“They’re staying in there, Mom,” I reassured and patted her head, knowing it would instantly have her standing. She liked her hair just so ,and patting it wasn’t going to help.
“And are you taking your medicine and eating right?” She gave me her best I’m not even kidding stare.
“Have you met my mate?” Which was really the only reason I was able to manage the harsh guidelines he and my mother decided I needed to follow because I guess the doctor left off tons of things. The two of them were downright dangerous when they got their heads together. I loved it.
“Fair enough.”
“So, I came here for—reasons.”
“I assumed. Stay here. I’ll make tea.” She grabbed the kettle and then filled it at the sink.
“You hate tea,” I reminded her.
“Let me rephrase. I’m making tea for you while I have coffee.”
That sounded more like Mom.
“Now you’re just being mean.” Not that I wanted coffee anymore. It was like the babies gave me insta hate for the stuff. Which was a shame because it had been my favorite for so long. The nurse assured me the dislike would go away. She’d best be right.
“Soon you can have all the coffee you want.
“Thanks.”
I knew my mom was referring to her time in the hospital when my dad was there, but for the first time, the pain she felt wasn’t visible. I knew Henry was a big part in that and I was grateful.
“So, reasons?” she asked as she settled the cup in front of me and took a seat across the table.
“Reasons.” I took a deep breath. “See, we just moved, and Joaquim bought the house.”
“It’s a great house.”
“It is.” The perfect house for a family. But I wasn’t there to talk about the house.
“But?” My mom knew me so well.
“But there is nothing in the nursery, and I feel like I’m already mooching as it is, and it is red. Who paints a room red? And two babies need diapers and clothes and rock-n-somethings I don’t even know what and car seats. They need car seats to even get them home.” I sputtered out all the things in my head a mile a minute. I was pretty sure no one on the planet would be able to decipher my words, but I felt instantly better saying them.
“Breathe, Brent, breathe.” She reached across and patted my arm. “First of all, your mate would be honored to provide all the things your babies need. You know this. You are just a hot hormonal mess.”
She was so very much not wrong.
“I am.” I even caught times knowing I was being irrational but still not able to reel it in. “He would provide.” He probably wanted to. “I know all of that, but I feel like I already am a burden.”
“I can assure you, you are not a burden.”
“And how do you know?” I sobbed out of nowhere. I was so blaming that one on the hormones.
“She knows.” Henry had walked in without my noticing. He was there more often than not. He probably should just move in already, but he wanted the wedding and all. Romantic fool. I was super happy for Mom.
“Hi, Henry.” I wiped my tears.
“How are those babies doing?” He reached over and rubbed my belly. I’d long since given up trying to thwart belly rubbers. Apparently, huge-ass twin bellies were public domain.
“They’re awesome and before you ask, I’m fine, too.”
He bent down and kissed my mom’s cheek. I couldn’t be sure from the angle and the lighting, but I think she might’ve blushed.
“They’re in my truck, love.”
“Excellent.” She clapped before bounding out of her seat and to the back door. “Come on out.”
I followed her as fast as my perpetual state of waddling allowed, and sitting on the bed of his truck were two cradles, just like the one she gave Kayson and his mate for their baby.
“Those look like—” And the tears were coming back, only this time happy tears.
“They are exactly like. I had them made for my grandbabies.”
I grabbed my phone and snapped a picture, wanting to share them with my man.
“What are you doing?” she asked, probably thinking I was tweeting.
“Sending a picture to Jay”
“He’s already seen them, honey.” She wrapped her arm around my shoulder, far too proud of herself.
“Quit teasing him, Viv. He’s got blood pressure issues and two humans playing hockey on his organs. Cut him a break.”
“Fine,” she huffed before turning on her super-sweet voice, the one she usually reserved for talking to my belly. “Joaquim and I had a little chat during your homecoming, and he agreed to let me get the nursery ready. And the cradles for your room.”
“He agreed?” I quirked an eyebrow. That very much did not sound like him.
“She demanded,” Henry chortled. “You know her.”
“And that’s why he doesn’t seem at all worried about the house not being done.” Which solved a huge mystery I’d been working on in my head. I had been leaning toward his not wanting to stress me out but inwardly stressing himself. This was better.
“Oh, no he’s worried about the lack of a decent bathroom, but he plans for your birthday, so feign surprise, and before you say a word, I bought your cousin a house. Your mate ruined my chance to do that for you, so just be grateful and tell your mate I’m fixing that disaster that is your bathroom along with the kitchen and nursery.”
It wasn’t a disaster, but I wasn’t going to argue with her over that when she’d already made up her mind.
“I can do that,” I promised. “Thanks, Mom.”
“No thanks needed.” She enveloped me in a ginormous hug.
“And thanks, Henry,” I said as I hugged him, too, after Mom finally let go.
“I had nothing to do with it.” He thought I was referring to the cradles and kitchen. Silly man. He’d done so much more.
“Except you sent me to Mardi Gras where I met Jay” I reminded him, leaving out the part about his idiot son.
