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“Areyoukiddingme right now?” Mia screeches, waking my brothers and me up. “I don’t want this!”
Fuck is someone in the house?
Is she being attacked?
“Alec, the gun,” I whisper-yell as I quickly throw on a pair of boxers before racing into the kitchen to find…
“Are you okay, babe?” I ask when I burst into the kitchen, Kas and Alec right behind me.
I’m confused and have to blink multiple times before I realize what I’m looking at. Mia is sitting on the floor, leaning against one of the kitchen cupboards. In her hand is the box of cereal with blueberry flavor she begged for yesterday.
“Who the hell thought it was a good idea to buy blueberry cereal? Where’s my raspberry?” Even though she’s not quite screeching anymore, she’s on her way the more she talks. “Did one of you buy the wrong one and thought I wouldn’t notice?”
“N-no, Baby, you asked for this,” Alec says, and I want to slap him. Why is he disagreeing with her? These days, nothing good ever comes from that.
Narrowing her eyes, Mia zones in on him. “No, I didn’t. I clearly remember I asked for raspberries. Why would I ask for blueberries? I hate those.”
Doing his best not to laugh, Kas says, “Sweets, you love blueberries. It’s blackberries you hate because they look like misshapen nipples to you.” I still can’t believe she said that, and even now, months later, it’s making me laugh.
Mia nods like it’s the most reasonable thing she ever heard. “Oh, yeah, I remember now. I love blueberries.” And just like that, another food crisis is averted.
The last time Mia found food she claimed to hate, we threw it out, then we had to spend two hours consoling her. She cried because we didn’t know any homeless people we could give half a peanut butter sandwich to, which meant we were to blame for her wasting food.
Shaking my head, I let Alec and Kas help her up while I make her a cup of her favorite tea. “Do you still want strawberry tea?” I ask, not for the first time wishing for her berry cravings to end soon.
“And chocolate cookies,” Mia says while she waddles over to our dining table, flanked by my brothers.
This is the most beautiful I’ve ever seen her. Swollen belly, and close to eight months pregnant.
After Alec finally called the number Mia had given him and received Mark’s message, we got an appointment with the lawyer the next day, after which he’d retrieved the item from Mark’s safe deposit box. It turned out to be a gorgeous white gold wedding band, an heirloom from his mother that Mia had always admired.
While my stupid and stubborn brother had avoided calling Mark out of fear he would tell us to stay away from Mia, it turned out to be the complete opposite. We’d planned to propose to her that same day, but that’s when she became sick and was bedridden almost right until the fundraiser. We then decided to ask her the day after, once we could all breathe again—but Mia beat us to it, announcing she’s pregnant. I still can’t work out which was the biggest shock, Mia being pregnant, or that Alec figured it out at the fundraiser.
Even though we’ve all embraced the upcoming fatherhood, no one is more engaged than Alec. It has somehow brought a calm to his soul, and he’s so involved that Mia often sends him on errands just to get some peace. When he started questioning how often she pees and wanted to measure her water intake, along with wanting her to stay in bed or on the couch as much as possible, I sided with her. Even if he means well, enough is enough. Though he usually gets back into Mia’s good graces with amazing back rubs.
Although I never expected it, Kas was the one who was freaking out. He spent the first two months researching genetics, specifically nature versus nurture. He was scared we’d all turn into horrible dads and somehow pass fucked up genetics onto our innocent baby. We all tried to calm him down, assure him that’s not how it works, but in the end it was—surprisingly—Shannon who got through to him. I still don’t know what she said or did. All I know is that after one day with her, he came back a changed man. Ready to embrace being a daddy. That was the night we all began talking to our baby, and even singing lullabies.
For me, it was perfect. Our Baby having a baby, extending our family, and giving us a new and perfect focus. Once upon a time, I thought my perfect life would be me, my wife, and our kids. Never in a million years would I have even thought of the concept of sharing a woman with my two best friends. Now I know how flawed that dream was. For once, my reality is better than any dream I could have dreamed.
“I’m so sorry, Alec.” Mia takes his hand and holds it against her cheek, tears spilling from her eyes. “Please don’t hate me. Are you upset with me?”
Stifling my laughter, I carry the cup of tea and a plate with cookies over to her and place them on the table.
“Of course not,” my brother sounds affronted.
Mia sniffles and let go of his hand. “I know I’m a mess, and I’m so sorry. I—”
“You’re pregnant, sweets. You’re allowed to act a little crazy,” Kas winks before bending down, grabbing her feet, and placing them in his lap so he can massage them.
As I take my seat behind her, I start rubbing and massaging her shoulders. Even though she’s heavily pregnant, she’s still at Second Chances every day. All construction and renovation work was completed one and a half months ago, and since then, she's been working tirelessly on the interior.
Everyone we know is chipping in. Jewell suggested getting some pets to make the place more homey and less like a refugee place, and Mia loved the idea. Well, we all did, but she wouldn’t stop talking about it until we promised we’d make it happen as soon as possible. While I do think it’s a great idea, it requires people to live there. Otherwise, who’s going to look after the pets? Maybe it can really happen one day, but for now, I’m hoping Mia will forget about it.
Reid’s wife, Maria, has been especially involved. Not only is she the one who’s made all the curtains, she’s also constantly emailing us with ideas for the kids. Everything from macaroni necklaces to… You name it.
Maria has even arranged for a two-month sabbatical from her day job to come here and help Mia once our baby is born. Even with mine and Kas’ family close by, it’s an offer we’re all grateful for. As thrilled as I am to be a daddy, there’s no denying the timing of our family growing and Second Chances opening around the same time is going to be a challenge.
Mia is the most excited of us all. She’s really looking forward to getting to know her nephew, and during her nesting phase, she transformed what was my office into a guest room, since our other spare room is now the nursery.
