“Yeah, but…he’s not our family, Drake. You know family is more than blood. Don’t let this get you down. You did the right thing. You gave him money when you didn’t have to. You offered him a home and family. You can’t make him take it. He wasn’t raised with us. He wasn’t raised by Dad. You don’t know what kind of life or family he had. Family must not mean as much to him as it does us. But you know what? We’re the lucky ones here. We know what family means and we have more of it than most.”
“I know. You’re right. I’m just…bummed is all.”
“Well, try not to dwell on it. Hey, are you coming over to the house for the housewarming party?” I ask. The house is officially finished and just in the nick of time. Deven is ready to pop any day now, and we were dreading bringing three babies back to a single motel room.
Three babies. How in the hell did I manage that one? Colton likes to joke and say that we’re the strongest Slades since we managed to knock our women up with multiples while the rest could only get one at a time. Colton has twin boys while Deven and I are having two boys and a little girl. Finally, a girl. She’ll only be the second of the family, but I guess it will finally give Milly another girl to pick on the boys with when they get a little older.
“Yeah, we’ll all be there,” he promises.
“Good. I’ll see you then,” I say, hanging up.
I drop the phone back onto the bedside table and roll to my side to wrap my arms around my big, pregnant wife.
She stirs slightly. “Who was that?”
“Drake. He took the money and ran,” I tell her.
“I bet that’s killing him. He was really looking forward to meeting him.”
I nod. “I know, but I think I talked him down.”
She rolls to her back, and her big belly sticks up into the air. “God, could I get any bigger? I feel like I’m going to explode.”
I laugh. “You’re beautiful.”
“I’m going to need reconstructive surgery!”
Again, I chuckle, and this time, she smacks the shit out of me.
I jump. “I’m sorry. I knew I was packing. but I never expected this.” I motion toward her stomach.
“Yeah, well, at least we’re getting three out of the way now. Maybe we can get twins on the next go around and we’ll have all five kids.” She smiles wide and so do I. On our honeymoon, we talked about how many children we wanted. I loved growing up with four brothers and convinced her that five was the only way to go. She gave in after realizing how lonely she was growing up with only one brother who was so much older than she was.
“Come on. We got a lot of packing and moving to do today. The party is tonight.”
“You mean, you have a lot of packing and moving. I’m lucky to move myself at this point.”
“You really are,” I agree. Deven has always been short and petite. Seeing her with such a big stomach is almost alarming. For the life of me, I have no idea how she manages to keep her balance.
I run a bath for Deven and get busy packing up our things and taking them all out to my truck and her new SUV. She’s so big now that she can’t drive. By the time she gets the seat back enough to accommodate her stomach, her feet can’t reach the peddles. Drake is already planning on getting dropped off here to drive it to the new house for us.
“Hudson, help me out of this death trap please,” she calls from the bathroom.
I rush into the bathroom and take both her hands in mine, lifting her up and out of the tub. I give her the only towel she’ll use. We had to go out and buy it special. It was the only one we could find big enough to wrap around her. She’s breathless by the time she’s dried off. She moves into the bedroom to sit down.
I get her clothes for her and move to help her get dressed.
“I hate that I can’t even dress myself correctly,” she whines.
“I know, but it’ll be over soon, and you’ll be back to normal size again in no time,” I tell her, pulling her white, cotton panties up her legs until she can