Walker (In the Company of Snipers #21) - Irish Winters Page 0,36

breath. He licked his lower lip.

That man was stalling!

Then, he seemed to deflate, as if he knew he’d been caught and had no way out of answering. He took another deep breath before he finally said, “Yes, ma’am, we are. But just one,” he told Eric and Shea quickly. “I don’t know how on earth you handled three.”

Eric beamed. “Simple. I learned early. When Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. So I do what I’m told. I keep my opinions to myself, and I hop to it when my queen speaks.”

“As you should,” the Queen added regally.

Kelsey beamed.

“Plus, we hired two nannies,” Shea added with a cute shrug. “I work at home, and one baby’s a handful, but three” —her brows lifted— “is a circus. A good circus, but—”

“But all mothers need extra help, even if there’s just one newborn in the house,” Eric insisted, his big arm around his wife’s slender shoulders again. “That’s what husbands are for. We really are good for something.”

Persia didn’t know the Reynolds’ story, but they couldn’t seem to sit close enough to each other. They had triplets, yet they still acted like honeymooners. Loving glances. Soft bumps and touches. They were adorable.

Lexie tipped forward from where she sat on the Queen’s lap. “Mama, what’s pr… preg… preg…?”

“Pregnant, sweetheart,” Kelsey explained, her brown eyes soft with emotion. “That big word just means Mommy and Daddy are going to have a tiny baby, and you get to be a big sister. Would you like that?”

Lexie’s brows nearly reached her hairline. “Me? I get to be a sister?”

Alex winked. “Which means you also get to teach your baby sister or brother how to share toys. Can you do that?”

“Ah huh.” Lexie’s cute little head was bobbing now. “And I can teach her to walk the dogs with me and how to eat cheerios and not to eat mac-n-cheese like a little pig and—”

“And how to take naps and not give all our family secrets away?” Alex asked pointedly.

Persia nearly giggled when Kelsey elbowed him again. “Did you hear that? She didn’t hear you say baby brother. All she heard was sister. We’re having another girl.”

When Alex put his index finger to his lips, Persia wasn’t sure which of his girls he was shushing, Kelsey or Lexie.

Lexie ducked her adorably cute face into her shoulders, quivering with excitement. “Kin we get my new baby sister tonight? Pwease, Daddy?”

Kelsey grinned up at her man, her eyes bright and glimmering. But he seemed to be purposefully avoiding her.

Hunter laughed out loud. “Yeah, Boss. Explain that one, why don’tcha? When can Lexie get her baby sister? This I’ve got to hear.”

Meredith leaned her chin into her palm, as she turned to watch how Alex was going to handle Lexie. How could he resist that precious little girl?

But it was the gleam in Kelsey’s dark browns that Persia was watching. All of her heart was in those pretty eyes, now glowing up at Alex. Persia suspected Kelsey’s left hand was right then splayed across his thigh, below the linen tablecloth. Her fingertips might even be tapping I-love-yous that she didn’t dare speak out loud. But she didn’t have to say a word. Her love shone like a bright, trusting beacon. Up. At him.

When at last, he sighed and looked down at her, Alex’s handsome face blossomed with the loveliest, most rugged, manly smile Persia had ever witnessed. Yes, blossomed, and, yes, loveliest. Men might not want to be described that way, especially not badasses like her boss. But true love did that to even the hardest warriors, and that was what Persia saw now. Alex was all warrior, but one who obviously adored his wife above everyone else in the world, except for Lexie and her new baby sister.

Man, everywhere Persia looked, she saw gorgeous couples in love. Hunter Christian was one tattooed monster of a gentle man. The tattooed snake running out from under the white cuff of his dress shirt ended at the end of his middle finger, most likely with a not very nice expletive. Yet he still gripped Meredith’s much smaller hand between their place settings, as if he couldn’t bear to let her go.

And Meredith was just plain beautiful. Blonde, she was the perfect complement to Hunter’s dark hair, deeply tanned skin, and coffee-brown eyes. While their oldest son Courtney was blond and blue-eyed like his mom, little Robert had the same dark eyes and hair, broad shoulders, and the cutest dimple in his cheek, just