Epilogue
Eve
I paced around the living room, nearly tripping over Billie’s dog, Turtle, at every turn. I shook my hands out and talked to myself as I stressed. “It’s okay. It’s going to be good. There’s no need for me to freak out. Why would I freak out? I love them and they love me. So, what, we weren’t planning this? Most people don’t. Everything’s going to be fine.”
Turtle barked at me before jumping up on the couch and circling a few times before lying down. He watched me with his eyebrows twitching up and down. I half expected him to throw out a judgy comment.
“This is all your mom’s fault.” I wiped nervous sweat from my forehead. “I probably caught this from her. I spent too much time around her. It was bound to happen.”
He grumbled.
“I know it’s not contagious. I’m just… I need someone else to blame right now. I didn’t mean to get knocked up. I wasn’t trying. I just…forgot my birth control shot. I put it off and now…we’re here.” I turned sideways to look at myself in the mirror over the entry table. There was no sign of my body changing, of course. It was too early. “Did you see what your mom did yesterday? She pushed out three babies. Without an epidural and in the backseat of a truck. I’m not that tough. I used to have plans, Turtle. I used to have a birth plan and names. I’ve got nothing now. What am I going to do?”
The front door swung open and Nash, Aiden, and Tate lumbered in, their gear from the fire station resting heavy on their backs. One-by-one, they dropped their bags by the door and came over to kiss me.
“Hey, baby. Long day. Why do you look like you’re arguing with the dog?” Nash hesitated and then kissed me again, deeper that time. “God, you taste good.”
I wrapped my arms around Tate next. “I’m not arguing with him. Don’t believe him if he says I was. And I just brushed my teeth.”
I’d just brushed my teeth because I’d just thrown up. Morning sickness, my ass.
Tate squeezed my ass and took his time kissing me hello. “How was work? Did you go see Billie and the babies?”
I watched him move to Turtle after letting me go and scratch the dog’s head. “Work was fine. I didn’t get much done. And I figured I’d let Billie recover with her guys for a couple of days before I go over.”
“Should we get a dog? I love this dog. He gives serious side-eye.” Tate glanced back at me. “Are you sure you two weren’t fighting?”
Aiden rolled his eyes before picking me up and kissing me. He groaned into the kiss and took his time with me before easing back. “God, I needed that.”
“Why was it a long day?”
“We had a surprise inspection and then training for the second half of the day. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the Sheriff’s Department hadn’t joined us.” Aiden shook his head. “Your grandfather is a pain in the ass. I love the old coot and I’ll forever be in his debt for luring us here, but fuck. He sat on my back and demanded I do my pushups better .”
“And he called you his sweet, bouncing, baby boy in front of everyone.” Tate laughed. “That was great.”
Grandpa had fallen in love with teasing the guys. He was really, really good at it. I stroked Aiden’s hair off his forehead and bit my lip. “I’ll make it up to you.”
Nash stuck his head back into the room from where he was stripping down in the kitchen. “Oh, yeah?”
“I didn’t realize you’d been called a bouncing, baby boy, too.” I laughed at the scowl Nash sent me. “Of course, I’ll make it up to you, too.”
Tate tugged his shirt over his head and dropped it on the ground. “I’m serious about the dog. We’ve been together for a year. I know you’re all anti-planning now, Evie, but maybe we could take the next step of getting a pet together?”
“I’m not sure you’re mature enough to take care of a pet, Tate.” Nash opened the fridge and pulled out three beers. He walked back over to me, butt naked, and grinned after taking the cap off of his beer with his teeth. “Do you want a pet? We’ll do whatever you want, baby.”
I cast a look at the dog and frowned. “Maybe a less judgy dog wouldn’t be so bad.”
“I’m convinced you two are in a fight. He hasn’t stopped giving you looks.” Tate patted Turtle’s head and took a beer from Nash. “And I’m the only one out of the three of us fit to raise a dog.”
I swallowed. The sense of panic I felt wasn’t lessening. If anything, it was growing larger. Looking around the house at the mess they’d made just in coming home, I accidentally let out my internal thoughts. “You guys are so messy. We can’t have a dog in this house. You leave your stuff everywhere and a dog could choke on it.”
“A dog could choke on our clothes?” Aiden tilted his head as he watched me, a sign that he was processing something.
“Yes! We’re not ready for a dog. We haven’t planned for a dog, you know? I’ve been so busy taking things one day at a time and I don’t know what to do with a dog. And what if we get a dog and we’re bad at it? What if this only works because we don’t have a dog? Or plans? What if we get a dog and we can’t handle it? You can’t just give a dog back! We can’t have a dog yet. We’re not ready!” I shoved my hair behind my ears and paced away from them. “Look at the house. Choking hazards everywhere. A fire could happen. The outlets. The dog could get trapped under the couch or in the dryer. It could get lost under your clothes or it could eat the food you all drop on the floor without noticing when you’re cooking. What then? What if we kill our dog with human food it found on the floor?!”
Tate cleared his throat. “I’m picking up a lot here.”
“Like we’re messy and it’s getting on your nerves.” Aiden winced.
“And that you’re damn near hyperventilating. Over a dog.” Nash moved closer to me. “But it doesn’t feel like this is about a dog.”
“Or our mess.” Aiden looked around. “We’re not that bad, are we?”
