My Christmas, My Crooked Bend: Men of Crooked Bend Book 6

by Taylor Rylan

  “Well, that was interesting. And scary as fuck. We’re going to have to behave now, aren’t we?”

  “Define behave.”

  Rhett looked at me with a forced smile on his face, causing me to reach over the center console and pull his hand over to the middle. I laced our fingers together and rubbed my thumb along his, trying to soothe him as much as possible while driving.

  “Well, maybe we should do as Jacob said and keep things on the ranch. I will say this though: life with you is never boring, munchkin, so don’t ever think that. I had fun, you had fun, and you and I would both do it again. Therefore, I don’t really see what the problem is.” I pulled Rhett’s hand up and gave the back of it a kiss. I needed to get him home where he could curl up with me and Scarlett in our bed, something I knew he needed right now.

  “I’m okay, you know. At first Jacob was pissed, but only because he thought I was in here with someone else. Nobody knows we got a new vehicle because nobody knows we’re having twins. Do you think that maybe we should have told someone by now? Maybe we can tell them at my birthday dinner?”

  “We can if you want. Allison is thirty-seven weeks pregnant. Even if she went into labor right now, the twins would be okay.” I glanced at Rhett, but all I saw was a hint of him in the dash lights. He was looking out the side window and not in my direction anyway. I gave his hand a squeeze, causing him to turn in my direction. “You sure you’re okay?”

  “Yeah. I’m doing good. Dr. Lane keeps telling me I only need to come as needed but…I just don’t know.”

  “Hey, if you feel you need to see her, you see her. But maybe you’ll change your mind once we bring the twins home with us. I remember what it was like when Boone and Kait brought home first Chloe and then Phoebe. Life turned completely upside down.” I slowed down as we approached the turn for Wild Creek at last.

  “I’m probably going to drive you crazy until they arrive. You realize that, right?”

  “I do. Just remember, turnabout is fair play. But seriously, I’m really looking forward to becoming daddies with you, Rhett. But even if we never got here, I would have been okay. I love Chloe and Phoebe, and I’ve been okay being Unka Logan.” I threw a quick smile at Rhett as I drove over the cattle guard and entered the ranch.

  “I think we should tell my dads. They’re going to be pissed, but maybe the idea of becoming grandpas will soothe any hurt feelings.”

  “If that’s what you want, we’ll do that. Should we include your brothers, you think? If you think about what Jacob said, it appears there’s lots of baby news this year.”

  “I know, and that’s why I think maybe we should go ahead and spill. I mean, we’re about to have them, and I don’t want anyone thinking we felt as if we couldn’t be left out and it was a race or something.”

  “They’d never think that, but we can tell them. When would you like to? We’ll need to tell my parents, too. But I want to wait until they arrive. I don’t want to tell them over the phone.”

  “I agree with that. I can’t imagine telling Fiona that she’s going to be a grandma again over the phone. How about we tell my family now? I’ll text everyone and ask them to come over? It’s still early, and they’re probably still at Simon and Sean’s anyway.”

  I thought about that for a minute, and something seemed off. “Wait, weren’t they supposed to go last night?”

  “I think so, but for whatever reason, they rescheduled it.”

  I thought about that as I pulled up to the garage. Now was as good of a time as any to sync the SUV with the opener, so I got out and had Rhett push the button inside while I held the button in the garage. In no time, the SUV was synced to the third stall in the garage, and I maneuvered it inside, out of the snow and ice we’d be getting in a few days. We’d just had a snowstorm that had kept James and Taylor at the house with us, but it was December and they were going to keep coming at us.

  “They said sounds great and they had news to share too, so they’d all be right over,” Rhett told me as we walked to the door leading into the house.

  “It makes more sense if we go to them if they’re all already in one place.”

  “Jasper and Liam were getting ready to leave, so they’re all coming over here. Jasper has a meeting first thing in the morning, so he wasn’t staying late. Also, I thought it would be better if they could see the nursery if needed. I don’t know. I’m nervous, and now I think I need Scarlett.”

