“I love you, beautiful.” I reached for her seatbelt and unsnapped her before pulling her onto my lap. “You mean everything to me.”
Her fingers combed through my hair. “I love you too. But that doesn’t explain why we’re here.” She smiled. “I’m starting to worry for your sanity, babe.”
I kissed her lips long and hard, leaving us both a little breathless before opening the door and pulling her out with me. It was quiet out here, really peaceful. Linking our fingers I led her toward the old farm house. As we stepped onto the first steps the screen door opened and a chubby little woman with short curly hair stepped outside. When she recognized me she grinned. “Good to see you, boy.”
I inclined my head. “Ma’am. This is Harper,” I introduced. “Are we all set?”
“Sure are.” She nodded her head toward the door. “Come on, you two. We’ve been expecting you. The house has been full of excitement. He knows he’s going home.”
Harper resisted as I pulled her up the steps. “Shane… What’s going on?” she whispered, but I didn’t answer as I finally just picked her up and carried her into the house.
The inside of the house was just as old and well lived in as the outside was weather worn, but it was cozy and warm. Welcoming. I followed our hostess to the back of the house, having made the same journey just two weeks before, alone. By the time she opened the kitchen door Harper was getting irritated with me and was stabbing me in the chest with her finger to make me put her down.
“Here they are, Ranger. Momma and Daddy are here to take you home.”
Harper’s protests stopped as soon as the words left the old woman’s mouth. Her head snapped around, looking for Ranger. When she saw him sitting on a bed by the stove, her breath caught and those violet eyes that had captivated me the first time I had met her filled with tears. Carefully I sat her on her feet as Ranger yawned and stretched before climbing to his feet.
The nine-week-old German Shepherd stepped forward and sniffed my feet, wagging his tail with excitement. I bent to pet him, letting him lick my face. “Hey there, buddy. Ready to go home?”
“Oh my gods,” Harper whispered. “You got me a puppy?”
I grinned. “Well, only if you want him. He’s house trained and pretty spoiled by Mrs. Hash. He’s the last of her most recent litter. Mrs. Hash and her husband raise them, train them for law enforcement. She made an exception for me though when I told her we needed a baby to take care of.” Her chin trembled and I caught her hand, tugging until she knelt down beside me. “What do you think? Should we take him home?”
Her arms wrapped around me so suddenly I fell backwards, taking her with me. “I love you. You know that? I love you so much. Yes, I want the puppy. I want Ranger.”
Ranger seemed to decide he wanted us too because he joined us on the floor, licking first my face then Harper’s as he tried to get between us. “Looks like we’re a family.”
Giggling, she pulled the dog against her and kissed his snout. “Yeah. I guess we are.”
Jesse
There were some things you don’t want to see first thing in the morning. Or right after breakfast. Or before lunch… Okay, fuck it. You don’t want to see it any time of the day—especially when it was seeping out the sides of my twenty-four-pound, nine-month-old son’s diaper. Oddly enough I hadn’t gotten used to that smell or disgusting sight in the months I had been changing diapers.
Luca giggled up at me as I gagged and wiped his ass clean. “You are the smelliest boy I have ever met,” I told him, and he reached for my shirt, fisting his little hand in the material and jabbering at it. “How does that much shit come out of something so small?”
Layla’s laugh filled my ears as she entered the nursery with Lyric, having just finished feeding him his breakfast. “He’s not so small, Jess. The doctor said that he’s in the ninetieth percentile for his weight and height. No one can get over the fact that the twins were premature.”
I glanced at her over my shoulder as she set Lyric on the second changing table and undid his diaper. When she made a sound that bordered on a gag of her own, I laughed. “Not so funny when it happens to you, is it?”
She tossed a bottle of baby powder at me. “Shut up. Seriously, Ric. Where do you keep this stuff?”
I watched her as she dealt with our son who was just as big as his twin. It surprised even me at times that these two beasts of babies had been born far too early. The day we had brought them home, after more than two months in the hospital, was one of the happiest days of my life. The joy on Layla’s face alone that day had shined from the inside out.
“Gross, it smells so bad in here.” Lucy stuck her head in the door, making a face at me when she saw that we were both changing extremely messy diapers. “You need those hazmat suits to deal with them.”
“Hey,” Layla scolded teasingly. “Not nice. These are your brothers, not toxic waste.”
“They smell like they produce toxic waste, Mom. I can’t breathe in here. I’m going over to Aunt Emmie’s.”
