Page 171 of It's Always Us

“What if one of them brings home a whiner?” Maggie cringes.

“Or someone who cries all the time?” Andie adds.

“Or isn’t capable of pumping her own gas?” They both look at me.

We survey the young males spread throughout the backyard that belong to us.

“Can we shoot them with paintballs if we don’t like them?” I ask.

“Well, I say since that one in there is a boy, it’s fair game for all of us.” Maggie points to my growing stomach.

“What’s fair game?” Mark asks, all three pairs of manly eyes on us.

“Just making sure there’s equal opportunity for the boys.”

Three sets of shoulders slump, and there’s a majority groan.

“You all need to behave yourselves and play nice.” Sean points at us.

“Don’t worry,” Maggie says, stepping toward Shane and sliding her arms around him.

“Yeah, right. I already know how you are with these boys.” Shane wraps his arm around her.

Sean slides behind Andie. “You have to be nice.”

Andie’s head tips back to look at him. “Why? If I were nice, you wouldn’t love me.”

He grins and kisses her forehead.

Mark eyes me, a sly smile awakening.

I join him next to the grill, and he swings his arm around my neck, pulling me against him.

“I’m one hell of a lucky man to get to see you get all protective over this little guy.” His hand runs over my stomach.

“Yeah, well, live it up. I think this is it, Casanova.”

His lips press against my ear. “I am. Every second.”

Me, too.I smile, watching our giant family. “Who knew you three abandoned boys would create this.”

There’s silence as we take in the absolute chaos happening before us.

“We did,” Mark says, with complete confidence as he fist-bumps each of his brothers. “And hell, we aren’t done yet.”

Maggie, Andie, and I groan while the beautiful men surrounding us laugh like this is what they’dplanned all along.