isn’t your boob milk, is it?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, it’s boob milk.”
“Then you feed her,” I refused to take the bottle.
“Oh my God. You’re being ridiculous.” She snickered. “It’s only milk. It’s a normal bodily fluid.”
“But I don’t like being around any of your bodily fluids,” I said as I unzipped the jacket, exposing the baby I’d been concealing.
“Awww,” Conleigh said. “Look how small she looks in his arms. And I thought she looked tiny in Rome’s hands.”
I looked down at little Izzy Junior, better known as Allya, and grinned.
She did look mighty adorable.
She was dressed in a black sleeper with red polka dots. On the feet were tiny Minnie Mouses and bows.
It really was cute as hell, I had to admit.
The tutu that was around her waist was the best part, though.
“I was thinking the same thing,” Pru said as she held one of her sleeping twins in her arms. I couldn’t tell them apart and didn’t really care to try. Maybe when they got older and developed personalities that caused them to be different, then I’d consider trying, but for now, I was just going to go with ‘Hoax’ s kids’ and leave it at that. “Though when he held Dean last week when I came to the bakery, he looked tiny in his arms.”
“That’s what happens when you’re six foot ginormous,” Izzy said, forcing the bottle into my hands. “Take this. Astrid is doing the potty dance.”
I sighed and took the bottle, taking a seat next to Harleigh and popping the nipple into the now grunting baby’s mouth.
“You’re sure you want two or three of these?” I asked casually.
Harleigh looked at me holding the baby and said, “As long as it’s with someone like you? Yes.”
My brows rose. “You’re thinking that you want to have my babies?”
Her mouth opened and closed, then she shook her head as her cheeks flushed. “Ummmm…as much as I want kids, I think we should probably give it at least another couple of dates before I decide whether or not I want to have your children.”
I pulled the bottle out of Allya’s mouth and propped her up on my shoulder. She burped before I could even get the first pat in.
Laying her back down softly into the crook of my arm, I went back to feeding her and talking to the woman beside me.
“I want kids.”
Chapter 13
If you think about it, the most popular prosthetic limb is the dildo.
-Things not to say to your mother
Harleigh
I looked at the man that just kept surprising me.
“You do?” I asked softly.
I would’ve thought he’d have been burned by what had happened with his ex, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
“I have always wanted at least four or five,” he admitted. “But then everything happened, and I got off track.”
I felt my stomach sink.
“You wanted that baby,” I said softly. “God, that must’ve killed you to find out it wasn’t yours.”
He shrugged, looking like it meant nothing when I could tell by his lack of words that it did.
“I’ll get them one day,” he admitted. “I’m not even forty yet. That’s still young, right?”
I nodded my head. “If you were female, I’d say you needed to get started now. But since you’re definitely male,” I teased, giving him a once over. “You don’t have to worry about the same things.”
“Definitely male,” he agreed. “What’s with that look you just gave me?”
I blinked innocently at him. “What look?”
“The one that clearly said you wanted to eat me alive,” he countered.
I sobered then. “Why’d you leave, let me leave, and not come see me?”
I was always quite direct.
My dad liked to say that I was his blunt child. The girl that always told the truth, even when it hurt to hear.
There was this one time in kindergarten that my dad loved to tell everyone about. Apparently when I was ‘meeting the class,’ my dad and mom had taken me in. I was supposed to tell my tablemate something nice that I liked about their drawing that they’d done while our parents were meeting with the teacher and going over what we would be learning that year. And apparently, in front of the entire class, I informed the kid that he had no drawing abilities whatsoever, and could really use some schooling to help him with his lack of skills.
My dad loved it.
My mom, not so much.
“Truthfully?” he asked quietly.
I nodded once, my eyes focused on the baby downing the bottle in his arms