by TC Matson
“Dude. Paige is pregnant!” he celebrates. “My swimmers swim and I’ve got my wife knocked up. We’re having a baby!”
Adam’s all grins when he hugs me. “Congratulations.”
Chapter 18
Paige is sitting on the table, nervously fidgeting with the hem of her purple…gown? They consider this paper thin thing, that closely resembles a paper cape fucked a shower curtain, a gown. It’s a napkin.
Today we get to see our baby, or at least if all goes right we will. I’m certain he’ll show face. He likes to steal the spotlight, kicking Paige at all the wrong times. I’ve come to the conclusion he’s protecting his mom. This dad shit is pretty easy.
The first ultrasound we found out Paige was five weeks and a few days pregnant. We were only able to see a…blip? This white thing floating around in the darkness. I’ve since named it Teep after the push kick in Muay Thai since he likes to kick momma in the stomach.
Plus, Lil Teep will be teeping his ass right out of Paige soon.
“You good?” I rub her arm.
“Yeah. You?”
I grin. “Damn right I am. I’m ready to see my boy.”
She scowls. “Don’t do that. Don’t label it.”
I shrug. “It’s better than calling the boy an it.”
She murders me with a glare. She’s tried to tell me there’s always the possibility of having a girl, but I laugh every time. Karma might have herself a bad name, but she handles shit at the right time. She’s the ultimate fighter and returns all the wrong to the right people. I like to believe she and I are on the same page, especially since she dipped her toes into the whole Ryker and Whitney shit. Yeah, placed me to be the fucking hero to my most hated person. I had to be nice…
The doctor comes in and sets up shop while asking Paige a few mundane pregnancy questions. He squirts her bump and goes to work. But he’s testing my patience, keeping the monitor away from us. I’m vibrating from anticipation.
“Hmph…” he says, moving the stick thing over Paige’s stomach.
“Hmph? What’s hmph?” I ask.
He doesn’t look at me as he continues to study the monitor and then glances to Paige.
“Mrs. Stiles…”
And here is where it all goes to hell…
“In your chart, it shows…” he trails off and I picture grabbing the doctor by his collar and shoving him against the wall. He pushes the screen to us and smiles. “Surprise. You’re having twins.”
Two Teeps.
Not one.
Two.
Bigger Teeps.
Two.
Two bigger Teeps.
Paige gasps, and instantly tears pool up, but she’s grinning. My wife cries easily now and I’m throwing a million dollars on the word easily to emphasize the shit. Once because my sock didn’t make it to the dirty clothes hamper. I felt like shit. And since, I’ve made sure every particle of clothing has landed directly inside of the hamper.
Another time, I came home from a hard day at the gym and she was sitting on the couch, clinging to my championship belt, bawling her eyes out. She didn’t know what to clean it with. Yeah. You heard me right. That was a fucking fiasco. Hell, it wasn’t even dirty, but try explaining that to an overemotional pregnant wife.
But the worst of her sensitive moments—she downright ugly cried when I ran over a fucking snake. A snake. A slithering snake stupid enough to cross over the hot pavement of a road. One of those creatures you don’t understand how they were put on Earth. She wailed on about it for hours, sobbing about how if it was a momma snake the family wouldn’t survive. And if it was a dad snake, how the rest of the snake family is probably sitting at the door waiting for him to come home.
Straight up in-fucking-tense crying.
Where was I? Ohhh, yeah. Two Teeps.
My heart bashes my chest and skids to a complete stop. “What?” I squeak. Yes, fucking squeak, with a tight throat. “You’ve got the wrong test. That’s the wrong person. Check the name again.” I point to the computer.
The doctor moves the wand and the image on the screen mimics his motion. “There’s no way it’s incorrect, sir. This is real time.”
“How’d we not see this on the first one?” I snap.
“Sometimes one baby hides behind the other. Would you like to see what you’re having?” the doctor asks.
“No one’s fucking hiding. I don’t create hiders. I’m certain you have the wron—”
“Levi!” Paige hisses, swatting my arm and scowling with those pregnant mad eyes. That stops me. I’ve learned you don’t piss off the pregnant wife. All hell breaks the fuck loose.
She smiles to the doctor and wipes her happy tears. “Yes, please.”
Fucking hell, my pulse is ridiculous.
The lying ass doctor moves the wand around while clicking a few things on the first baby and then moves to the second baby.
Two Teeps. Two…
He smiles. “I’m happy to announce you have two healthy baby girls.”
Girls?
Girls…
“Girls?” My voice fades into the distance.
“Yes, sir. You can see…”
I see his mouth moving as he points to the monitor, but I can’t hear him. Sounds have dulled, being replaced with a loud high-pitched scream. My ears feel hot, like lava sitting on the sides of my head. Exactly like I’ve been knocked upside the head with two solid hits.
My heartbeat is in every inch of my body, from my eardrums throbbing down to my toes. My skin pulsates. My body feels heavy, my legs soupy. Everything is slow and my head is fuzzy.
