Just What I Need (The Bradfords) (12 page)

“Hold on, big guy,” she said, hand flat on his chest.

He gave her a little frown. “You’re the one that said you got all hot and bothered watching me hold Natalie.”

“Yeah, because you were super sweet and protective and looked so damned amazed when you were holding her.”

“What’s not to be amazed about? It’s a
baby
.”

The tension in Eve’s spine let go and she sighed. “See? Like that. You’re this big ex-football player who can break up a bar fight without even getting out of breath but you’re all amazed by this tiny baby girl.” She shook her head. “How can I
not
want you to lick me all over?”

Kevin chuckled. She was driving him nuts. “That licking all over things is definitely going to lead to things that can lead to babies.”

She tipped her head, studying him too seriously. “If we’d stayed together after our first wedding, we’d probably have two or three by now, don’t you think?”

The pang in his chest wasn’t all that unfamiliar. It was the feeling of loss that occasionally hit him when he thought about the years he and Eve had spent apart.

They’d gotten married right out of high school, but they’d broken up almost immediately after the wedding. He’d assumed they’d annulled the marriage and had lived fourteen years thinking he’d let her get away. As it turned out, the annulment had never been official. Still, they’d lost all those years together.

He sometimes had to focus on the fact that he had her now, they were together and solid, and moving forward they could make up for all the things they’d missed.

Including kids.

“Yeah, we probably would have,” he said, his voice sounding thick. They could have had a ten-year-old by now, easily.

Looking at him with love clear in her eyes, she said, “I’d do anything for you. Just say the word.”

Kevin wasn’t sure about the protocol surrounding pushing your wife to have kids if she was hesitant. He wanted to push. He wanted to say,
Yes. Now. Please.
Instead, he said, “Ditto. I’d do anything for you.” And he meant it.

Her eyes narrowed. “Even not have kids?”

The pang in his chest was stronger this time, but he nodded, completely honest in admitting that being with Eve was what mattered. He’d be thankful for whatever came with that and not mourn what didn’t. “Even not have kids.”

There were plenty of kids in their group that he could get a baby fix whenever he needed one.

She frowned harder. “Seriously?”

“Yes. Of course. If that’s not what you want—”

“What about what
you
want?” she interrupted.

“But if you—”

She pushed herself back so she could cross her arms. “Dammit, Kevin. What about
you
? You always put yourself out there for everyone else.”

“This is a little different,” he said. “This kind of affects you too.”

“And it would be great. You know that. You know that we would be fantastic parents. Look how great we are with Drew. And we’re madly in love and will be forever. If anyone should be parents, it should totally be us.”

Kevin had no idea what to say. He’d clearly misread her previous words. “I, um—”

“And you, of all people, deserve to have everything you want. You should never be with a woman who doesn’t want to have kids, Kevin.”

He fought the sudden grin that was threatening. “Well, I’m stuck with
you
. So…”

She finally relaxed her frown and nodded. “You sure are. Crazy hormones and all.”

“Yep. Every bit of you. Including…” Her words sank in. “Crazy what?”

“Hormones.” She didn’t say anything more.

“Hormones,” he repeated, thinking maybe it would make perfect sense if he said it again.

Eve bit her bottom lip and nodded. “Hormones. Pregnancy hormones.”

“Because you’re…”

She nodded, watching him work it through.

Kevin felt his heart expand so quickly it made his chest hurt. “A baby.”

Eve’s mouth slowly curled up as she realized he understood. “Hopefully
one
baby. At a time anyway.”

He looked at her, not sure what to do first. He wanted to hug her, kiss her, kiss her stomach, buy her flowers, tell their friends, tell his parents, take out a billboard.

Instead, he gave her sly smile. “I see what you mean.”

“About what?”

“The whole out-of-the-blue-wanting-to-lick-you-all-over thing.”

Her eyebrows rose and she wiggled closer. “Yeah? Knocking me up makes you hot, huh?”

“You breathing makes me hot.”

He grinned and reached for her, but before he’d pulled her close enough to kiss her the way he wanted to, Eve’s cell phone chirped with a text message and she leaned to grab it from her purse.

“Um, Dani wants us all out in the waiting room,” she said, reading the message.

“Dani?”

Eve shrugged. “Yeah.” She turned the phone to show him the screen. “That’s what it says.”

“Okay. Well, she’s earned the right to call a family meeting, I guess.”

Eve gave a happy little sigh at that. “I love being a part of this particular family.”

He squeezed her hips. Eve was an only child and had been estranged from her parents for almost ten years. Of all the things he knew she needed and that he wanted to give her, unconditional love was first and family was second. Thanks to his friends he could give Eve more love and acceptance from family than she could have ever imagined.

“Let’s go see what they need.”

Hand in hand, Eve and Kevin stepped into the waiting area outside the rooms on the OB floor at the same time Jessica and Ben arrived.

Sara, Mac, Dooley and Morgan were already there.

“What’s going on?”

“Don’t know.”

“Dani texted.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“Okay, listen up.”

They all swung toward the doorway, where Dani stood with Sam. She looked serious.

“I’m up and out of bed and I’m heading upstairs to see my girls. However,” she said, holding up a hand to stave off any comments, “I have assignments for you all.”

Everyone looked at one another, then back to the new mom.

“Jess, they’re saying I can probably go home tomorrow. But the girls won’t be discharged yet, so clearly I’ll be staying here. I need someone to go to the house and get things organized for me. Any shopping, any laundry, whatever needs done.”

“Sure,” Jessica agreed readily. Organizing was right up her alley.

“Sara,” Dani said to her other sister-in-law, “I had planned to really deep clean the whole house, but especially the girls’ room before we brought them home. I don’t suppose you would handle that for me?”

