He shoved a couple of bras in and zipped the case. He bit back a groan as he stood up. He had other problems and they mostly had to do with the fact that his family was almost all out of town or at the office, and he’d chosen a house outside the city. He loved the peace and quiet of having his own small slice of the country, but it meant there was next to no one out here who could take care of the girls.
His wife wasn’t going to like the only option he’d found, but then if she didn’t want to take it, she shouldn’t have gone into labor. She should have waited for Sean to get back.
Charlie paced, her hand on her lower back. She’d been perfectly calm the whole time. She’d gotten the girls’ stuff together. That had been easy since all she’d had to do was add an extra pair of clothes to their day care bags. She’d put up her hair and rounded up her purse, but the suitcase had been stuffed in the upper reaches of the closet. Otherwise she likely would have packed for herself and not bothered to come find his injured ass until she needed him to drive.
That’s what he got for marrying a warrior woman.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Charlie asked. “I’ve got some liniment I could rub into your back. Poor Bud seems a little freaked out by the experience.”
“Poor Bud? That big-ass ball of chaos is why I’ve blown at least two discs.”
Charlie leaned over and patted the dog. “Poor baby. Daddy scared you.”
Daddy was going to scare him. Damn it. She was so calm and he was a freaking wreck. He’d been through whole wars and not worried as much as he did about getting one woman to the hospital.
He leaned over and hauled one of the twins up and into his arms. He had to do this carefully. He grabbed the other baby and both girls started squirming and trying to crawl all over him like he was the best jungle gym ever. He leaned over and got Charlie’s suitcase. He could do this.
Kala started blowing bubbles against his face while Kenzie tried to poke out his eye while singing Daddy over and over.
And his back spasmed again.
They wanted another kid, why?
“I can get the suitcase,” Charlie said as she started to follow him. She stopped and breathed in long and deep as her stomach clenched.
How much time did they have? What if she was wrong and they ended up being that couple who stopped in the middle of the freeway because his kid’s head was coming out, and the local news caught his wife’s hoohaw from the helicopters circling above.
He’d just had his truck detailed.
“Baby, I think we should call an ambulance.”
His wife’s eyes opened and Hell was in them. Yep, his baby knew exactly how to show him with a single stare what she was going to do to him if he didn’t behave.
When they were in the dungeon he gave out those looks, but when it came to birthing babies, she kind of took the lead.
He would have held his hands up, but they were full of wriggling babies. “Okay, let’s get this show on the road. We have to make a quick stop.”
She followed behind. “Where? Are we going to the office to drop the girls off? Or are we meeting someone?”
Getting to the office at this time of the morning would be an hour-long drive. No way, no how. That way led to his son’s place of birth being listed as a Ford F-150. “There’s only one person who lives close enough. He can take the girls into the office, and then I’ve already called Case and he and Mia are on their way back from Austin. They’ll take the girls tonight.”
She stopped in the middle of the hallway. “Are you talking about who I think you’re talking about?”
He grimaced. “Baby, there’s no more time.”
“Oh, I wasn’t complaining. I just thought the day wasn’t going to be fun. Now I know differently.” She walked by him, picking up the keys to his truck. “Come on, Bud. We’re going for a ride.”
“We can’t take the dog.”
“Sure we can. After all, we can’t leave him behind. Remember the heart attack you nearly had when you saw how much the floors cost?”
He groaned as Kenzie head butted him and immediately started wailing. That