“We’ll be over in a little while,” Layla assured her. “Don’t just sit around, either. Ask her if she needs any help. This party is something that she’s been trying to get sorted for weeks now.”
“Sure. Love you.” She walked into the room, her shirt over her nose as she approached Lyric on the changing table. Seeing his sister, Lyric gave a happy squeal and reached for her. Lucy kissed the top of his head, covered in dark brownish red hair. “Love you, stinky.” Walking over to me she did the same to Luca. “I don’t know who smells worse, Luc. You or Lyric.” He just giggled again.
When she started to turn away I caught hold of her hand and turned her to face me. To look at her right this minute all you would see was the happy girl, the mask she put on for everyone. She wasn’t over the kidnapping and truthfully neither was I. Layla and I had finally put our foot down a few months ago and forced her to start seeing a therapist. I couldn’t really tell if it was working, though. The nightmares were just as disturbing and most nights she either ended up in bed between me and Layla or I crawled into bed with her. I wanted to help her get over the monsters in her nightmares, but was helpless to do anything about them other than to hold her while she slept at night.
“Love you, Lu.”
She grinned, an honest all the way to her eyes grin. “I love you too, Daddy.”
Drake
The house was quiet when we arrived. With Nevaeh in my arms and Angel beside me carrying the diaper bag and two pies, we walked through the house and out onto the patio. The place was crowded already and I grinned, thinking that today was going to be better than Emmie had ever imagined.
Nik was sitting down in a lounger, letting people come to him instead of him going to them. He had his two-month-old son in his arms and didn’t look like he was going to relinquish hold on Jagger any time soon. I couldn’t blame him. I felt just as territorial over Nevaeh.
Mia sat at the end of the lounger, ever the proud big sister. Letting people know quick that if they touched her new baby brother the wrong way she would be dealing out the punishments—normally a kick to the shins to whoever had made Jagger cry. When she spotted me, however, she gave up her guard post and ran over. “Uncle Drake! I missed you.”
I lifted her into my free arm and kissed the top of her red head. Nevaeh reached forward, touching Mia’s face and giggling. Mia kissed the baby’s hand. “Hi, Nevie. I really like your dress. It’s so pretty.”
“Where’s your momma, Mia?” Angel asked, glancing around at the crowd. “I don’t see her?”
“She’s in her office with Rachel and Felicity.” Mia wiggled and I set her down. “Luca! Luca!”
My head turned to find Jesse chasing after his oldest son as he crawled toward the pool. “Gods, that boy is a handful.” I grinned. “And to think, that’s your cousin, Nevaeh. You actually share DNA with that kid.”
Angel elbowed me in the ribs, but she was grinning. “I’m going to find Layla and see if she needs an
y help with Lyric.”
“So you’re offering to help her with the good baby, not the trouble-making one?” She narrowed her eyes at me, but she couldn’t really dispute that statement. Lyric really was the good twin so far. He rarely cried, hardly got into trouble and when he did it was usually instigated by his brother. Nine-month-old hooligan that he was.
“Like Nevaeh is little miss perfect.” Jesse snorted coming up beside us with Luca firmly in his arms. He was grinning like a proud papa bear. “She’s got you so twisted around her little finger that you don’t see just how horrible she really is.”
I grunted. “Yeah, because she’s off stealing, murdering, and shit.”
“Dude, she bit Luca the last time she was at our house.”
“Only after the little runt pushed her down while she was trying to pull herself up.” While we bantered, Nevaeh showed her obvious disgust with her older cousin by reaching forward and hugging him. Luca met her halfway, loving on her just as hard as she was loving on him.
Someone produced a glass of iced tea for us and I stood laughing with my friend and brother-in-law as we watched everyone else around us. I spotted Lucy sitting at a table with Harris and Jenna. She looked happy, but wondered if she really was hiding behind the mask Lana had said she had adopted to make the adults around her merely think she was okay.
The members of OtherWorld were walking around, all with iced tea or soft drinks in their hands. You would never find a drop of alcohol at one of Emmie’s parties. Not only was it because of the kids who ran around, but for my benefit too. I was thankful for that, but really it wasn’t a problem for me if other people were drinking. I’d been to parties where there was beer and even harder stuff flowing like water, and although there had been cravings, I’d been able to curb them. The simple thought of Angel and Nevaeh were enough to keep my hands steady.
Around us everyone was starting to grow quiet and I turned my head to find Emmie standing by the sliding doors of the house. She had a huge grin on her face and her happiness was so infectious that I couldn’t help but grin back. She’s been working so hard and this party was just proof of how much she had achieved over the last six months or so.