Sara straightened with a smile. “Of course.”

“Morgan, I would love you forever if you’d cook up some casseroles and put them in our freezer,” Dani said. “Your lasagna is the best.”

Morgan smiled brightly. “I was going to do that when the babies came anyway. I’d love to.”

Kevin looked at Dani with admiration. She was tapping into everyone’s strengths and giving them concrete ways to be helpful. Danika was the independent type, no question. She could fix anything and had more power tools than many men Kevin knew. She didn’t often ask for help, but she knew that it was important to these people to
do
something for her and Sam, to feel needed, to feel like they were contributing. And she was smart. Having someone do those things for her would definitely be helpful.

“You men,” she said, addressing all of the guys, “are in charge of Sam.” She pushed her husband forward. He was, clearly, reluctant.

“Get him out of this hospital and making him do
something
besides sit upstairs in the NICU surrounded by babies. Take him to a strip club, get him drunk, take all his money at poker, I don’t care, just get him out for a while,” Dani said.

Kevin grinned at Sam’s resigned expression. Obviously he and Dani had
discussed
this before they’d come down here. Sam had obviously lost.

“And you,” Dani finally said, pointing at Eve, “are coming with me.”

Kevin looked at his wife’s wide eyes.

“What for?” Eve asked, taking a cautious step forward.

“You’re gonna help me hold babies.”

Eve was surprised for two seconds, then she gave Kevin a big grin and started after Dani. “No problem.”

Kevin watched Eve go, unable to keep from smiling and loving Danika even more than he had five minutes ago. Dani had made every single person feel important in some way, had given them tasks so they weren’t sitting around thinking and worrying, and—most important to him—had unquestionably accepted Eve into their circle.

The other girls kissed their husbands and headed out for their errands, leaving the guys to stand around and look at each other.

“Well, you heard the woman,” Dooley said. “We have a mission at the strip club.”

“I don’t think this was exactly what Dani meant,” Mac said. “It sure wasn’t what
I
thought we were going to do.”

Ben grinned as he took another glazed donut before Dooley passed the box to Kevin.

“It’s Sunday morning,” Dooley said. “Who knew strip clubs weren’t open at this hour?”

“Uh, me. And most people,” Kevin said, taking a jelly donut.

“Pretty sure Dani knew too,” Ben said, biting into his donut.

“But did she know the best donut shop in Omaha was across the street from the strip club?” Dooley asked.

“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Ben said. Danika was one of the smartest women he knew. “You know it’s a little shocking how smart all our women are,” he commented to the other men in the car.

“Yep, Morgan’s only made one mistake that I can think of,” Dooley said, starting his second donut with pink icing and sprinkles.

“Marrying you?” Mac quipped before biting into a bear claw.

Dooley grinned. “Kissing me that very first time. From there she couldn’t live without me.”

Sam shook his head. “She can’t live without a grown man who was mad because they only had two donuts with sprinkles left?”

Dooley picked a sprinkle off his donut and put it in his mouth before he gave Sam a smug grin. “Apparently. Though if Morgan saw icing and sprinkles she wouldn’t be thinking of donuts.”

“What would she think of?” Kevin wanted to know.

Dooley wiggled his eyebrows. “The same thing Eve thinks of when she sees jelly beans.”

Kevin froze with his powdered sugar jelly donut halfway to his mouth. “She told you about that?”

Dooley chuckled. “It might have been an accidental slip. But I love it. Eve is the only one of the girls who still blushes around me.”

“Our girls will help her get over that,” Sam said, then yawned a huge yawn before popping another donut hole into his mouth.

Ben was happy to see the yawn. On their way to the elevator Dani had pulled him aside and said, “Get him to sleep… Whatever it takes.” So, Ben had convinced the guys to play paint ball at nine a.m. on a Sunday. Not that paint ball places were typically open at that hour either, but he’d operated on the owner’s father a year ago and had called in the favor the guy had offered multiple times in gratitude. Ben didn’t typically do stuff like that, but felt that Sam was a good cause.

Then they’d headed for breakfast. Ben had steered Sam toward the pancakes—with some help from Mac. All Mac had to do was tell them he knew he could eat more pancakes than Sam could. And it was on. Sam was now nicely full of carbs. They’d even convinced him to drink milk and orange juice instead of coffee. Ben wasn’t even sure how Dooley had accomplished that, but he suspected it had something to do with Dooley charming the waitress into telling Sam their coffee pot was broken.

“Yeah, heard the girls—instigated by Dani—took Eve down to Tease,” Ben said.

Tease was the erotic toy and lingerie shop in Omaha where their gang—especially the girls—were well known.

“What’d she think?” Sam asked Kevin.

“You know that the sweet, innocent angel thing is mostly an act, right?” Kevin asked. “She’s as naughty as the rest of them.”

“Jess got a huge kick out of Eve buying a naughty angel outfit,” Ben said. He’d enjoyed hearing about the preacher’s daughter’s sense of humor too. And he enjoyed the naughty tavern wench’s outfit Jess had brought home.

Kevin didn’t comment on the costume but he did look like a very satisfied man.

The way they all looked.

“Yeah,” Dooley said, “we’re changing the subject because Morgan told me about the outfits all the girls got and she came home with nothing.”

“Well, let’s face it,” Mac said, “wearing nothing is how they all end up anyway.”

“Ahem.” Sam cleared his throat loudly.

Dooley gave Sam an evil look. “What outfit did Sara get?” he asked Mac.

“A princess,” Mac said. “Of course. And,” he added with a grin, “it shows off the princess crown tattoo she has on her hip.”