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“Ten to twelve minutes,” I replied, heading in her direction. Scarlett was sixteen weeks pregnant and had the cutest baby bump. I loved running my hand over it when we were in bed. I couldn’t wait to feel the baby move for the first time. Her morning sickness was tapering off, but Amelia’s had kicked up. I smiled when I saw my sister in the kitchen. Amelia was closer to reaching the twenty-week mark and you could for sure see her baby bump.
“Mom said she wanted tacos, so tacos it is,” Waylynn said with a roll of her eyes. “Amelia, do you want to shred the cheese?”
My baby sister slipped off the stool, grabbed the block of cheese and got to work on shredding it.
“These look perfect!” Scarlett stated, pulling my butter pecan cookies from the oven.
“When can I eat one?” Waylynn asked, staring down at the pan of cookies, a hungry gleam in her eyes.
I rolled my eyes and pushed her out of the way. “Don’t you have a child and husband to take care of?”
The doorbell rang, and Waylynn jumped.
“That’s Liberty!”
Scarlett looked confused for a moment before it dawned on her. Liberty was the birth mother to Waylynn and Jonathon’s adopted baby girl who shared the same name as her birth mom.
Amelia gasped and then cried out, “Oh. My. God. Holy. Shit.”
Everyone looked at Chloe who held up her hands. “I wasn’t going to say anything!” Chloe declared.
“What’s wrong?” Scarlett asked Amelia, taking the cheese and grater out of her hands and guiding her to the table. Tears were forming in my sister’s eyes, and I started to have a semi-freak-out moment.
“Amelia, are you okay?” I asked, dropping down to eye level with her.
She nodded. “Can you please go get Wade?”
“I will!” Scarlett said, rushing out of the kitchen. Less than a minute later, she was back with Wade. He dropped down next to me, so I stood and backed away.
“Baby, what’s wrong?” He looked down at her hands on her stomach, nothing but fear in his eyes.
“I felt the baby.”
Scarlett let out a breath of air at the same time I did.
“What?” Wade asked, a huge smile covering his face.
“The baby, I felt her…or him. I kept feeling something all morning and when I felt it again, I knew it was the baby. It felt like gas sort of, but different.”
I glanced over to Scarlett, and we smiled at each other.
“What’s going on? Is everything okay?” Mom asked, walking into the kitchen and looking at all of us.
“Aunt Meli felt her baby!” Chloe announced.
“What!? Oh my goodness, Amelia!”
Our mother rushed over to Amelia, nearly knocking Wade out of the way to pull her up into a hug.
I reached for Scarlett’s hand and kissed the back of it. When I stepped closer, I placed my mouth at her ear. “You’re next.”
Her hand went to her stomach. She nodded then whispered, “I can’t wait.”
Harley walked into the kitchen and declared, “Well, I already ran out of popcorn. I keep eating it.” She looked around and then stopped moving.
“Here! Here! Put your hand here!” she yelled out, pointing to her belly.
The sight before me was like nothing I’d seen before. Parker women came from everywhere, each pushing and shoving to place their hand on Harley’s stomach to feel one of the twins kicking.
Chloe won. Her little hand was on Harley’s stomach and she let out a squeal when she felt one of the babies kick.
“Get out of the way, kid. It’s my turn!” Amelia said, pushing our niece out of the way. Then it was Corina, who had appeared out of thin air. Waylynn was next, along with Paxton.
“Where did you all come from?” I asked, glancing around the kitchen. My mother was laughing while putting hamburger meat into a large frying pan.
“Darn it. The baby isn’t moving anymore,” Waylynn said with a pout.
Liberty laughed, then made her way over to my mother where she took over cooking the hamburger meat.
“Thank you, Liberty, sweetheart,” my mother said, giving her a kiss on the cheek and making her way back out of the kitchen. I loved that Waylynn and Jonathon had made Liberty such a huge presence in their life. I thought it was pretty cool that they had planned on letting little Liberty know who her birth mother was once she was old enough to understand, if that was what Liberty wanted.
Scarlett made her way over to Liberty and reached her hand out. “Hey, I don’t think we’ve ever met before. I’m Scarlett Littlefield, Trevor’s girlfriend.”
Damn, I liked the sound of that. I wanted it to be fiancée, but we were still doing that damn slow thing.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Scarlett. I hear you’re pregnant, too!”
Scarlett laughed. “Yes! Something must be in the Oak Springs water.”
“Must be!” Liberty agreed. She glanced over my way and gave me a polite smile. I knew she was still trying to feel at ease with all of us, a pretty daunting task with this rowdy bunch.
