2. Violet
VIOLET
My bottom lip wobbled and I blinked back tears, trying not to let either of the kids see.
Jeanie noticed though and came straight over, wrapping her arms around me in the most motherly hug I’d probably ever received. “They’re going to be just fine. Their first sleepover at Nanny and Grandad’s place!”
Ari grinned up at me from the Playdoh she’d made a beeline for the moment we’d walked in the door, and Will waved from Hendrix’s lap, but only for a second because he clearly needed that hand for the game controller his uncle was helping him with.
X’s family had taken to the kids so fast it was like they’d known them from birth.
It had only been a few weeks since they’d come into our lives, and yet I also could barely remember what it felt like without them.
Empty, was the first thought that came to mind.
Quiet was the second. Though X had done a pretty good job of making my life loud, even before we’d rescued Will and Ari.
I hugged Jeanie back. “I emailed you a list of emergency numbers—the pediatrician, the poison information line…” I rattled on, hating myself because I was positive Jeanie already knew all of it after raising so many boys of her own, but loving her all the more because she just patiently listened to a worried, first-time mom, knowing I needed to say it all anyway.
“If either of them gets upset, just call us. We’ll come straight back. ”
Whip squatted at the little play table where Ari sat and kissed the top of her head. “Bye, sweetheart. We’ll see you in the morning, okay? Have fun with Nanny and Grandad.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him but happily let go, humming a happy tune under her breath while she sculpted what might have been a dog.
Levi ruffled Will’s hair affectionately, but our boy batted him off. “Stopppp. You’re gonna make me mess up!”
Levi just laughed. “Okay, but brush your teeth before you go to bed. And actually brush them.” He glanced over at Jeanie. “Don’t let him fool you by just squirting toothpaste in his mouth.”
She hid a smile as she looked down fondly at her new grandson. “Don’t worry, I know all the little boy tricks. Can’t get one past me. His teeth will be sparkling…but after we eat some ice cream.”
Ari’s and Will’s faces lit up, and they both abandoned their games to follow their grandmother into the kitchen.
She waved over her shoulder at the four of us. “Go! See you in the morning. Enjoy your party.”
I cast one more longing look at my kids and felt again that surge of love I couldn’t even explain. I didn’t need to have birthed them. They didn’t even need to have been in my life for very long.
They were mine.
Ours.
They’d made us a family.
Levi and Whip looked as reluctant to leave as I did, and even X squished up his face, listening to the laughter and chatter coming from the kitchen. “We could just stay…”
The other two guys looked hopeful.
It was me who shook my head. “No, come on. We talked about this. We said we’d go, and it’ll be fun when we get there. We’ve been with the kids twenty-four seven since they came to live with us, and you saw them. They aren’t exactly traumatized by the idea of us leaving them for the night.”
“What if I’m traumatized though?” Whip asked gruffly, shoving his hands in the pockets of his dress pants.
I smiled at him. “We’ll come pick them up in the morning.”
“First thing,” he muttered. “Like, 5:00 a.m.”
I laughed at the idea of trying to get Will up that early. The boy liked his sleep. “Seven,” I promised Whip.
He mumbled something about missing them too much to stay away that long but put his hand to the small of my back and guided me toward the door anyway. Levi followed, reluctantly.
I had to pause in the doorway and put my hand out to X. “They’ve been so excited for this it’s all they’ve talked about all week. Don’t be a helicopter parent.”
X frowned. “I don’t know what that is, but it sounds insulting. My parenting book—”
Levi groaned. “Not again with the parenting book.”
“Dr. Lewinsky is a very reputable source,” X shot back. “In chapter thirteen he talked about the bond between adoptive—”
I stepped in closer to him and pressed my finger to his lips. “Did you read chapter forty yet?”
X’s brow furrowed. “Is that the one about chicken pox?”
I giggled. “It’s the one where he suggests a man should take his woman out to parties because her Spanx are really tight and the quicker we go, the quicker she can go home and take them off.”
He grinned at me. “I didn’t realize Dr. Lewinsky could get so sexy.”
I grabbed his hand and tugged him out the front door. “You think Spanx are sexy? Dr. Lewinsky should probably write a book about whatever strange medical condition you have.”
X kicked the door shut behind him and put his arm around my neck, drawing me close. “I think anything on you is sexy, Omelet. Don’t you know that by now?”
