Chapter twenty-seven #3
“We’re getting married, baby.” He kisses her passionately before letting go.
She goes to Noah next, kissing him fiercely, before they all go to exit the room. Morgan gets up from the couch and sets her daughter down in a similar seat to the Ford twins. She pecks Clay on the lips, then her twins on the forehead and joins Ronnie.
“I’ll see you soon.” Aubrey wraps her arms around my waist as I cup her cheeks to press a delicate kiss to her puffy lips.
“Be careful, and call if there’s anything,” I whisper to her.
“I will.” She kisses me once more then steps back and leaves with the rest of them.
I smile, lost in thought as I watch them leave, until the sound of babies fussing pulls my attention. I spin around quickly to look around the room and notice the mistake we just made.
We’re now three grown men, alone with six children.
Aside from the occasional visits with my nieces and nephews, as well as caring for Gracie a few times at the arena when she was a baby, I don’t have much experience with children.
“Umm… I think we forgot one crucial part of this plan… The children.” I rub the back of my neck, suddenly feeling anxious. “Do we… take two each? Clay, you take your twins, I’ll watch the Ford twins. And Julian, you can entertain the toddlers?”
“Absolutely not. I signed up for no such thing. You gentlemen are on your own.” He retrieves his phone from his pocket and exits the room, leaving us down to two men with six children.
“We really didn’t think this through.” I feel myself getting sweaty as I wipe my hands on my gray golf shorts.
Clay chuckles as he watches my panicked expression. “Relax, Coach. This is good practice for you. Anyway, Gracie and Dante are pretty easy to handle as long as they have toys and snacks, they’ll practically occupy themselves.”
“Right, okay, yeah. Good practice.” I swallow the dryness in my throat. “So, how do we know when they’re hungry?” I nod toward Maddox and Parker who seem a bit fussy in their seats.
“If they’re anything like mine, you’ll know in about… two seconds.” He puts down his sleepy son into his seat just as Parker begins to wail loudly, followed by Maddox.
“Oh God!” My eyes widen. “What do we do?” I know what to do, I’m just freaking out a little right now.
“Pick them up before they wake up my kids, and we end up having four crying babies.” Clay hurries over and picks up Parker, bouncing him in his arms.
I quickly scoop up Maddox and imitate Clay. “It’s okay, baby. You’re all good. Shh, Shh, I’ve got you,” I try to soothe him, but no matter what I say or do, nothing seems to settle him.
“We need their milk,” Clay says, just as Trinity begins to wail. “God damn it,” he mutters with a sigh. “Okay, Coach, sit down.”
“What? Why?” I blink at him confusedly, hardly hearing what he’s saying over the high pitch screams happening in my ears.
“Just do it,” he orders, and it feels strange being on the receiving end when I’m usually the one giving him orders.
I drop down to the couch with Maddox in one arm. It isn’t until he leans in and places Parker in my other one that I pick up on what he’s doing. “Wait, you’re giving me both?!”
Oh God, now I’m really sweating. Is this what it’s going to be like with Stellina? No, because she’s just one baby, and she’ll be mine. I’ll know how to calm her down. These two, I have no idea.
“I need to give my daughter her pacifier before she wakes up her brother, and someone has to get them their milk or else they’ll never stop,” he explains.
“Don’t they have pacifiers? Wouldn’t that calm them down a little while we get their food ready?” I rock back and forth on the couch, trying anything to calm them down.
He shakes his head. “No, Greyson told me his kids refuse to take them.” He goes over to a bag and begins to search for the pacifier.
Suddenly, there’s a loud thump at the opposite end of the room, followed by another loud cry. I look over and notice Dante lying on the floor, holding his head with a few toys toppled over behind him, meaning he must have tripped over them and hit his head on the floor.
Great, just great.
Clay picks up Trinity instead, seeming to not be able to find the pacifier, and heads over to Dante. He sits down on the floor with his daughter in one arm, and manages to scoot Dante into his other, soothing them both.
And just to make matters worse, Gracie apparently just noticed her mother was gone. “Mommy?” She takes a few steps toward the entrance to the room. “MOMMY!?” she shouts louder above the wailing still occurring.
“No, Gracie. Princess, come back here. Mommy’s coming right back.” I try to gain her attention, turning my head as far back as I can to keep an eye on her, but she doesn’t stop and wanders out of the room.
“MOMMY!!!”
“NO! Gracie, no! Come here, baby! Gracie!” I shout after her, only making her little brothers cry even harder.
“This is a disaster,” Clay mutters with an expression I’ve never seen him wear. He’s starting to freak out too.
Okay, we’re clearly getting nowhere. Time for reinforcement.
“MARIANNE!!!”