by Finn, Emilia
“Twin girls.” Abby tearfully laughs. “That’s so precious.” She casts a glance across the room to the babies. Both in pink. Both with hats and bows on top. “They’re identical? How will you tell them apart?”
“Not quite identical.” Luc, with a feather-soft touch while Kari watches over his shoulder, peels one baby’s hat away to reveal snow-white hair. Then the other sister does the same, only to reveal jet-black. “We have one Bishop and one Lenaghan.”
“Oh my gosh,” Abby gasps. “They’re so perfect.” Moving around to the other side of the bed and leaning over Luc’s bundle first, she studies the baby with blonde hair, just like his. “She’s so beautiful, guys.” Then she moves on to study the second baby, the smaller one with the Bishop hair.
“That one is Chicken,” Kane jokes. “And the blonde is Nugget. Because we’re all about the Nug Life now.”
“Stop it,” Jess whispers, careful not to laugh. “The blonde is Luna. The darker one is Rosalie.”
“Rose for short,” Kane adds. “My Luna and Rose. Now I have three girls, and nobody’s life is as good as mine.”
“Do you wanna hold one?” The final, silent guy in this room speaks. He’s tatted, muscled, and as dangerous as his brother, but Jay Bishop stands in the back corner with his lady friend and watches on with a kind of awe in his eyes. “Lenaghans won’t share,” he pouts. “I asked a billion times, but they said not yet.”
“They’ll share with you,” the woman beside him adds. “Because they’ll want to be polite. So if you say yes, Jay will get to hold one too.”
“Okay.” Laughing, Abby drops her handbag to the floor and stops in front of Luc, just as Jay darts to the other. Carefully, the transfer begins, until finally, my baby sister ends up with a baby cuddled into her chest, and I’m reminded once again that she’ll never have this. She’ll never get to hold her own newborn, she’ll never get to lay in a hospital bed while her husband holds himself back from joking, lest she hurt her caesarian incision.
“I feel like they have to touch.” Jay sits close by my sister, drags his chair closer yet, and stops so his beefy shoulder brushes Abby’s, and the babies touch head to toe. “They just grew in the same stomach. They’re not ready to be apart.”
“I just can’t believe they’re really here.” Abby stares in wonder without a single thought for my presence. “They’re so beautiful and amazing.”
The longer I stand here unannounced, not interacting, the more I feel out of place and awkward. So I clear my throat.
“Oh my gosh!” Abby’s eyes swing up to mine. “I’m sorry. Everyone, this is my big brother, Mitchell. Mitchell, this is everyone. I did Kane and Jess’ wedding yesterday.”
“Hey.” Kane reaches out with a closed fist. “Nice to meetcha.”
“You too.” I step forward and knock my fist against his. “Congrats on… well, everything. The wedding and the babies.”
“Luckiest man on the planet,” he croons, dropping his hand and turning back in to Jess.
And that’s that, I guess. Kane is the only person I must introduce myself to, so I silently make my way around the room toward my sister and coworkers. “Luc.”
Smirking, he reaches out and takes my hand. “Mitch. Small world, huh? I didn’t know your sister was doing my sister’s wedding.”
I shrug, mirror his smirk, and release his hand. “I knew. Congratulations on becoming an uncle.”
Kari steps forward and pulls me into a hug. “It’s kinda weird seeing you out of uniform. It’s like seeing a school teacher on the weekend.”
I chuckle low on my breath. If I’m gonna be in this room, when I can think of a hundred other places I’d rather be, then being with folks I know and enjoy is a decent consolation. “Congratulations on becoming an aunt, Pipsqueak. You didn’t deliver them yourself? I’m kinda disappointed.”
“Nah.” Stepping back onto flat feet, she fusses with my collar the way Abby does. “But you bet your bottom dollar I tried. I stuck to her like velcro, but the universe wasn’t having it.”
“You wanted to deliver my babies?” Jess questions. “Are you insane? This wasn’t gonna be a backyard birth. Only crazies let you guys deliver babies outside of the hospital.”
Luc snorts.
“I was gonna deliver them, too,” Jay says. He plays with his baby’s cheeks, slides a tatted finger over a thick bottom lip, and smiles when spit bubbles emerge. “I was ready to prick your belly with a pin to see if that’d move shit along.”
