Chapter 22
BLAKE
Whoever decided people should hold a party when they were eight months pregnant deserved to have their nose rubbed in a pile of dirty diapers. I couldn't have cared less that the party was for us. I didn't want one.
Vic and Ollie ignored my complaints. They set up a lovely event space in the cottage's living room. It was standing room only around the couch, where Vic sat beside Ollie, and Cassie sat beside me.
I felt like a complete slob in my gray sweatpants and loose-fitting tank top with spaghetti straps. I didn't care how feminine it looked. It was comfortable, dammit, and clothing didn't have gender.
Ollie's family crowded around us, all talking at once while we opened their presents first. Behind them, our work friends watched to see if we got too many multiples. Because I'd fought the baby shower idea so hard, we hadn't registered anywhere.
When I unpacked four car seats and four changing mats, it wasn't the end of the world. "Two for each car," I said, always looking for the bright side. The only thing I hated more than parties was returning gifts, so that wasn't happening, no matter how much money we might have saved.
"Open mine next," Vic said when I'd made it through the family gifts. "I need to get back into town for a meeting."
"On a Saturday?" I couldn't keep the frustration from my voice. If I had to be here, so did he. He'd planned this shindig, after all.
"We're a month and a half out from Halloween," he said. "The planning committee needs me."
"Abel needs you," I teased.
"Well, I wouldn't be opposed." Vic grinned. "Have I mentioned how gorgeous his soulful brown eyes are?"
"You have."
I tugged the present from Vic's grasp as he continued to wax poetic about his crush, the beautiful Black man who lived alone in the apartment directly below his.
Inside the box was tissue paper. At first, I thought it was filler, but then my fingers bumped against something cool and hard. I pulled it out of the box, and something fell back into the pile of tissue paper.
"Be careful!" Vic scolded. He scooped the second piece out and handed it to me. It was a little bear cub made of clear glass, stretched out on all fours. The one in my hand was sitting on its haunches. They were both in the same style as the bear figurine I'd given Ollie for Christmas.
"They're perfect." My eyes welled with tears. "Thank you."
Vic hopped up, and I struggled to my feet to give him a hug. He kissed my cheek. "You're going to be the best dad to these little ones. I'm so happy for you."
He tapped the box. "Now open the rest."
"There's more?" I sat down and peeled away the top layer of tissue paper, only to find more beneath it.
He laughed. "Of course. Have I ever been able to pass up buying cute clothes?"
I scoffed when I pulled the first onesie out of the box. "This is cute?"
It had instructions on where the baby's head, hands, and feet went. Across the middle, it said, "You've got this, Papa!"
I uncovered a second onesie that said the same thing, only it was green where the first had been yellow. He'd gotten us a whole stack of twin onesies with fun sayings, and a stack of burp rags with the same sayings, only bigger.
The pain in my back worsened for a moment, deepening my scowl. "I should throw these out with the trash."
"You will not." Vic tugged the box from my arms and set it on the other side of Ollie, where I couldn't reach it.
"Thank you," I said again. "Thanks for coming."
There was so much more I wanted to say. Vic had stuck with me through it all.
When I thought he'd gotten sick of me and left, he'd merely nudged me in the direction I needed to go all along.
If Vic hadn't moved out, we would probably still be living in that apartment, and I would still be overthinking whether Ollie and I should be together.
I opened the rest of the presents with blurry eyes.
Once I finished and thanked everyone for coming, we spilled out into the yard, where the kids played hide and seek in the nearby woods.
No one batted an eye when the four-year-old twins shifted into their bear and mountain lion forms. Our construction crew were all shifters or mated to shifters, and Cassie had met the twins and their animal forms over the summer.
The shifted children were far better at seeking than the ones who stayed in their human forms, but of the two eldest cousins, the mountain lion kit could climb higher than his bear sister.
He made it back to base on the front porch with the bear cub and a couple of our friends' wolf pups trailing behind him.
Vinny and his mate held their babies to their chests and grinned at each other over their heads. "That'll be these two before too long."
"Liam will beat them, too." Walter didn't even try to hide the pride in his voice.
The kit studied the snack table with wide eyes. He shifted back to his human form with wispy brown hair and green eyes.
"Well done, Liam!" Walter wrapped the naked boy in a towel and picked him up before he could swipe a cup of punch. "Let's get you dressed for lunch."
My back had been bothering me all morning, but I passed it off as stress. Now that the most stressful part, being the center of attention, was over, I thought it would ease, but the cramping only got worse. It was like heat cramps, only worse.
"Are you all right?" Ollie walked up behind me and rubbed the spot I'd been kneading with my knuckle all morning.
"Keep doing that," I said.
"Do you need to lie down?"
"Not with all these people here! I'll be fine."
He dug his thumbs into my flesh on either side of my spine. It was the first bit of relief I'd had all morning, and I wanted to wallow in it like a mermaid in the shallows. My moan drew everyone's attention. Once again, I wished I could sink into the floorboards.
"Oh, Blake, your pants." Nora pointed. "Have you had any contractions?"
"My what?" I looked down and saw that a dark blotch was spreading from the seam to the knees of my gray sweatpants. It was worse in the back, but still noticeable in the front. "Is that …"
"Your water broke." Nora wrapped her arm around my waist. "We need to get you inside and call Denise."
What a way to end the party.