Best Friend's Sister (Slade Brothers Book 5)

by Alexis Winter

  She offers up a small smile. “You sure have grown up. Too bad that had very little to do with me. I swear, Deven, I will be a better grandma to your children than I was a mom to you. I failed you. I failed you and Brad and now look. You two are taking care of me.” She lets out a sound that sounds like a sob and a laugh at the same time.

  I rub her back. “It’ll be okay. Everything will work out.”

  “How do you know?” she asks, wiping away her tears.

  I shrug. “It always does, doesn’t it?”

  She laughs. “I guess so.”

  I help Mama clean up the kitchen, and soon after, Hudson and I are leaving to go back to our room. I sit in the passenger side of his truck, staring off into the night. He places his hand on mine, and his thumb rubs back and forth.

  “Are you alright?”

  I nod. “Yeah, I’m just…I don’t know what I am. Happy. Unbelievably happy. I talked with my mom, and I think we’ve put everything that happened between us in the past. We’re starting fresh. It just feels like after my life having been shit for so long, everything is starting to fall into place. Like I’m going to get my happy ending after all.”

  He picks up my hand and presses a kiss to the top. “That’s because you are. We are. As long as we’re together, we have the world in the palms of our hands.”

  I smile over at him in the darkness, and my chest swells with so much love, my heart races. I don’t know how I got so lucky. I don’t know how such a bad decision like sleeping with a stranger in a bar parking lot has led me here, but I’m glad it did. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. I guess no matter how fucked up your life is, there’s always time to turn things around, to find the sun on a cloudy day, to have one more wish granted: just one more night with him.

  15

  Hudson

  7 months later…

  My phone rings early in the morning, and I roll to my side to answer it. “Hello?”

  “It’s done,” Drake says.

  “What? What’s done? What are you talking about, man?”

  “He took the money and ran,” he says, and I can hear the hurt and the pain in his voice.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I know how badly you were looking forward to getting to know him.” I sit up, looking over at Deven, who is sound asleep beside me, her stomach swollen with our soon-to-be children.

  It’s been months of negotiating the terms for this agreement. He was dead set on getting his hands on a piece of the brewery, and none of us were willing to let it go. Celeste sent over our first offer and it was denied immediately. Month after month, our offer was denied. The guy never had any contact with Celeste or Drake. He didn’t want anything but the money he felt he was owed. His lawyer dealt on his behalf. Finally, about a week ago, we made our final offer and told them such. If he didn’t accept it, we were done, and he’d have to sue to get anything. Celeste also reminded him that if that was the case, he’d more than likely get nothing at all considering he had no legal claim to anything. With that, the offer was snatched up, along with a handwritten note from Drake.

  Before he walked away with the offer, Drake called us all into his barn bar one night and we all read over the letter. It basically said that he has more than just money here. He has a family that would love to meet him. It also mentioned that he could still get a piece of the brewery if he was willing to move here to be a part of our family and gain our trust. But nothing was ever sent back, and based on this call, nothing will ever be sent back. He took what he wanted and ran.

  “We had an idea that this was how it was going to go, you know?” I remind him.

  “I know. I was just hoping. I figured that if there was even a little Slade blood in him, that he would do what’s right. It’s not about the money. It’s about family.”

  “Yeah, but…he’s not our family, Drake. You know family is more than blood. Don’t let this get you down. You did the right thing. You gave him money when you didn’t have to. You offered him a home and family. You can’t make him take it. He wasn’t raised with us. He wasn’t raised by Dad. You don’t know what kind of life or family he had. Family must not mean as much to him as it does us. But you know what? We’re the lucky ones here. We know what family means and we have more of it than most.”

  “I know. You’re right. I’m just…bummed is all.”

  “Well, try not to dwell on it. Hey, are you coming over to the house for the housewarming party?” I ask. The house is officially finished and just in the nick of time. Deven is ready to pop any day now, and we were dreading bringing three babies back to a single motel room.

  Three babies. How in the hell did I manage that one? Colton likes to joke and say that we’re the strongest Slades since we managed to knock our women up with multiples while the rest could only get one at a time. Colton has twin boys while Deven and I are having two boys and a little girl. Finally, a girl. She’ll only be the second of the family, but I guess it will finally give Milly another girl to pick on the boys with when they get a little older.

  “Yeah, we’ll all be there,” he promises.

  “Good. I’ll see you then,” I say, hanging up.

  I drop the phone back onto the bedside table and roll to my side to wrap my arms around my big, pregnant wife.

  She stirs slightly. “Who was that?”

  “Drake. He took the money and ran,” I tell her.

  “I bet that’s killing him. He was really looking forward to meeting him.”

  I nod. “I know, but I think I talked him down.”

  She rolls to her back, and her big belly sticks up into the air. “God, could I get any bigger? I feel like I’m going to explode.”

  I laugh. “You’re beautiful.”

  “I’m going to need reconstructive surgery!”

  Again, I chuckle, and this time, she smacks the shit out of me.

  I jump. “I’m sorry. I knew I was packing. but I never expected this.” I motion toward her stomach.