“Poke my wife,” Kane growls, “and I’ll snap your neck. She’s my baby mama. She stays.”
“Well, obviously.” Jay rolls his eyes. “They’re here now, so I put my pins away. It sucks I didn’t get to deliver them, but I love how you named them for me. Rosalie Jay and Luna Jay. It sounds nice.”
“We didn’t,” Jess answers dryly. “You’re making shit up again.”
“Well, their last names are Bishop,” he tries again. “And so’s mine, so there’s that.”
“They got Bishop because of Kane,” the other sister’s man inserts. “You get no part in this, Ghost.”
“I still married them yesterday.” Jay sits back in his chair and pulls his bundle higher so she sleeps on his chest. “I said the words before Reverend Hannah did, and no one can ever take that away from me.”
As though an idea has struck him, with bright eyes, he turns to his girl and offers the baby; Simba on Pride Rock style. “Marry me, Sophia?”
Stunned, Abby’s eyes whip to mine. Excitement, wonderment… my romantic sister is about to break out the champagne and balloons.
But I’m not quite the optimist she is, and I see the growl on Sophia’s lips.
I shake my head for Abby, grit my teeth, and silently exhale when Sophia snaps out, “Marry you? Seriously? You offer me someone else’s baby, and think that’s the grand gesture I’m waiting for? Get the fuck outta here, Bishop. Try again.”
“Fuck.” Grumbling, Jay brings the baby back to his chest and drops his head. Disappointment. Playfulness. Abby’s face falls; she’s more heartbroken than the rejected would-be groom. “I’ll get you next time, Sugar Plum. I have something better coming. Just watch.”
“Mmhmm.”
For the next little while, I manage to relax in a room where I know almost no one, while my sister cuddles babies she doesn’t know. But it’s what I do; if Abby wants it, I provide. I sit by her and Luc and try not to look too closely at the couple on the bed, lest Kane think I’m making a move he doesn’t consider friendly. Call me paranoid, but I feel like he’s a shoot first, ask questions later kinda guy.
Eventually, the door opens again—no knock, no hesitation—and in walks a dude who is several inches taller than me, and too many feet wide. Troy isn’t a hell of a lot smaller than this guy, so it’s not like I’m tripping on the fact he’s a big guy. But still. It’s clear he knows the people in this room, considering Kane glances to him and away without much more than a nod. But then the guy’s gaze comes to my sister.
And then it narrows.
Seven feet tall, weapons and ink hidden all over his body, and a bouquet of flowers clutched under one arm for the new mom, this asshole stares at Abby for a full minute. And for every single one of the sixty seconds that pass, my spine straightens, and my blood speeds—and then my adrenaline spikes when he speaks.
“Abigail?”
“Spence, come in.” Feeling the tension just as surely as I do, Jessica attempts to sit up, only to squeak and fall back again. “Shit, man. Have you ever been chopped in half before? Because I have, and this isn’t okay.”
Spence drags his gaze away from Abby and turns it to the bed. Stiffly, he leans over Kane and presses a kiss to Jess’ cheek, then standing tall again, he drops the flowers into an empty vase on the bedside table, and claps the back of Kane’s head. “You guys fuckin’ rock. You made babies. Twice as many as regular people.”
“That’s because we aren’t regular,” Kane says. “We’re extraordinary and do the
razzle-dazzle shit with everything in life.”
This guy they call Spence fakes a chuckle and steps back from the bed. His eyes continue to shoot over this way. He continues to study my baby sister like she’s a meal. And my adrenaline runs because of it.
My temper is fraying, and my hands ball in preparation.
“Twink.” Spence nods to Jess’ sister, then to her man. “Riggs.”
The closer he comes to my side of the room, the closer I move toward my sister. He’s coming for her, and I’ll be dead and buried before I allow him to zero in on the smallest, most innocent woman in the room just so he can swing his dick around and feel big for it.
When I reach Abby’s back, I rest my hand on her shoulder and squeeze. I got this, Abby. I’ll protect you.
Spence’s eyes snap to my hand, and then he shoots closer. “Who the fuck are you?”
