first time since we’d all—three dogs and two pigs included— taken over the living room to watch the short program part of the night.
“Yeah, you were!” Danny claimed, still out of view. “I watched you!”
And either like she wanted to join in or if she was going to eventually be the mediator between her brother and sister, Elena gave a cry from where she was lying with my brother.
And just like that, the argument ended. There was a long, drawn-out sigh, and then another long, drawn-out sigh, and then the six-year-old laid back down beside her older brother.
The silence lasted maybe ten seconds before I heard them start bickering back and forth with each other.
God, they were nightmares. They were exactly the kind of argumentative, bossy, stubborn, strong-willed kids that I used to think were adorable, when they were really a pain in the ass.
But I loved them so much; they were worth the two seasons that Ivan and I had taken off to have them. Danny would never know he’d been conceived on accident the night we won our second world championship… but he definitely knew that once I’d found out I was pregnant, I had thought it was the best news of my life. Ivan and I had created a life. Something that was both of us on one of the best nights of our lives.
And twelve months later, when I ended up getting pregnant again, we had done it on purpose.
It had only taken me years to figure out I could make everything work with the right person. And this idiot beside me who hugged me and grabbed my ass at least a dozen times at the LC randomly throughout the day, who took care of me and motivated me and wanted the best for me every single day of my life, was it.
And like he knew exactly what I was thinking, Ivan leaned over and kissed my temple, squeezing me to him even tighter.
“Mom, Danny just flicked me on the forehead!” Tati wailed, totally blowing it out of proportion. Probably. “I’m gonna kick his b-u-t-t!”
“What’s a b-u-t-t?” Danny asked a moment later.
My mom turned around from where she was sitting next to Ben and shot me a smug look. And I knew exactly what she was thinking.
I was going to pay for all my sins with these three.
And I wasn’t even dreading it.