“Well then, I get all the credit.” He puffed out his chest. “If you have a boy, his name is Henry.”
Please let it be girls.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jay
#weddingday
“He’s asking for you,” Kayson whispered into my ear as I paced the our living room floor. My nerves were brewing overtime, but I hoped maybe they were for both of us because my omega couldn’t be nervous today. We were having none of his blood pressure issues on our wedding day.
“Got it.”
I headed to the bedroom with a smile on my face despite the nervous belly. I was about to marry the love of my life in a few minutes, and in mere days, we would be a family with two children.
Nothing could wipe this grin from my face.
“Brent, love, what’s taking so long? It’s just a shirt and pants.”
He growled at me. Growled! “It’s a shirt and a pair of pants that make me look like a whale. Why are you marrying a whale, Jay Why?” This outburst was followed by a hormone-induced flood tears that dripped down on his shirt, a shirt that I’d picked out myself.
“You don’t look like a whale.” He shot me a good dose of stink eye. “I’m serious. You want to know what you look like to me?”
He nodded, sniffling, cutest damned omega in the world. “To me, you are a little swollen because you’ve been nourishing our babies with a lot of organic nutritious food and you may have gained some weight from it. But that’s a small price to pay for growing our babies. And your belly is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen because it’s your body, first, but second, you are giving a warm, loving home to our babies. Even your tears are lovely because your hormones are going nuts because you’re about to give birth. Sometimes I wish I could carry our babies, too, but it’s not the way things work. Don’t you know that I love every single inch of you?”
More tears flowed like little rivers down his
face. I couldn’t stand to be so far away from him. I closed the distance, wrapping my arms around his waist and caressing his belly while I kissed the side of his neck.
“You gonna marry me today or what? ’Cause I’m dying to be your husband.”
“I’m dying to be your husband, too.”
“You can cry through the entire ceremony if you want to. I’ll bring the Kleenex.”
“Really?” Brent’s sniffle jarred us both.
“The whole time. Come on, love. Let’s go.”
Brent was still crying when we got into the car—and into city hall—and the entire time just like I expected.
Who could blame him?
We said our I dos with Vivian and Henry as our witnesses. My dad and the others were setting up the reception.
“I don’t want to go. I’m tired. Let me take a nap.”
I chuckled. “So, you don’t want to dance with me? I’m gonna have to dance with Henry, then. He’s kind of vintage hot.”
He slapped me on the chest. “Stop. I’ll go, but I might not last long. These babies are keeping me up all night.”
“One dance, that’s all I ask.”
We got to the reception, and my dad greeted us first. He was making plans to move closer to Mapleville, determined not to miss the babies growing up.
“You did good, mijo. And, Brent, welcome to the family.”
They hugged and now I was the one blubbering.
I took his hand when we finished greeting everyone and a slow song started. Our first dance as a married couple.
Yeah, there wasn’t a dry eye in the place.
“Who is that guy over there? He’s giving me a dirty look,” I whispered to Brent.
“Where?” he asked.
“Now he’s behind me. I think he’s working here, for the caterer. He’s holding a tray. Vivian must’ve hired a company that he works for.”
“Oh…”
I held Brent next to me.
“Jay, that’s Chad, my ex.”
Smoking hot didn’t even begin to describe the man who stared us down from across the room. There was also an obvious look of regret on his face. I was married now, but my eyes worked just fine. I wondered what his story was and why they broke up. No, I realized, I didn’t care.
Yeah, buddy, he’s mine. I bet you regret that, don’t you?
“You need to talk to him?” I asked, perfectly solid in our relationship.
“No, he cheated on me—several times from what I’ve heard. I’m so done with that. He doesn’t even deserve a hello from me.”
“He looks sorry, love. I don’t blame him. He lost you.” To my benefit.
“But you didn’t lose me, did you? Even after New Orleans and the hashtags and everything. We found each other. That’s the important thing. You know, you really are a good dancer. It’s making me kind of hot.”
“Kind of, please. You’ve had a hard-on since the song started. I’m gonna love showing you how much I adore you tonight.”
Heat poured from his body. “Do we have to wait? I mean, I could pretend to faint or something and you could take me home right now.”
“I could. And believe me, I want to. But there’s cake.”
His eyes lit up at the sound of the word, and a smile took shape. Pregnant Brent loved cake. “In that case, maybe after cake.”
I chuckled, loud and hard, letting my head tilt back. “Oh, my omega, you’re everything I didn’t know my life was missing.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Brent
#Itstime
Our wedding was perfect. No, it was beyond perfect. I was now connected, forever, with Jay There was nothing better than that. But I was exhausted and we said our good-byes earlier than I know my family anticipated. Jay, on the other hand, knew it had been a challenge just to get me to the reception.
The babies were safe to arrive now, having made it past the we need to keep them in until date and even past the if we can keep them in until this date timing. That decreased my stress by a ton and was one of the reasons I was okay with Jay’s last-minute wedding idea.