Abby jumps to her feet in half of a heartbeat, baby in her arms, eyes wide and terrified. She turns to Kari in the next second, offloads the baby, then moves back to stand between me and a guy who spent the last decade or two on an active warfield.
“Get lost and come into the wrong room?” Spence spits out for me.
“Spencer.” Abby presses her hand to the guy’s forearm and sends my temper into overdrive. “Uh, Spencer Serrano, this is Mitchell.”
You know him? I shout it in my head, but I remain silent and let my hands on Abby’s arms speak for me. I pull her closer, so her back rests against my chest, and I meet the eyes of a predator over her head.
“Who the fuck are you, Mitchell?”
“Who the fuck are you?” I volley right back. “And why are you in my face?”
“Nope.” Luc squeezes himself between Abigail and Spence. “We aren’t doing this while my sister is two hours post-op. Spence, Mitch is her brother. He’s my coworker, and he’s cool. Mitch, Spence is our friend and doesn’t like people looking at him weird.”
“Why’s he looking at my sister like that?” I spin Abby out from between me and two other men and bring her around so her eyes come to mine. “Why is he looking at you weird?”
“I don’t kn—”
“Because she’s cute,” Luc rushes out. “She’s cute, she was seated beside him at the wedding, and she was at the wedding alone. They became friends, and now he’s making sure she’s okay.” Luc turns to Spencer. “Confirm.”
“Affirmative. We’re friends.” Spence’s eyes drop to Abby’s. “We hung out at the wedding. And the last time I saw a dude towering over her, I thought he was an abusive boyfriend. Now I find myself somewhat… invested.”
“Abusive?” Again, I grab Abby so her eyes come to mine. “Who the fuck were you with, Abigail?”
“Nixon!” she snaps. “I was with Nixon when Spencer came into the store with Jess. Nix was on his way out and demanding I come to dinner. Spencer thought it was something that it wasn’t. Now, everybody needs to sit down before you wake the babies. And you need to stop saying the F word!”
An ominous throat-clearing brings everyone’s attention to the bed. Jess is still pale. Curious, but not particularly scared. But Kane watches us with a lifted brow and threat in his eyes. “Do we have a problem here? Because you’re sure as shit gonna take it out of this room while my wife is recovering after surgery. If my daughters’ first memories are of two fuckwits arguing over a girl who can look after herself just fine, we have problems. If my daughters cry because two fuckwits woke and scared them, we’ll have trouble.” Sitting taller, Kane slows his movements when Jess hisses. “Do we have trouble?”
“I have no trouble.” I work on slowing my temper. I’ll be doing no one any favors if I start a fight in this room—least of all Abby. “My sister dragged me here. I said congratulations. Now I’m waiting for my sister to be ready to leave.”
“So maybe you wanna sit in the corner and close your lips.” Kane Bishop, formidable and dangerous, looks to the newcomer. “Spencer, walk back into the hall, count to ten, then knock and come back in. You better leave your attitude at the door. We’re brothers, but my daughters and wife trump all of you motherfuckers. Behave, or fuck off.”
Abby shakes where she stands, scared and frozen the way I expected her to be from the start of this visit. Spencer is the difference. He’s the only variable that changed, which means he scares her. Which means I have to protect her from him the most.
When no one moves—not me, heading to my corner, and not Spencer, back into the hall, Abby drops her gaze. “We’ll leave.” She looks to Kari, forces a smile for the baby, then she does the same for Jay, the other baby, and pretends like she doesn’t notice the Bishop brother’s shoulders beefed up with adrenaline. His jaw, ticking with rage and the anticipation of a fight. “I came,” Abby works to hide the shake in her voice. “I met, I congratulated. Your daughters are beautiful. Thank you for calling me.”
“You don’t have to leave,” Jess objects. “The guys just need a reset, then everyone will be fine.”
“No, it’s okay.” She steps around Spencer, and swallows a gasp when she accidentally passes too close. She bounces away quickly, terrified of the guy more than twice her size, then she walks to Jess and carefully leans in for one last hug. “You did amazing, Jessie. I’m so happy for you and your family.”
“I made it past the wedding.”