  I looked at my husband and smiled. He didn’t need Scarlett just then, and we both knew it. But at this point, he loved her as much as he would one of our twins. “Come on. I’m sure she would love to go to the bathroom since we’ve been gone for a few hours,” I told him as I pushed the door open, and there she was. It would never get old being greeted by a very happy Scarlett when I came in the door. Rhett did still need her from time to time, but it had been almost a year since Rhett had had a nightmare.

  I went to the kitchen and started a fresh pot of coffee while Rhett let our four-legged daughter outside to take care of business. The gentle thump of her paws on the hardwood floors let me know she was finished, and when I looked up, I found a smiling Rhett right behind her.

  “You know, maybe we should wait to tell everyone.”

  “Too late. You said they were on the way. It’ll be okay, munchkin. Trust me on that, okay?” I felt Rhett nod as he once again buried his face in my chest. “Do you want to take a quick shower? I don’t think you got to clean up at all, did you?”

  “I’m going to run upstairs and go to the bathroom, but I did stuff some tissue there.”

  I laughed at that before I cringed at the thought of riding home with tissues in your crack to catch the mess. No, that didn’t sound enjoyable at all. “Okay, I’ll come with because I could use a warm cloth myself.”

  We knew we only had a few minutes left before our company would arrive, so we rushed upstairs and after cleaning up a bit and changing our underwear, we were both pulling on jeans as the doorbell rang and Scarlett started barking.

  “You ready?” I asked.

  “As I’ll ever be,” Rhett replied before he pulled me down for a quick kiss. I followed him out of our room and downstairs to let our family in. I went to the kitchen and started pulling down coffee mugs while Rhett went to open the door. Damn, suddenly I knew why he’d backpedaled about saying something. I smiled and held open my arms as Rhett came back with his family trailing behind him.

  I looked at James and Taylor, especially Taylor, and hoped like hell I got through the reveal without a broken nose. Granted, I hadn’t hurt Rhett in any way, but still, we’d kept a rather large secret from everyone.

  Rhett — 4

  “Is everything okay?” Dad asked once we were settled in the den with coffee.

  “Yes. But we have some news, and we decided that it might not be the best to keep it until Christmas,” I said, sitting on the edge of the chair between Logan’s legs. He pulled me back against his chest. It was something he tended to do when I was fidgeting. It always worked, so that was a relief. I needed the stability and grounding only he seemed to be able to provide right now.

  “If this is the reason why you invited them to dinner the other night and not the rest of us, please do explain,” Sean said with a glare. I looked at Logan, each of us confused.

  “Dad and Papa came here for dinner and ended up stuck because of the storm, but it wasn’t planned. But it wasn’t that we only invited them. They just showed up,” I told Sean. I reached down and gave Scarlett’s ears a good scratch before continuing.

  “There’s really no good way to tell this, so we’ll just say it,” Logan said as he wrapped his arms around my shoulders and gave me a hug from behind. I loved it when he offered support in little ways like that.

  “We wanted to let everyone know that we’re growing as a family. Back in the spring we had two fertilized eggs transferred into our surrogate, and she’s due in a few weeks,” I blurted out. Probably not the best way to tell everyone but that
was it. It was done and all of a sudden, a huge pressure I’d felt in my chest was suddenly gone.

  Dad had a sinister look on his face, and Papa was looking at the ceiling while muttering and dropping f-bombs under his breath. Sean was crying, Jasper and Simon were smiling, and Liam…

  “I knew it! Yesterday you kept talking about changes and shit, and I knew it. So are you having a baby, then? That’s the news, right?” Liam asked.

  “Actually, both eggs implanted and we’re having twins.”

  “Fuckin’ hell. I’ll never live this down,” Papa said not so quietly that time. Dad simply leaned over and whispered something in his husband’s ear, and Papa went as red as a tomato. What the hell?

  “We have news, too. We closed on a house in Jackson today because I had a feeling that we’d be spending more and more time here next year.”