  “Yeah, well, at least we’re getting three out of the way now. Maybe we can get twins on the next go around and we’ll have all five kids.” She smiles wide and so do I. On our honeymoon, we talked about how many children we wanted. I loved growing up with four brothers and convinced her that five was the only way to go. She gave in after realizing how lonely she was growing up with only one brother who was so much older than she was.

  “Come on. We got a lot of packing and moving to do today. The party is tonight.”

  “You mean, you have a lot of packing and moving. I’m lucky to move myself at this point.”

  “You really are,” I agree. Deven has always been short and petite. Seeing her with such a big stomach is almost alarming. For the life of me, I have no idea how she manages to keep her balance.

  I run a bath for Deven and get busy packing up our things and taking them all out to my truck and her new SUV. She’s so big now that she can’t drive. By the time she gets the seat back enough to accommodate her stomach, her feet can’t reach the peddles. Drake is already planning on getting dropped off here to drive it to the new house for us.

  “Hudson, help me out of this death trap please,” she calls from the bathroom.

  I rush into the bathroom and take both her hands in mine, lifting her up and out of the tub. I give her the only towel she’ll use. We had to go out and buy it special. It was the only one we could find big enough to wrap around her. She’s breathless by the time she’s dried off. She moves into the bedroom to sit down.

  I get her clothes for her and move to help her get dressed.

  “I hate that I can’t even dress myself correctly,” she whines.

  “I know, but it’ll be over soon, and you’ll be back to normal size again in no time,” I tell her, pulling her white, cotton panties up her legs until she can reach them to do it herself.

  She gets them on and sits back down on the bed to rest. She looks over to the box sitting beside her. On top is her red, lace thong. She picks it up and shows it to me. “God,
I miss these.”

  I wag my brows. “Me too. As soon as you can wear them again, I’m pulling them off with my teeth,” I promise.

  She snorts. “That will be a long time if you think I’m letting you come near me with that thing again.”

  I laugh. “What’s the chances we’ll get triplets twice?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m not taking my chances.”

  We manage to get her dressed, and just as we’re walking out of the motel, Drake is walking up, holding out his keys for my truck. He’s wearing a big smile and holding out his hand.

  I drop the keys into his palm. “Don’t fucking wreck my truck,” I yell at him as I help Deven into the passenger side of her SUV. It’s easier to get her into her car than it is to lift her up into my truck.

  “Don’t tempt me,” Drake says, climbing behind the wheel and revving the engine loud.

  I shake my head. “Fuck, he’s going to pay me back for the time I wrecked his brand-new Mustang.”

  Deven laughs. “When did you do that?”

  “I was a kid. He had just turned sixteen, and his dumbass left the keys in it while he ran into the house to change. Five seconds later, there was a loud crash and he ran out to find that I’d driven the damn thing into the side of the barn.”

  She laughs loud. “How’s you manage that?”

  I shake my head. “Who knows. I was just wanting to pretend like I was driving, not actually drive, but things got away from me.”

  I close her door and go around to the driver’s side. I climb behind the wheel and start the car, shifting into reverse and following Drake. As soon as we hit the old dirt road that leads to the house, he hits the gas and opens her up, taking off ahead of me at the speed of light.

  I grind my teeth together as Deven laughs. She knows I won’t drive like that with her in the car. I have no choice but to let Drake have his fun and kick his ass when we stop. I pull into the drive ten minutes later, and Drake is already parked and out of the truck, leaning against the side. He holds his arms out at his side. “What took ya so long? I was about to sit down and have a snack, I’ve been waiting so long.”

  I park and climb out, heading for him, but he laughs and dodge me, running around the truck to put it between us.

  “I’m going to kick your ass one of these days,” I threaten.

  “Yeah, right. At least I didn’t run it into a damn barn,” he throws back.

  I shake my head. I knew he was going to bring that up.

  Deven opens her door and her hand comes flying out. “Forget about me?”

  “Never,” I say, stepping up to her and taking her hand to help her out.

  She stands up and closes the door, then looks up at our big, two-story home. “Wow, it’s even better than I remember it.”

  “Let’s go check out the inside,” I say, taking her hand and helping her to the door.

  I put the key in and the door opens easily. She goes to take a step, but I stop her. “Wait! We have to do this right.” I pick her up against me and she squeals. I grunt, nearly throwing out my back, but I walk her over the threshold and set her back on her feet inside.

  I place my hands on my knees and bend over to breathe. “I think I gave myself a hernia.”

  She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, you just picked up four humans and enough water to bathe an elephant. Jack ass,” she mumbles as she walks through the house. She stops at the bottom of the stairs. “No way am I getting up these any time soon.”

  “That’s fine. We’ll sleep in the guest bedroom until after the babies are born,” I tell her, pulling her toward the room that’s off the kitchen and dining room.

  The bed is already set up and looking comfy as possible. “I think I’ll take a nap while you two move everything in and get ready for the party.” She sits down and kicks off her shoes.

  “Alright. Yell if you need anything,” I tell her, giving her a kiss on the head before closing the door between us. As I’m walking out the door, Drake walks in with his arms loaded with stuff.