Blackness trickles in and I’m most positive my lungs aren’t giving me enough air. They’re fucking stunned too.
Paige’s green eyes are wide with concern and she reaches out, touching my arm, but I can’t feel shit. I’m paralyzed. Her mouth is moving, but there isn’t any sound. I’m fighting gravity as it tries to pull my body down. My knees are snapping.
The picture of Paige with her napkin gown pulled up and belly showing…the doctor at my side…it’s fading, flickering black and white…
“Levi…” Paige’s silky voice brings me back.
I’m sitting in a recliner? When the hell did this thing get here?
I look at her.
“Levi?” Paige’s voice is always heaven on my ears…unless she’s pissed. “Are you okay?”
I feel woozy, but smile. “Yeah.”
“You passed out,” she informs me.
I shift, shaking my head. “No I didn’t. I was here the whole time. Had to process—”
“You passed out,” she repeats and then laughs.
My head’s been rattled by grown ass men before, but I’ve never hit the deck. Today, apparently, two little Teep girls landed a blow.
“You said healthy, right?” I ask the doctor and he nods.
I flop my arm on Paige’s. “We’re in some serious shit…”
Chapter 19
I’m a tough motherfucker. I’ve taken some serious as hell beatings from some of the biggest, strongest men and still walked the fuck out of the cage a winner. I’ve seen stars being hit hard. I’ve trained and worked out for too many years to remember, pushing myself to puking and on the verge of complete and utter exhaustion. My body has endured a hell of a strenuous lifestyle for years, but I’ve adjusted. I’m strong with endurance. Strong with strength. Strong with resilience. I didn’t bulldoze my way through the MMATs a chump. Hell, no. I’m a fucking champion for a reason.
I’ve coached two fighters—both moving up in all the ranks with only a few losses. I’ve been on the side of the octagon experiencing the frustrations, exasperation, and adrenaline just watching all my hard work either pay off or get fucked up. The rise in my blood pressure, the slamming of my fist, my temper, the urge to burst into the cage and beat the hell out of everyone within the chain link…yeah. There’s no denying my passion.
I’m a machine. A warrior. A fighter.
Except, I don’t thin
k I am anymore…
I thought I was hardcore until I watched my wife push two human beings out of her body.
Paige is badass, a level of badassery I’ll never possess.
She’s the champ. Handled pushing two healthy babies out from between her legs without a day of training.
She’s a fucking badass champion whose feat I know wasn’t easy, but she presented it like she owned it.
My badass wife was in labor for sixteen hours—nine hours more than anything I’ve ever endured. And then after that, she stayed awake to meet our bundles of smooshed faces, before I made her give into the exhaustion. She smiled at me.
Smiled after all that…
Have I told you I have the most badass wife?
I’m sitting in the corner, rocking my sleeping Livia and watching Paige sleep on her side with Tegan nestled beside her, wrapped up tightly.
Livia is the oldest one by a minute and fourteen seconds. She’s got slightly more hair than her sister and somewhat of a smaller nose.
Yeah. I’m going to have to tell my girls apart by their hair and nose.
We’ve dubbed Tegan the diva. She came out holding her head and pitching an everliving fit. Livia was calm, cool, and collected, ready to take on the world.
We can see who they take after…
Glancing back to Livia, I drag my thumb over her forehead and she squirms a bit.
I’m a dad.
A dad to two girls.
Not one, but two.
The fucking universe is laughing at me. Karma is smoking a cigarette in spiteful satisfaction while knitting a fucking sweater.
Chapter 20
Four months later…
Adjusting—it’s the best word for life with twins. Or maybe overwhelming. Well, exhausting fits in too, and if it weren’t for Levi, I don’t know if I’d have a sane state of mind.
When we first brought the girls home, we sat them down on the couch, still in their car seats and looked at each other.
“Now what do we do?” was Levi’s first words. I remember laughing and crying, both incredibly scared, yet so happy.
The demands of caring for two babies caught us totally off guard. The first few months went by like a blur. Feeding, diaper changes, laundry, cries, quick naps, even quicker showers.
It doesn’t help that a simple three-minute diaper change takes Levi twenty minutes to get through, but it’s comedy at its best. At first he would throw up just unsnapping the diapers and taking a peek, but then it increased to peeking, one wipe and then a puke. But now he’s finally able to change a diaper without puking, but not without gags. It’s hilarious. My big, buff, sexy man taken down by a poop.
Even through the obstacles, Levi is an amazing dad. He took the first month off from everything to give me a hand, but after that, he found a way to balance helping with the girls, training Nick, training himself to get ready for his fight, and still keeping up with me.
Which leads us to today—something we must face for the first time since the girls were born. He’s leaving for a fight.
Cory wouldn’t move it, but that doesn’t surprise me coming from that asshole. It was the final push for Levi. He’s looking at other managers now.
There’s reluctance in Levi’s movements, in his eyes, today. He hasn’t moved too far away from the girls since yesterday and then last night, he held me so tightly I thought he was choking me out. That was until Miss Diva woke up and was determined that if she was up, her sister and everyone else was going to be up too.