  “What?” everyone said at the same time.

  “Yes. James bet me that you boys were going to start having kids soon and we should buy a house here. I won’t say what I lost, and trust me, you don’t want to know. So, we’re going to be grandpas?” Papa asked as he smiled at me.

  “Yeah. I’m going to be a daddy, Papa, and I’m terrified,” I said as I leaned my head back onto Logan’s shoulder.

  “We’ll be here,” Dad said as he wiped his eyes with his hands.

  “I hope so. I wish you two could be here more often than you are, but we all understand.”

  I watched as Dad and Papa looked at each other and then back at the rest of us.

  “Actually, that’s not true. We can be here full-time now.”

  “What? How? Are you going to work remotely?” Jasper asked.

  “No. We’ve decided that since you three were so happy and settled—and most likely going to start families—we’re actually selling Stealth Securities.”

  “What!” everyone in the room shouted. Everyone started talking at once, and it wasn’t until Simon let out a loud whistle that we all shut up and stared at my dads.

  “They can’t talk if y’all don’t shut up. Let them explain, at least,” Simon said as he placed a hand on Sean’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

  Papa looked at Jasper and Liam, but they both shook their heads.

  “Don’t look at us. We’re happy being uncles. Liam and I decided we’re just going to go on all of the exotic vacations you won’t be able to until the kids get older,” Jasper told us. That got a laugh from everyone, and when Dad turned and gave Sean a pointed look, he looked like your typical deer caught in the headlights.

  “We don’t have news,” Sean argued.

  Another look from Dad and it was Simon’s turn to argue. “We honestly don’t. But since we’re sharing news, Sean and I have our first appointment with a surrogacy agency in January. Since Dad is determined that everyone talk, just thought we should get that out there. Sorry, Rhett, I’m not trying to steal your show or anything.”

  I shook my head at my brother-in law but got up and plopped myself down in Sean’s lap and cried. He rocked me gently like he used to when I was younger, and when I was finally able to, I looked up at him and smiled. “Our kids can grow up together. That’ll be perfect,” I told him as I looked at Sean and then Simon, who was still standing beside him, smiling down at us.

  I looked over at everyone else in the room, and Jasper had a crying Liam in his arms, but they both looked happy. Logan smiled at me, and I got up from Sean’s lap and went back over to my husband and assumed the same position I’d been in with Sean.

  “Love, at least give me something. You had the couples wrong. You need to concede that you were only half-right,” Papa said as he leaned in and gave Dad a quick kiss.

  “So you two were betting about this? Is that why you’re selling your company?” I asked, curious.

  “Yes and no. It’s simply just time. We aren’t getting any younger, and the amount of stress we were both constantly under was getting to be too much. Jonathan met a sweet girl back in the summer, and they just got married. He was going to leave the company because he didn’t want to go out on assignments anymore,” Papa told us.

  “Jonathan got married? Wow, he’d be one of the last I ever expected to get married,” Jasper said. I had to agree though. He’d always seemed…aloof and not the type. Guess I was wrong.

  “He met the right person. They seem happy together,” Dad told us. “But when he came to us, we knew he could do so much working behind the scenes. He liked that idea and loved it even more when we offered to sell the company to him. His loan came through, and we close on it in January.” Dad reached over and gave Papa’s leg a gentle squeeze.

  “You’re not sick or anything, right? It’s nothing like that?” Sean asked, worried. That caused panic again, and Dad and Papa both held up their hands.

  “Nothing like that at all. We just want to retire. We want to be closer to you three. You all left us. James started arguing that you four were going to start having kids, and we didn’t want to have to constantly fly to see milestones,” Papa said as he gestured to me and Logan as well as Simon and Sean.

  “Okay, but…you thought Sean would be first?” I asked.

  “I did. I figured you two would come along next year sometime,” Dad said as he wrapped an arm around Papa’s back and leaned into his husband’s side.

