Page 31 of Keeping Kara

Buck and Obi-Wan greeted their girlfriends in a similar manner.

Pyro was also there. Kara knew him by the use of his walker and the cast on his leg. Arrow had told her the crazy story of how his leg was injured. The little girl he’d taken great pains to protect stood to one side of him, holding his walker, and a slight woman with black hair stood on the other. Penny, she assumed.

She had hold of two leashes, one with a pudgy beagle on the end, and the other with a terrier-looking mutt of a dog. Eventually, Casper and Buck let go of their women and went over to Penny, crouching to greet their dogs. It was adorable that they didn’t leave out the pets in their reunion.

Standing a little off to the side was another woman. She had long brown hair that looked absolutely perfect and a black lab at her side. Obviously Jen and Fred.

Kara was grateful she’d gotten the rundown of who was who from Arrow, because she kind of felt as if she already knew these people. Of course, she had no idea what they’d think of her, but she hoped they’d at least get along.

“It’s not often these days that we’re all together, so I’m going to take this opportunity to let everyone know right now—it’s twins!” Laryn blurted out.

A loud cheer went up, and all the women immediately surrounded Laryn and Casper, congratulating them.

Kara couldn’t help but feel happy for the couple. They looked positively thrilled.

“Are you sure you still want to be our nanny when we’re deployed?” Laryn asked Penny. “I mean, twins won’t be easy.”

“Of course I do!” she said without hesitation. “I can’t wait!”

“Penny works from home, and when we’re deployed, since Laryn will go with us, she needs someone to look after the babies,” Arrow said into her ear, as the congratulations continued.

Kara nodded…and for some reason, her eyes filled with tears. Happy ones. It was easy to see how genuinely happy everyone was for the couple.

“I have a question,” Mandy said to Laryn.

“Yeah?”

“Boys or girls? Or both?”

Laryn grinned and looked up at Casper. “Girls.”

Kara could’ve sworn the legendary Night Stalker paled a little at hearing that. But he immediately leaned down and kissed Laryn.

“Oh man, girls. We’re all gonna have our work cut out for us,” Obi-Wan muttered.

Laughter rang out once more.

“Casper has a twin brother. He’s a Navy SEAL. I’m sure he probably thought if Laryn did have twins, they’d be boys. He looks a little shell-shocked.”

Kara giggled. Arrow wasn’t wrong.

“Hi, I’m Jen.”

Kara turned to the woman who’d approached them and smiled at her. “Kara.”

Arrow looked around at everyone, their attention now on her and Jen. “I found Kara in the middle of a flash flood, hanging on to a tree. Her ex is bad news. Extremely bad news. She’s here because he hurt her…”

His gaze fell on Bowie, and Kara understood that he was leaving out the details because the little girl was listening.

“She’s starting over here in Norfolk.” Arrow then went on to make formal introductions to everyone, including the three dogs.

Kara felt overwhelmed by the warm welcome all the women gave her. She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised, since the men had been just as welcoming, but in her experience, women were tougher critics a lot of the time. And she wasn’t exactly looking her best at the moment. Suddenly, she felt awkward wearing Arrow’s clothes and with her hair looking like a rat’s nest.

“Laryn called us,” Mandy said gently. “Told us the basics. I hope that’s okay. We all went shopping and got you some stuff.”

“I know what it’s like to have nothing, as that was the situation Bowie and I were in not too long ago. You managed to hook up with the right man though, because Chaos will make sure you’re good, just like Pyro did for me.” Penny looked up at the man next to her with a loving smile.

“I got you a stuffed bear!” Bowie piped up. “It’s actually not really stuffed. It’s flat. It’s called a FLATOUTbear. They’re from Australia. And they’re really, really soft! I got it from the aquarium when we went.”