Abby laughs, but it’s horrifyingly close to a sob. “You showed them all. Now you’re married, and your baby girls are here to complete your family. Maybe you could give me a call next week or something? Whenever you’re up for a visit. I’ll drop in and bring you a fresh Snickers.”
Jess nods and watches on as Abby backs away. “Okay. Thank you for visiting.”
“The pleasure was truly all mine. I got to see your wedding, an almost proposal, and now this. This was an amazing week for me.” Abby bends and snatches up her handbag, only to squeak and spin when she bumps into Spencer because he’s not done being in her space. I move forward to remove her, remove him, but Abby beats me with a squeaked, “Oh my gosh! I’m sorry.” She grabs my hand and drags me toward the door. “There’s just not enough space in this room for this many people.”
Snatching open the curtain to leave, Abby squeals when we’re met with another set of eyes. Two sets. Three. The Bishops have more visitors, but Abby bolts and drags me out behind her.
I give her the length of the hallway to pull her shit together. To get her tears under control. But the moment we turn the corner, I stop her close by an almost empty food cart. “Speak.”
“What?” Her voice is too high-pitched. Too frantic. “There’s nothing to say.”
“That dude has some mega claims on you, and it is way beyond friendly at a wedding.”
“There’s no claim.” Her eyes dart around the hallway. “We were seated together at Jess’ wedding. Everyone else was partnered up, so we said hello.”
“I said hello to the chick at the store today! Guys that only say hello to a girl one time do not step up to her brother a day later with the intention to take him out. Serrano wasn’t gonna tap me on the chin, Abby. He was gonna eliminate me.”
“He was not.” She tugs her hand from mine. “You’re being dumb and dramatic. Spencer thinks I have questionable taste in men, so he feels responsible, I guess, but—”
“Well, do you?” I snap. “If commando hulks are your crowd now, then maybe he’s right.”
“He was talking about you and Nix!” she shouts right back. “The questionable men in my life are my stupid brothers. So yeah, I guess he’s kinda right. He’s a guy who was nice to me. He was worried about me when it came to Nix, and now, the very next time he sees me, I’m walking around with another guy that likes to pretend I can feel a pea under my mattress. I know it’s hard for you guys, but you need to back off. You act like I’m breakable. You act like I can’t make my own choices. You’re smothering me.”
My heart beats harder, my blood roars in my veins, because my brain tosses images at me again. Orange curtains, and afternoons spent w
hile my sister was wired up to bags of chemo. Days of my own life spent in these beds, my aching body, my sacrifices, and then my prayers in the dark that what I did helped.
Shaking my head, I try to push those thoughts away. I try to forget the unforgettable. “You are breakable, Abby! You’re the most breakable person I know.”
“And you’re pigheaded and overbearing. You act like you want to be a grump, like it’s part of your personality and something you can’t stop doing, but in reality, you do that to keep people away, to keep your schedule open so you can smother me some more. You work, and then you Abby. That’s your entire existence. You don’t date, because God forbid you do anything that would be nice and just for you.”
I do date! I shout in my head. I’m pretty fucking sure I’m in love with someone I’m dying to tell you about.
“Only an hour ago, you and Nix were telling me to live a little more,” Abby pushes. “But the second you think I’ve lived, and my existence spirals out of your control, you guys pee on my shoes and act like the world is falling down.”
“Fuck, Abby.” I step closer, and lower my voice. “There’s something going on, isn’t there? You want that guy to pee on your shoes. You want this.”
“No! I just want you to stop killing yourself over me. I finally, finally moved out of the house and got my own place. I convinced you that I’d be fine, but have I spent a single night alone yet? Have I had a dinner by myself? A whole weekend to sit and read without my phone blowing up in my lap? Have I been able to breathe at all?”
“I didn’t come over last night.”
“I was at the dang wedding, Mitchell! You act like you’ve granted me this wonderful independence, but all you’ve done is extend my chains. Yeah, I got out of the house, but my phone battery dies every single day because you constantly call and text. You and Nix work shifts for your jobs, and then you take me in shifts once you clock out. Nix comes over for breakfast. Beck visits the shop at lunch. Corey brings dinner on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Troy is coming home soon, and no doubt he’ll be delegated to Sunday brunch, just to make sure I didn’t get murdered by an evil clown in my sleep.”