  “Just throw it anywhere. I’ll sort through it all later,” I tell him, going for a box of my own.

  A couple hours pass, and both vehicles are unloaded while Drake and I sit out on the back porch drinking a beer.

  “We probably need to fire the grill up,” Drake says, looking at his watch.

  “Nah, I’m having the party catered.”

  He looks over at me. “Really?”

  I nod. “Hell yeah. I wanted to enjoy today and not have to worry about cooking and cleaning up. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Deven can barely stand up long enough to change, let alone, help cook and clean. And I can’t do the grill and the outside stuff at the same time. I’m amazing, but I’m not miracle worker.”

  He laughs loud. “Right, I must have gotten those two things confused.”

  Before I know it, the catering company is arriving and setting everything up. One person gets to work on the grill while three people work in the kitchen. There’s one person who works on snacks and sets them out on all the tables for the guests. Another person starts cooking for dinner while one cleans up. Our families start to arrive soon after.

  Colton, Brennan, and the kids arrive. Milly goes out to the yard to play while they sit at the patio table, bouncing the twins on their lap. Celeste comes in with Tyler, and she hands Drake the baby the moment she walks out, going for a glass of wine.

  I laugh, but Drake points at me.

  “Just wait. You’re going to have three of these.”

  I look at Colton and Brennan. They’re the only ones who have the slightest idea what we’re in for.

  “Yeah, at least with us, we’re one on one. You guys are already outnumbered,” Brennan says.

  Next to arrive is Destiny, Wyatt, Clay, and Autumn with all their kids. The place is crawling with children already, and I can’t wait until I have mine here to play with them. I go and help Deven up out of bed and to the bathroom before bringing her out of the porch to sit with the rest of us.

  She greets everyone and has little polite chit-chat before pulling over the tray of appetizers all for herself. “Sorry, guys, I’m eating for four here.” She laughs out as she pops a nacho into her mouth. Just as the food is getting done, Brad and their mom make it over. Brad goes straight for the food while their mom heads straight for the kids and babies. She’s come a long way these last few months. She’s managed to get the manager position at the local grocery store, and she’s making enough money to provide for herself. She got an apartment in the same building as Brad, giving Brad back his personal space, which is a good thing since Brad and Abby seem to be getting more and more serious. I’m actually surprised that he didn’t bring her with him today.

  I walk over to the buffet to stand next to him and pat him on the back. “Where’s Abby?” I ask, making a plate for Deven.

  “Oh, she had plans today. Virginia is back to visit, and she didn’t want to leave her alone. I didn’t want to take it upon myself to invite her, given your history.”

  I laugh. “What history? We had one date that went nowhere.”

  “Well, you guys got along really well and you kissed.”

  My mouth drops open. “I didn’t kiss her,” I admit, confused as to why he would think that.

  “Yes, you did. She told Abby that you kissed her when you were dancing.”

  “I didn’t dance with her. She danced with some guy at the bar who bought her six tequila shots.” I laugh. I specifically remember because I was so torn up over Deven that I barely even talked to her all night. She got annoyed with me and left me to go find a man that would talk to her.

  He shrugs. “Huh, guess she got drunk and mixed you two up. Either way, I didn’t want my extremely pregnant sister to kick me in the balls for bringing her here.”

  I laugh. “Yeah, probably for the best.”

  The party goes smoothly, and everyone hangs out, eating, talking, and drinking until the sun goes down and the field around us grows dark. When
everyone leaves, I take Deven to the guest bedroom and we lay down to go to sleep. I hold her against my chest.

  “Did you enjoy the party?”

  “I would’ve been able to enjoy it more if I could move.”

  I laugh. “Soon enough,” I promise. “We have six more weeks until your due date.”

  “Six weeks is a lifetime, Hudson. Hell, we didn’t even date six week before we got engaged.”

  “We did too,” I argue.

  “No, it would’ve been six weeks, but we broke up for those two weeks, remember?”

  I shake my head. “I only remember the parts of my life that had you next to me.”

  She laughs. “Such a suck up.” Her hand flies to her stomach and she gasps in pain.

  “What? What is it?” I ask, fear consuming me.

  Her body relaxes. “I shouldn’t have eaten those jalapeño poppers. They are making the babies crazy in there.”

  “You want some something for your stomach?” I ask.

  “No, I think it’s fine.”

  I wrap my arm around her stomach and one of the babies kick at it. “Man, I think that one is going to be a soccer player.” I laugh.

  “Tell me about it. They’ve been kicking the shit out of me all day.” She jumps again, this time letting out a painful cry.

  “Are you sure it’s just indigestion?”

  She shakes her head. “Nope, not anymore. I think we should go to the hospital.”

  “Okay, let’s go.” I rush from bed and slide my feet into a pair of shoes before moving around the bed to help her up. She stands up, takes two steps and then I hear a gush of water hitting the floor. I turn around to see her scared expression.

  “Come on. You’re in labor.”

  “No,” she shakes her head. “It’s too early.”

  I nod. “I know, but remember the doctor said that triplets like to come early. There isn’t enough room in there for all three of them. It’ll be okay. Let’s just get to the hospital. The sooner the better.”