Levi definitely has a tighter bond with Livia. She’s more of a daddy’s girl than Tegan. Don’t get me wrong, Tegan has her daddy wrapped around her pinky, but Livia’s wrap is tighter.
He’s on the floor with the girls, playing tummy time and rolling a ball around when I enter the living room.
“You’ve got your bag together?” I ask.
He looks up and then fiddles with Livia’s lip. “Yeah,” he says chuckling as she gives him the sweetest unhappy look.
“When will you be home?”
He sighs, pushes up to his feet, and picks up Tegan. “Two days.”
He paces the living room babbling to her for a moment before putting her back down beside her sister. Dropping a kiss to my cheek, he says, “I’m going to take a shower.”
I’m feeding both the girls when he returns, and he leans down in front of me, pushing his forehead toward me.
“Check my temperature,” he says. “I think I have a fever.”
“Do you feel sick?” I ask, abandoning Livia’s bottle and feeling his forehead.
He smirks, a chuckle resonating from his throat. “No, but something is wrong. I don’t want to leave.”
I jerk my head back and blink. “You?”
He laughs, taking Livia and the bottle. “Screwed up, isn’t it?”
“You’ll just kick his ass quicker so you can get home faster,” I say and then stand, stretching my legs. Tegan has never been able to stay awake with a full belly.
Levi places Livia back into her bouncy seat and wraps his arms around my waist. Then he kisses me softly.
“I’ve not done this without you for years,” he says.
“The world is calling for their champion.” I pat his chest smiling up to him. “Besides, I’ll have some great help here.”
“With Kelsie, Zayne, and your dad, you’re going to feel like you’re on vacation.” He laughs and then pinches the bridge of his nose. “I’m surrounded by a herd of women and you’re filling me with all your womany emotions.”
I giggle. “What are we doing to you?”
His lips graze mine. “I’m so fucking weak for you.”
“Kick his ass and come back home and show me how weak you really are,” I whisper.
Desire flares in his royal blues. “Celebrating my wins with you have always been my highlights.”
I scrape my teeth along my lip. “I’ll be right here waiting on you.”
He straightens and adjusts his dick, giving me a knowing look. “When I get back, I’m going to have you moaning my name.”
“I hope that’s a promise and not a threat.”
He tilts his head to the side and hardens his look. “I don’t make promises I don’t intend to keep.” He snatches up his bag and turns back to me. “When is someone coming to help you?”
I glance to the clock and smile back. “Around two. I’ve got an hour. I can take care of them.”
Apprehension dons his expression. And for the first time since ever landing my view on the sexy man whose life revolves around fighting, I can say he’s not enthused to leave.
“I love you,” he says. “Kiss the girls for me…every morning and every night. I’ll be home soon.”
The door shuts and a part of me wilts.
I already miss him.
Epilogue
Ups and downs. We’ve seen them all. From arrogant persistence to shattering hearts. From starting over to starting a forever. We’ve grown up and grown together.
Whatever the future holds for us, we’ll tackle it together, shoulder to shoulder because Levi is the man who holds my heart. He’s my husband, my lover, my best friend. He’s my shoulder to cry on, my strength when I’m weak, my love, my happiness, my completeness. He’s my everything and it took a long while to see it was all in front of me.
Our future will be interesting with two little girls who have their daddy wrapped…the most possessive, loving, and protective daddy. When they’re older and begin to date, I have a feeling Levi’s hair will turn stark white and he’ll have blood pressure issues.
Life moves at a fast pace. The years will fly by. And until then, I’ll be watching the biggest macho be putty in their hands.
Together, we’ll defeat all the feats.
More From TC Matson
THE FIGHTER SERIES
Levi & Paige
Blindsided (The Fighter Series #1)
UnExpected (The Fighter Series #2)
Adam & Kelsie
Awakened (The Fighter Series #3)
Ryker & Whitney
No Holds (The Fighter Series #4)
No Hesitations (The Fighter Series #5)
Levi & Paige
Leveled (The Fighter Series Novella #5.5)
STANDALONES
Open House
Mistaken Identity
COMING SOON
Broken Boundaries (Debonair Series #1)
To My Readers
A special thank you. Without you, I’m worthless. Without you, my words mean nothing, the stories are useless, and my characters will sit around and mope. Thank you for loving them and giving them the attention they crave.
Thank you for all your love and support.
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About the Author
Dreaming in Reality…
“Every time you pick up a book and get lost in it, you’re dreaming in reality. In my writing, I strive to take you to a place where reality and fantasy become a blurry line. Everything should be relatable. It could happen…couldn’t it?” ~ TC Matson
TC Matson loves to let her character’s voices be heard. With a head full of stories, she puts her keyboard through a beating daily. Matson sets her sights on writing stores relatable and real. And having an understanding that love isn’t always instant and full of flowers—her writing mirrors it. She isn’t afraid to push the envelope and touch bases of uncomfortable situation.
She’s a romance junkie at heart and an avid reader. Add those two together and she will devour books within hours, getting lost in the world the author creates.