Tears filled my eyes but I let out a choked laugh. “You’re worse than that bad! You guys wouldn’t know a hamper if it bit you on the penis.”
“I think she’s starting to see we’re not perfect, guys. What do we do?” Tate smiled gently at me. “Baby, whatever’s going on in that head of yours, I need you to spell it out.”
“I’m pregnant.” I wiped my nose and sniffed as tears streamed down my cheeks. “I took a bunch of tests and they all came back positive. I didn’t mean to get pregnant. I know we weren’t planning for this. We never even had the conversation. We skipped the pet and I’m freaking out because I’m not sure you guys are going to want this.”
Nash let out a loud whoop and picked me up with his arms around my thighs. “You’re pregnant? You’re pregnant with our kid?”
I nodded, still crying and leaking snot, my hands clinging for dear life to his shoulders. “I am.”
“Maybe you weren’t planning for this, Evie, but we sure as hell were!” Tate beamed up at me, his eyes suspiciously glassy, too. “You’re serious, right? You’re really pregnant?”
“You’re not upset?”
“Fuck no!” Aiden and Tate gave each other tight hugs and slapped Nash on the back. It looked like they’d just won a championship football game. “You were the only one insisting on not planning things, Evie. We’ve got a list of plans for you. You carrying our baby is just the start.”
“I just thought…I thought it was supposed to be this way. I planned everything with Mark, until I was in the relationship for the plans as much as I was for him. I don’t want to mess this up.”
Nash gently put me down and cupped my face. “You can’t. That was Mark. He wasn’t your man. We are. We’re not going anywhere. We’re your forever, Evie. Plan your little heart out. Let us make each and every one of those plans come true.”
Aiden stroked his hand over my stomach from behind. “I was so jealous of the Hellstone’s yesterday. I’m ready to start our family, baby. We all are. If you’re expecting us to be upset, it’s never going to happen. I’ve never been so happy.”
I pressed my head into Nash’s chest and let out a breath which finished taking the bottom out from my anxiety. “I love you guys so much. I want this. I don’t want you to think I don’t. I was just so scared.”
“And a little worried about our messiness?” Tate lifted my hands to his lips and kissed each of my fingers. “We’ll do better.”
“Wait a second. Are you really worried our baby is going to get trapped under the couch or inside the dryer?” Aiden let out a loud laugh. “Baby, I love you so much. I love you more than you could ever know. But our baby isn’t going to get trapped in our dryer. We’re not that messy.”
I turned to face him and laughed. “I don’t know why I said that. I was just panicking. I’ve been throwing up all day and I was so scared. And the dog is judgy.”
Nash let go of me to hurry over to his bag. “And to prove to you how much we’ve been planning…”
Tate took the chance to pull me into his chest. “Finally. We’ve been dying to do this.”
I watched as Nash came back with a foot wide miniature piece of fence. “Why do you have—”
Attached to the fence with a small chain was a sparkling ring. Nash grinned when he saw the look on my face. “Marry us, baby. Come to the planning side and let us build you that picket fence.”
I laughed through happy tears and grabbed the ring like I was afraid they might take it back. “How long have you had this? You’ve just been carrying this around?”
Tate took the ring from me and unhooked it from the fence so he could slip it onto my finger. “Nash said it all weird, but I hope you’ll still marry us, Evie.”
“I’m not taking no for an answer, baby.” Aiden wrapped his arms around me and smiled into my hair. “I still need to hear a yes, though.”
“Yes! Of course, yes!” I couldn’t stop smiling until I looked up and realized Nash had proposed to me with his penis out. A wild laugh bubbled from my mouth. “You don’t even have pants on!”
“We told you we weren’t perfect, Eve. You had fair warning.” He glanced down at himself and raised his eyebrows at me. “I’m just ready for the celebration.”
Tate picked me up but I noticed he was already more gentle with how he handled me. “Double celebration! That means no moderation tonight, baby.”
“Wait!” I waited until they were each looking at me, eager looks on their faces. “Clean up your mess first.”
Tate slapped my ass and let out a bark of laughter. “You’re lucky we love you so much.”
“Yeah, I am.” I reached down and slapped his ass, the same way he had mine. “Now take me to bed and show me how lucky I am. Close the door, though, because I don’t want to feel Turtle’s judgy stare when my ass is in the air.”
“Did you just slap my ass?”
I laughed but then a thought crossed my mind. “Wait! For real this time.”
“If you tell us to clean up our mess again, I’m going to keep you on edge without an orgasm all night, baby.” Aiden’s voice said he wasn’t joking and I knew he wasn’t from nights of his play which ended in me begging to come.
“I have to call Vera! I have to tell her you guys are happy about the baby and that you proposed!” I was met with silence. Blowing out a breath, I nodded. “Yep. I’m hearing myself. I’ll tell her after.”
“Way after.”
“Call a friend right after orgasming one or two times and suddenly it’s an issue.” I bit my lip. “Okay. Way after.”
Nash grunted. “Thank god. I’m starting to worry she’s really writing about us.”
When I didn’t deny it, Aiden growled. “Eve. Is your best friend writing her next book about us?”
I giggled. “No. It’s totally different. The guys aren’t even named after you.”
Tate sighed before dropping me on the bed. “If this is our cross to bear, I guess it’s worth it.”
Nash licked his lips and tugged my leggings off. “Yep. Worth it.”
The End.