Emmie
My heart was in my throat as I stood in front of all my friends, family, and employees. I’d never thought that life could be as perfect as it was right at this moment, but it was and I was going to soak it all up for as long as I possibly could.
I let my eyes roam around my back yard, taking in the sight of my husband holding our son. That right there was the sweetest sight in the world to me and would never grow old. Jagger might have been another surprise baby, but he was no less loved. From the moment I had felt him kick inside of me I had known he was going to twist my heart like a pretzel, which he had the moment he had opened his blue eyes and smiled right at me.
The world was going to know exactly what a momma’s boy looked like, because even at two months old he was already spoiled to the point of rottenness. I was his favorite person in the world and Nik had to fight for his attention most days. I didn’t mind sharing him though, just as Nik didn’t mind sharing Mia’s adoration with me.
A squirming baby caught my attention and I turned my gaze on Jesse who was struggling to hold onto his beast of a son. I figured he was holding Luca simply because he was the one who could control that twin better than his mother. I had joked while Layla was pregnant that if she had boys I was going to make Lyric my favorite, and while I loved my Ric to pieces, Luca was so much like his father I couldn’t help but feel a little more drawn to him.
Beside him stood Drake who was holding his own slice of heaven. To me, Mia would always be the most beautiful little girl on the planet, but Nevaeh was definitely second runner up. Long, thick black hair, blue-gray eyes and the most angelic little face I had ever seen. The happiness I saw in Drake’s eyes made me love the little girl twice as much. There were no more shadows in his eyes, not even the ones that had lingered after he had married Lana. With one precious little bundle he had been made whole.
Shane sat with Harper on a lounger and the squirming bundle of fur on her lap made me sigh. He had told me he was getting her a dog, but I had thought it would be a Shorkie or something equally as small and adorable. Not something that would grow to be as big as Harper was. But she seemed completely in love with the wiggling puppy, her smile a better sight than the sadness I had seen there for the last few months.
OtherWorld was spread around the patio along with Rachel, Natalie, and the newest addition to my staff, Felicity. I’d found Felicity in May, just a few weeks before Jagger had made his calm, well-planned entrance into the world.
I knew of her past, knew where she had come from and grown up around. That really hadn’t bothered me. If anything, when I had done the background check on her through Seller’s security company her experience with hardcore, badass men had been something to tip the scales in her favor. Her degree in early childhood education along with growing up around a motorcycle club might not make her the perfect candidate for nanny to some people, but to me she was fucking perfect. It meant she wasn’t going to take shit off of anyone—which she had already proved by putting three rockers in their places after they had hit on her.
Felicity worked hard. Mia and the other kids adored her, making my life so much easier when it came to work. I didn’t feel guilty anymore for having to ask for help, because I knew that my kids were lucky to have someone like Felicity in their lives.
It was because of Felicity that I was going to be able to move forward with the career I had accidently stepped into by becoming not only Demon’s Wings manager but also taking on OtherWorld and now two other bands. The bands, Trance and Alchemy, were just starting out. They had been doing the whole bar scene for the last two years when Nik had discovered Trance. It had been Devlin who had turned my attention to Alchemy. And while I was working on getting them both a record deal, they would be touring with OtherWorld as their opening acts.
That was what today was about. This party was to celebrate all of those accomplishments and welcome the two bands into our lives officially.
Nik stood, still holding Jagger against his chest and came to stand beside me. He kissed my lips softly before whispering against my ear. “So fucking proud of you, baby girl.”
I couldn’t hide my shiver of pure, raw desire and didn’t even try. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” He kissed me again then took a step back. This particular show was mine.
“I’d like to thank everyone for coming today. It’s been a crazy six months, but we can finally welcome Trance and Alchemy on board to E Management.”
Axton let out a loud whoop and everyone started clapping. Yeah, I thought, as I stood there with everyone that mattered in my life. Everything was perfect right now.
More By TERRI ANNE BROWNING Coming 2014
Angel’s Halo: Entangled
The Rocker That Wants Me (AXTON)
Reese Book 2 (Title To Be Announced)
Playlist
John Legend “All of Me”
American Authors “Best Day of My Life”
Beth Crowley “Warrior”
Christina Perri “Human”
Starset “My Demons”
The Script “I’m Yours”
Evanescence “Lost In Paradise”
Pearl Jam “Sirens”
Burnos “Octane”
The Fray “Love Don’t Die”
Shinedown “Miracle”
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The Rockers' Babies (The Rocker... Series) Page 25
