22. Gabriel #2
“No, you won’t. We’re getting married in just over four months. You’ll only have a small bump by then. And even if it were huge, you’d still be the most beautiful woman in the room.” He beams at her and kisses her pouty lips.
“Wait, you guys already have a date set?” I frown in confusion.
“Mhmm.” Em smiles now. Jesus, this girl is already a rollercoaster of emotions, it’s going to be something once she’s further along. “December twenty-third. Greyson joked about it with our parents, but apparently, it wasn’t a joke, and he already booked the place for us.”
“Wow, so we’ll all be spending Christmas together then?” Silas asks.
“That’s the plan. Of course, your families are invited as well. But you’re also free to fly back home on the twenty-fourth if you’d prefer,” Grey informs us.
“We also have some news we’d like to share.” Morgan places her arm around Clay’s waist as his drapes over her shoulders. “We had our first ultrasound yesterday…” They look at each other with a smile that would even make the Grinch’s heart melt. “We’re expecting twins.”
“Oh my God!” Emma jumps away from Greyson and practically tackles Morgan. “I told you there was a reason it took so long; now you’re going to have two babies! And we’re going to be pregnant together, I’m so excited! We can do all our shopping together.”
She squeezes Morgan in her arms, then looks back at Greyson. “Although if you put two babies in me, you can say bye-bye to your balls, Wolf!”
“Don’t you want to make sure you’re actually pregnant first, Em?” Ronnie giggles as she goes over to hug Morgan as well, Cecilia and Aubrey following behind.
“You’re right, I should probably do that.” Emma nods.
“I still have some tests in the bathroom, if you want,” Morgan offers.
“We should probably take some of those, too. Since Vixen said she’s ready for baby-making season.” I grin at everyone who seems shocked by my declaration.
“I did not say that!” Ronnie points a finger at me with a glare. “I was making a joke. No baby making! Get that thought out of your head, Pretty Boy.”
“We’ll convince her soon,” I whisper, which only makes her angrier, while everyone laughs. “Hey, where are the kids, anyway?” I look around searching for the two little toddlers but come up empty.
“Gracie is with my father and his girlfriend,” Em says.
“And Dante is with his grandparents,” Cecilia adds.
“Shit, I forgot it was your day with the Cup,” Grey says as he peers into the living room at the huge trophy sitting up on the coffee table.
Noah and I turn around, looking in the same direction and then to the keeper sitting quietly on the couch nearby. “Holy shit, he’s so quiet and still; if you hadn’t pointed out the cup, I probably wouldn’t have noticed he was even there for another twenty minutes.” I laugh.
The keeper smirks. “Only here to watch over this beauty, not disrupt your moment with it.”
Ford walks up to the Stanley Cup, eyes roaming over every inch of it. “Seeing it never gets old.” He smiles down at it like it’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen. Come to think of it, it’s a lot like how he looks at Emma, which is hilarious if you ask me.
“Tell me about it.” Burkley chuckles as we all join him and take in our latest victory. “I haven’t stopped staring at it since this morning.”
“We should eat ice cream out of it. I’m so down for ice cream,” Morgan calls as the girls join us.
“Ooh! I could totally go for ice cream!” Em bounces excitedly.
“By the way, I haven’t made anything for dinner. The smell of cooking has been making me nauseous lately.” Morg makes a face. “I thought you could cook instead, Gabe.”
“Or we could order something?” Ronnie looks at me with wide eyes, clearly trying to pass a message. “Tomorrow’s supposed to be your cheat day, right, Gabe? Why don’t we move it up and have some pizza and fries tonight? Beers, the whole thing. Make a real celebration out of it.”
She comes up to my side, wrapping her arms around my neck as I place mine on her hips. “You boys could go out and get everything we need, and we ladies will start talking wedding and babies.”
“That’s a good fucking plan, I haven’t had pizza in forever,” Noah steps in. “We could even open the fire pit later, do some smores.” Ah, now I get it. It’ll help sell our plan for dividing the group so that we can talk to the guys and have a reason to invite the brothers over.
“That’s a fantastic idea,” Cecilia chimes in. “We don’t often get a night together without the kids, let’s make it wild.”
“I mean, we do have two reasons to celebrate, or three actually.” Emma grins at Greyson, but within seconds her smile drops. “Ugh! But I can’t drink,” she whines.
“Hey, neither can I. So, you won’t be alone,” Morgan says.
“We’ll get you some non-alcoholic bubbly stuff if you want,” I offer them.
“Ooh yes! I want to pretend to be drunk so that Wolf can unleash his beast on me tonight.” Emma waggles her brows at Greyson, which only makes us all laugh.
“How about we make you take that test first to see if you really can’t drink? You boys go before these pregnant ladies get hangry,” Ronnie says, taking Emma by the arm as they all head toward the bathroom, already picking out baby names.
“She’s gonna be worse than Minnie pregnant, you know that, right?” Silas laughs and slaps Grey on the back.
“Remember when Cece had her meltdown during her baby shower?” I tell them while chuckling.
“Oh God! Please don’t remind me…” Ford’s eyes widen.
“That really was scary to watch.” Clay looks equally terrified.
“Well, you both are about to live it. Better stock up on tissues while we’re out.
You’ll need it. And if she tells you she wants freaking Chinese food at four in the morning, get her the damn Chinese food.
” Silas goes on to give them advice as we all walk out of the house, Clay and Greyson getting more worried with every word that leaves his mouth.
This is going to be epic.