I’d been fine waiting until after the babies arrived, but Jay was all about having rights at their birth in case he needed to jump in and do some ninja nursing things or something. I didn’t even know. I didn’t even care. Just the fact that he wanted to be there in every capacity for the babies had me in bliss.
“Welcome home, Husband.” We’d just arrived at the threshold, and he made like he was going to scoop me up like in the old-fashioned movies.
“Oh, you are not going to pick me up.” I tsked.
“It’s tradition.” He shrugged and then made a another move to scoop me up. I stepped back, laughing.
“Did you forget I’m ginormous?” My hands formed fists on my hips. At this point, I knew I was going to lose, but the playfulness in his eyes had me amused.
“Are you saying I’m too weak to carry you?” Silly alpha flexed his muscles, biting back a laugh.
“No. Fine, but if you pull your back, that’s on you.” I stepped into his embrace and he sort of kind of hugged me, my belly making it so his arms couldn’t quite wrap around me. And by not quite I mean he was able to touch my shoulder blades, and that was about it.
“Fair enough.” And just like that, he was at my side, scooping me up as he pushed the door open with his foot. How had I missed him unlocking it? “Welcome home, Husband.”
He carried me over the threshold before kissing me soundly and setting me on the floor.
“Do things feel different to you?” I asked after he locked the door behind us and took my hand, just standing there, looking at me with such love.
“You mean because we are married now and you’re stuck with me?”
“Something like that.”
I walked, or waddled as the case was, to the couch, bringing him with me. I needed to get my shoes off before my feet were so swollen they stuck in there permanently.
When they first started swelling again, I’d been paranoid it was my blood pressure and rushed to the doctor, calling Jay along the way. Turned out it was normal pregnancy swelling. Jay had noticed it two weeks earlier, but I missed it because I could no longer see my feet. Or my cock, for that matter. Jay assured me that was just fine—using his mouth—often, so it turned out that was one of those hidden benefits of pregnancy no one ever talked about.
“Yes and no.” He helped me free my feet from their bonds. “I committed in my heart way before I committed legally, so in that way, not so much. But having all of our family and friends know that we are now bonded, that feels different somehow.” He sat back, snuggling into me the way I liked. “Better. And my love for you grows by the second so, you know, I love you more and all that jazz.”
“Same on all of that. You know what?” I twisted my head to kiss his cheek, lips grazing that tiny bit of stubble I loved so much.
“What?”
“The babies are safe to come out at any time.” I tried to infuse my voice with the sexy. I failed, sounding more like a cartoon version of myself, and my husband just shook his head.
“I know.” His hand settled on my belly. “You’re ready for them to say hello.”
I so very much was. The Braxton Hicks had been pretty strong the week before, and more than once I’d thought it was time. It was a letdown when a long drink and putting my feet up had them stop. Letting the babies grow as long as they needed was important, though, and I tried to focus on that. The doctor was pretty confident I might be one of the lucky ones with six-pound twins. Lucky as in they would be ready for the world, not lucky in that I’d have to push both out at that size.
“So ready. I have to hold my belly up half the time.” It was embarrassing but true. If I didn’t, my back hurt like heck by the end of the day, and those stupid twin belly holster things they sold online were useless. And yeah, I’d bought three different brands before drawing that conclusion.
; “Which is adorable.”
I hardly saw how a waddling omega the size of Nebraska, holding his belly up just to walk was adorable, but I saw it in his eyes often enough to know he viewed me that way, and that was all that mattered.
“Because it’s not you,” I faux grumped. “Anyway, the babies can come any day now and be perfectly safe.”
“I feel like you are getting at something.” Finally, he was catching on to my hints.
I’d read and the doctor confirmed that there was a correlation, which Jay assured me wasn’t the same as causality, but whatever, between having sex and babies coming. It meant the past few weeks, naked fun included mostly hand and blow jobs, which were great and all, but this end of my pregnancy had me so craving his knot that it just wasn’t enough.
“I want them out.” I twisted so he could see my face.
“You want to ask to have them induced.”
I wanted to palm my face. I so sucked at subtle seduction, and on my wedding night, too, when it should be a given that was what I was doing. “I know the doctor offered, but I thought you were against that.”
He had, and I was.
“I was thinking more of a natural induction.” I was no longer going with plan subtle and ran the palm of my hand over his cock, which was already halfway hard. Maybe he really did find my new balloon-shaped body hot.
“Oh, I think I can manage that one.” He leaned in kissing me soundly, finally on the same page as I was.
“You say that, but there are two babies in your way.” It was a challenge, and my hubby liked a challenge in the bedroom.
“Oh, you’re questioning my flexibility. It’s on.” He stood up, holding his hand out for me. “Let’s get you naked.”
We made our way down the hall, both fiddling with our buttons along the way. Hardly romantic, but it worked for us. By the time we reached the bedroom, our suit coats and shirts were left behind on the floor—somewhere.
“Come here, let me help you with that.” He dropped to his knees, pulling down my pants, no longer the type with buttons because elastic front panel time was the only hope I had of wearing them. “Much better.” He caressed my erection as he pushed up to stand.
Mardi Gras with His Omega Page 10