I did. I turned my face up to kiss his mouth, and we caught up to Levi and Whip at our brand-new to us eight-seater van.
It was about as sexy as my Spanx, but it was needed. With the six of us, plus one due around Christmas, Whip’s car, Levi’s bike, and X’s ice cream truck hadn’t exactly been cutting it. I’d even been driving because getting kids around on a bus was about my least favorite thing ever.
Levi got behind the wheel and the rest of us piled in.
X’s family home was on the Saint View-Providence border, where the houses weren’t run-down shacks but also weren’t multi-million-dollar mansions. They lived in a nice family neighborhood, and it only took us a few minutes to get from their door to Sinners.
The glow of the neon sign cast red light across the pavement and the black-and-red interior of Hayden’s restaurant gleamed from behind the floor-to-ceiling windows. A sign reading, “Closed for Private Party,” hung on the door.
Some of our friends already mingled inside, and I relaxed a little, noticing Bliss and Rebel and Kara. They all had kids at home and weren’t beating themselves up by having a single night without them.
I was just so new to this whole mothering thing, and it had been sprung on me so fast that I wasn’t sure of anything.
I hadn’t been planning to come to this murder mystery night at all, but Jeanie had caught wind I was planning to stay home and begged to have the kids for the night so we could all go.
There was something about Jeanie, something so like her son that it made it impossible for me to say no to her.
X practically vibrated as we crossed the street. “I can’t wait to see who gets murdered. I hope it’s me.”
We all looked at him.
Levi shook his head. “I have literally nothing to say to that.” He pulled open the door for us. “After you.”
I kissed his cheek as I passed, and he stuck close behind me, so close my sequined ass brushed against his dick. He put his arm around me from behind, and his lips hovered over my ear. “That dress should be illegal,” he whispered. “I’m probably going to need you to stand in front of me all night.”
I laughed, but he wasn’t exactly off the mark.
He was definitely getting hard behind me, and I let myself have the little moment of happiness his compliments gave me.
I definitely had a bit of a belly going on that wasn’t just my normal definitely not flat stomach.
But it didn’t always have this cute curve to it either, and the doctor had said at my last appointment that I might even be able to feel the tiniest of baby kicks soon.
I hoped so. I really wanted that.
“It’s Sinners,” I told him. “I’m sure it won’t be long before you aren’t the only one in a certain sort of way.”
Sinners was the upscale restaurant that turned into a sex club after hours. It had been built by Luca Guerra to try to rival the business Bliss was doing with Psychos in Saint View, but Luca had given up full control of it to Kara’s partner Hayden, who’d been working here as his chef at the time.
So we had somehow become friends with two sex club owners.
The old me, the one from before X, Whip, and Levi came into my life, who was thirty years old, a virgin, and binge-watching medical dramas on the couch every Friday night, would have never believed any of this.
This dress alone, that clung to my wide hips and wobbly arms, was a huge change from the frumpy outfits I used to wear.
I loved that I now had the confidence to wear something other than black.
Sequins might become my new favorite accessory.
Hayden came over, wide smile on his handsome face. “You guys made it!”
I grimaced at him. “Sorry we’re a bit late. Had trouble leaving the kids.”
He nodded, understanding in his expression. “I know plenty about that. Wren screams bloody murder whenever we leave her lately. My mom distracted her with an Oreo though, so we all managed to get out the door tonight.”
Hawk came over to us, catching the end of the conversation and standing way closer to Hayden than anyone who wasn’t sleeping with him would have.
“We aren’t always that lucky. Normally one of us ends up staying home with her.
So you’ll get no judgment from us on being late because you have clingy kids. ”
“It’s not the kids who couldn’t say goodbye,” X threw in over his shoulder. “It was Whip. He’s a big softie. He doesn’t like to miss tucking them in at night. He’s oddly good at reading bedtime stories. Does all the voices.”
Whip glanced over at him. “And you know this because I’m not allowed to start the stories each night until you’re there.”
X just shrugged. “Don’t complain. At least I didn’t ask you to tuck me in.”
Whip looked at him, deadpan expression on his tanned face.
X threw up his hands. “I didn’t ask again. I can respect a no.”
Hayden, Hawk, and the rest of our friends had all been around X long enough now to just shake their heads and go on like he hadn’t spoken. Hayden pulled four white envelopes from his pocket.
All four of us stiffened at the sight of them.