for them all, to love them all and try not to screw it all up. I open my eyes, gaze up at Ryan, and blink back tears. I wipe at them while half laughing at myself. “I hate this whole emotion thing.”
He gives me an endearing half-smile. “I sort of like it.”
I smack his arm. “You would.”
Ryan envelops me in a hug, and I willingly fall into him. My rock, my love, my best friend.
“Three babies,” I say.
“Three babies,” he repeats. “I love you, Beth.”
I love him more. I lift my head, weave my fingers through his hair and kiss him. It’s slow, it’s warm and it causes a floating warmth in my veins. His hands begin to wander, and I break away before we go any further. “You know, this is how we ended up in this situation.”
Ryan blushes, even after all this time, and it still brings me joy. He wraps an arm around my shoulder and guides me toward the door. “Six more and we can have a baseball team.”
I elbow him, and he mock grunts. We enter the waiting room, see the hesitant and concerned expressions of the people we love then see their happy grins as we show them pictures of the three babies who I can’t wait to hold in my arms.
Chapter 32
Isaiah
Ariel is on a high of fluffy dresses, rose petals and chocolate doughnuts, and because Noah hates me, he gave her a Coke. Caffeine to my daughter is like acid to a nineteen-sixties hippie.
Rachel and I sit on a bench near where the wedding is going to take place and watch as our daughter chases a group of geese. The male one is a mean bastard. He’s spent most of the morning honking and snapping at kids who get too near, but he’s terrified of Ariel. She’s a big ball of energy in her huge flower girl dress, screaming a Moana song at the top of her lungs as she charges down the hill. My daughter does not possess a single ounce of fear.
“We should stop her,” Rachel says. “She’s going to fall into the pond and ruin her dress.”
“Abby won’t care. In fact, she’d think it’s funny.”
“True, but we should stop her because that goose is going to drop dead of a heart attack.”
“Ariel,” I call, and she spins on her toes to look at me. Her gray eyes are full of light and her face flushed with life. Her blond hair is falling out of the complicated braid Rachel has already re-done twice, and the daisies at the crown of her head are no longer in a neat row. “No ducks.”
“But they need me.” She pulls two clenched tiny fists to her chest.
“They aren’t coming home with us.”
“Just one.”
“No.”
“But Dad….” Ariel brings out the big guns: wide, innocent eyes and a practiced lower lip tremble. “They’ll be sad without me.”
“They’ll live.”
Rachel stifles a giggle at the nice side of shade my daughter just threw me. Ariel’s not happy, but she does move on. She skips toward Noah’s son Seth, takes his hand, and tells him the ducks are more scared of him than he is of them. The way Seth’s eyes are about to pop out of his head, I’m betting she’s wrong.
At least Ariel walks Seth away from the geese, but I am concerned with her trajectory toward the horses grazing in a nearby field. Ariel talks to Seth the entire time. There aren’t many people who can keep up with her, as she has something to say about everything at any time.
The wedding is at a winery in the middle of nowhere, and it’s about an hour until the start. It’s a beautiful fall afternoon, blue skies and all that, and we’re here early since Rachel has had a big hand in the planning.
Rachel and I own a custom car shop, and my cell is on vibrate in case a problem arises. So far—nothing. We don’t have a huge staff, but those we employ are trustworthy and know how to do their job.
My wife leans her head against my shoulder, and I take her hand. I never knew there could be so much happiness in just sitting with my wife and watching a six-year-old walk. A daisy falls to the ground by my booted feet. I lean down and pick it up, forcing Rachel to straighten.
I take a long look at my wife, snapping a mental picture of how gorgeous she is with her long blond hair curled