  Deciding the mood needed to be lightened a bit, I thought a change of subject might be a good thing. “Would everyone like to see the nursery? It’s so adorable. We couldn’t decide between woodland critters and hot air balloons, so we combined them. Oh my god, I found the cutest little balloons on Etsy and you need to see them,” I said as I got up from Logan’s lap. Logan stopped me from running off to the nursery, and he and I were quickly enveloped in a giant group hug.

  It was a great feeling to know our dads were going to be so much closer. Logan and I were going to be dads. We had two little babies that we were going to bring home and keep. I couldn’t wait. I had a beautiful husband and two babies on the way. My life couldn’t get much better.

  Graham & Tyler

  Graham

  “Darlin’, what do you think about this one?” I asked Ty as I held up yet another brightly colored toy. This one looked exactly like the last three or four I had shown him.

  “Wait, didn’t you already show me that particular one?” Ty asked. When I looked at the stuffed toy, I realized that shit, I probably had.

  “How do Isaac and Jacob do this? I mean, look at this place,” I said as I gestured to the toy aisle that was chaos. How did parents decide what to get their kids? And did the place always look like a tornado went through it?

  “Well, Jacob has a lot more experience with his sister’s kids, and Isaac simply doesn’t have a choice. Now, what was it that Isaac said Mack was interested in?” Ty asked as he walked over to me. I shrugged but pulled out my phone so I could open up the text message that had suggestions.

  “It says here that he wants Mickey, anything Paw Patrol, or anything having to do with dogs.” I looked to my husband and shrugged again. Well, that sounded easy enough, but what in the hell was Paw Patrol?

  “I think I saw a bunch of Mickey stuff at the last store. Maybe we should go back there and check again? Besides, it was a little more organized there.”

  “Why didn’t you say something, then?” I asked him. I didn’t really want to go back to the other store. I wanted to go eat. I was hungry and, in my book, eating was always better than shopping.

  “Possibly because you didn’t show me the list when we were there last time. Come on. I’ll buy you lunch after we go pick up those cute little Mickeys I saw.” Ty gave me one of his killer smiles and I was a goner. I caved before sighing in exasperation.

  “Fine. But you owe me a good lunch. None of that drive-through crap,” I somewhat teased as I pointed a finger at my husband. His response was to grab it and start sucking on it, the little fucker. Although…not so little. Ty quickly let go of my finger, but he yanked me toward him, stealing a kiss.

&nb
sp; “I wouldn’t dream of it. But honestly, the other store seemed to have a better selection of toys and overall things were a lot more organized. Maybe we can ask someone over there about the other things on the list if we don’t find what we’re looking for.”

  “Who would have thought that shopping for one little boy would be so difficult? I mean, seriously. He’s two. Why do things have to be this hard?”

  “I don’t know, baby. But we’re going to be the best uncles we can and get him the things that Isaac put on the list.” Ty wrapped his arms around my waist and looked at me lovingly while he simply stood there and held me in the middle of the toy aisle.

  “You know, times like these are when I’m incredibly thankful we decided we were okay without kids. I mean, think about it. We still get a lot of experience with Mack. But we don’t have the fussy teething in the middle of the night, or the temper tantrums because his goldfish weren’t the right color....”

  “Or the messy diapers,” Tyler said interrupting me. I agreed, frantically shaking my head. Nope. I didn’t do diaper duty unless absolutely necessary. I dealt with enough shit during the day, both literally and figuratively, I didn’t need to add to it at home.

  Ty took my hand and led me out of the store and to his truck. Once we had driven across the street, back to the previous store, I sighed but admitted defeat and climbed out. Just one more store and I could get something to eat. That’s what I kept telling myself. Just one more store. Maybe if we finished our shopping today, I could have a relaxing evening tonight. Although, there was only a week left before Christmas, therefore we really needed to get everything done today, so it wasn’t really an option. We had to get finished.

  Somehow one or two little toys turned into an entire cart full of stuff. To say that we went a little overboard was an understatement because by the time we left, the cart was piled high with stuff for not only Mack, but everyone else on our list.