Instead of waiting to start working on the bakery, like Andrew had immediately insisted upon, I hit the ground running. I freely used the account to build the perfect little bakery for me, knowing that I would pay them back eventually. Ihad so much faith in the bakery. With my heart and the support of my men, anything was possible. Unfortunately, our babies weren’t willing to take a back seat to baked goods. The three healthy baby boys growing in my belly didn’t care about giving me time to finish things. They were already just as demanding and as bossy as their daddies.
I’d done everything I could. I’d worked myself nearly to death, at the cost of many arguments with my men. The bakery would be opening, and I had everything in line to run without me for a few weeks when I did have to go on leave.
Carl and Rita Holloway were experienced and professional bakers. They’d been in business for fifty years, in one way or another. They were also the sweetest people ever and had instantly become like grandparents to me. I loved them and I knew they were going to take care of my business baby while I took care of my baby babies.
Another stab of pain shot through me, and I cried out that time. The pains were getting stronger and closer together. That hadn’t happened the time before.
Rita appeared at my side, her expression tight. “That’s enough. I’m calling the boys.”
I winced. “Oh, no, Rita. Don’t. Please. They’re never going to let me stay for the opening.”
She wrapped her arm around my waist and helped me to one of the tables. Easing me into a chair, she shook her head. “Don’t guilt me, young lady. You’re going into labor and you’re about to have these babies on the kitchen floor!”
I cried out again even as she dialed. She and Carl had been accepting of the fact that I was in a relationship with all three of the Strickland brothers. Rita had almost instantly referred to them as the boys, or even her boys. That bond meant that whoever she was calling was for sure going to answer their phone. I was busted.
Carl came rushing out of the back and took one look at me before grabbing for his own phone. “I’ll call an ambulance. Whoever gets here first will take you.”
I didn’t hear much else. The contractions were stronger and only a few minutes apart. I was cursing the day I’d ever let one of the twins put their penis in me when the door to the bakery was almost ripped open.
Andrew was the first in. He took one look at me, went pale, and staggered a step before Lucas just about plowed him over. Warren, who had turned out to be the not so calm one when it came to my health, came running in after.
“It’s happening!” Lucas shouted into the air like he was alerting the neighborhood. “It’s happening!”
Warren knelt in front of me and felt my forehead. “Oh, god. You’re clammy. You’re clammy! Is that normal?”
“Let’s get this show on the road!” Lucas pushed Warren aside and bent like he was going to pick me up and toss me over his shoulder. Last minute, he froze and shook his head at himself. “Sorry, Momma. Let’s just ease you up instead.”
Andrew finally snapped out of his stupor and was back to being his old self. “This is why we should’ve moved into that house by the center. We would’ve been safer. And if you’d been home, instead of working—”
“Andrew Michael Strickland, if you don’t shut up and help me get out of this chair and to that birthing center, I’m going to have these babies right here in this bakery!” I’d quickly accepted that the contractions weren’t fake. They were definitely real. I could tell by the way my water had broken.
Warren slipped in the liquid as he went to grab me and gasped as he realized what it was. “Code red! Code red! The water has broken!”
Lucas grabbed me up and hurried me out to the car, his scariest expression keeping passersby away. “Babies coming! Stay away!”
Andrew was behind me, hurrying me forward. “Let’s go, let’s go!”
I was mortified at the commotion they were causing, but between the pain and concern for my bakery, I decided to yell at them later. I twisted my head back around to Rita and Carl and called to them. “There are pastries in the oven! I’ll be back as soon as I can be!”
Andrew growled as he helped me into the car. “You’re going to be the death of me.”
Lucas got in the driver’s seat and barely waited on his brothers to get in the car before taking off. He flew through the city like a maniac, but Warren and Andrew didn’t seem to notice. They were both obsessing over me.
Another contraction hit, and I screamed while twisting Andrew’s hand in my grip. It felt like I was being ripped open. My entire body was trying to kill me. Still, I tried to think of everything. “Did you call Macy?”
Andrew looked at Warren, who looked at Lucas. Clearly, they’d panicked. For a set of fully capable men that weren’t shaken by anything, they were completely useless when worried about my health. They would take down armed gunmen for me, but if I coughed a little too much, they were falling all over themselves to make sure I wasn’t dying. It would’ve been cute, if only they’d remembered to call their sister.
“Call her!”
We arrived at the birthing center in just another few minutes, during which Warren called Macy and got yelled at by her, too. Nurses met us outside the front doors with a wheelchair and I was rushed inside. Things progressed so quickly that I wasn’table to get an epidural. The babies were coming, and they were coming fast.
I’d only just gotten put in a bed when the worst contraction hit and my doctor was calling out directions for me to push and breathe. My triplets stood around me, watching with awe as our first little boy was brought into the world.
Aaron was quickly followed by Wyatt, each of them handed off to their daddies while little Landon stubbornly fought to stay inside. I struggled with him. I pushed for what felt like a lifetime, but ten minutes after his brothers, he finally joined the rest of us in the world, a scowl on his face.
I held each of them then, still a little bloody looking, and felt that same pain in my chest that I’d felt with my men. Expanding and growing, my heart made room for three more little men. The babies were healthy and beautiful, each of them so perfect it hurt. I fed them while trying to keep my eyes open.
Macy blew in half an hour later with a giant gift bag for me and her own little baby girl strapped to her chest. Gracie was four months older than the boys. They were going to grow up so close, just like Macy and I had. It was all so perfect.
