CHAPTER FORTY

MAV

As usual, I'm the schmuck who gets stuck with the driving, and I don't even get one of our girls beside me to keep me company. Worse than that, when I glance in the rearview mirror again, I can see Gage is making out with Stella right at the back of the minivan, and although I can't see what they're doing, I'm pretty sure his cock is making an appearance right about now. Fuck this shit. I'm fed up with being left out of stuff.

"Lucy!" I bark and hear a squeak as she jumps. Is it bad that I love making her make that sound? It's fucking adorable.

"Dammit, Mav!" I point at the seat beside me and make my demand.

"Fucking join me, woman, I'm tired of being alone."

I catch the look on Sebastian's face as he realizes that means I'm taking her from him, and therefore leaving him alone instead, and I sigh. This is the kind of shit that keeps driving a wedge between us, isn't it? Five being an odd number, there's always someone left out as we pair off. We need to stop doing that to each other.

"There's room here for you too, Pretty Boy. You can both keep me company." His smile tells me it was the right move, as he moves to the seat behind Lucy, and she reaches back to take his hand.

"Were you getting all lonely up here, Mav? Were you afwaid all by your widdle self?" She can put on a baby voice all she wants, but I'm perfectly within my rights to have someone keeping me awake for the drive. I'm not tired, but I'll play that card if I have to.

"You think you won't pay for taunting me later, baby?"

The smug smile disappears, but she giggles instead. "I can't wait, Mav. How long until we're home?"

I check the GPS, and sigh with relief. "Half an hour at most, assuming we don't hit more traffic."

"I'll be glad to get back home, and start trying to get back to normal," Sebastian says, echoing my thoughts exactly.

"Yeah, next road trip, I pick where we go," I point out, but I'm not getting at Lucy, and I hope she knows that.

"I'm sorry, you guys. Going home was a big fucking mistake, but at least I don't carry so much guilt now for disappearing on my family."

Sebastian growls under his breath, and leans around the seat, before I can even respond to her myself.

"Home is where we're fucking going, and your family is us. Even if you hadn't had this closure, that would still be the case, and it's never been more true. All of us belong together, and nobody is ever fucking leaving." Whoa, Pretty Boy. Starting to sound like Gage there.

"Careful, PB, you're giving me a boner," I say lightly, grinning when Lucy giggles in response. Yeah, let's not scare our ladies off before we have them back under lock and fucking key.

It takes almost forty-five fucking minutes, but that sense of relief I feel as I drive up and park the minivan outside our house, is like nothing I've felt before. We're home. All five of us are back home, and nobody's fucking leaving again. We will do every single fucking thing together, and nobody's ever getting close enough to touch our girls again. I'll break every fucker's neck in a five-mile radius if I even get a hint that someone's considering it.

Sebastian hangs back with me while the others head inside, the girls carrying just their own personal shoulder bags, because no way in hell our pregnant ladies are carrying anything heavier.

"Mav?"

I pause as I'm dragging the last two bags out of the trunk. He's standing close beside me, maybe a little too close for someone I'm not intimate with, to be honest.

"Whassup, PB?"

He grabs the other bag and drags it back out of the trunk.

"I just wanted to say thank you, you know for earlier. I appreciated not being left on my own for the last part of the trip home."

Damn, don't go getting all emosh on me, man.

"No problem. Family, right?"

He sets the bag down and stares at me after I set mine down. What? Am I supposed to say something else? Why's he looking at me like that?

He suddenly wraps his arms tight around me and squeezes me in a hug.

"Seriously, thank you. I know we're not together like everyone else, but it still matters to me that you see me as one of you." I cautiously pat his back, wondering why the hug hasn't ended yet. If he tries to kiss me, I'll knee him in the balls.

"I've always felt like there's an awkwardness between the two of us, because we're not close like any of the others in our family, but I want us to be."

"I'm not agreeing to buttsex," I say quickly, just to make sure he knows that line isn't getting crossed, and he laughs as he pulls away and finally releases me from his grip.

"I know that, man. Just thank you. This trip was hell, but I feel like maybe it made the two of us a bit closer, and I feel like that's something good that came from it."

Jesus, man, don't make me tear up or some wussy shit like that.

"Yeah, me too, I mean, it's definitely good." I slam the trunk and pick up the last two bags, starting to walk past him with them. His hand touches mine as he takes one of them from me. Dude, seriously?

"And if you change your mind about the buttsex, don't worry, Mav, we'll be gentle."

SEBASTIAN

So much bad stuff happened while we were away, but in some ways, coming home feels like a magical Band-aid , smoothing over those cracks that briefly appeared while we were… wait… that's not how Band-aids work. Jesus, clearly my head is a bit more messed up than I realized. I think things feel better anyway, a little more settled than they did at the beginning, or even the middle of that god-awful trip.

Sure, our girls are likely to suffer some emotional distress because of what that asshole did, and planned to do, and let's be honest, because of seeing what we did to the guy. And even being involved. We're good at holding them and making them feel safe again though.

In some ways, this is exactly the relationship I'd wanted when I first planned to take them, but I've come to realize that one man would never have been enough for them. Having Gage and Mav to help me love and care for them, just shows me that this is what it was meant to be. Family isn't about two parents and a bunch of kids, it's about five of us together, and the children we'll raise. Am I hoping to get them pregnant again after these two? Hell yeah, I can't fucking wait, but one thing at a time. Marriage first, right?

"I'm going for a dip in the pool," Lucy says, heading for the deck, already in her swimsuit, and closely followed by Gage.

"Where's Stella?" I should ask about Mav too, but I'm guessing where one woman is, one of us will always be.

"Showering. Do you want to join us outside, Sebastian? I think we all need to relax after that long journey."

"Especially me, your fucking chauffeur," Mav blurts, stalking past Gage, and grabbing Lucy in his arms as she screams and slaps at him. "I'm gonna go toss our girl in the water. PB, you wanna coax Stella out here too? We need family downtime."

Lucy's screams lead outside, followed by a loud splash and a lot of cursing. Gage grins at me, reaching out to catch my shoulder. "You're joining us, yeah?"

"Definitely. Let me go find our other girl and follow you. She might need painkillers or something first."

I will always want to fuck our women, but looking after them? Taking care of them when they're unwell, or need comfort? That's fast becoming just as rewarding, if not more so, and I don't think that makes me a pussy. I think that makes me a man.

LUCY

Lounging in the pool together feels like a return to what's comfortable, and normal for us. Mav tossed me in the pool like a dick, sure, but that's normal too. If he catches one of us in proximity to the water, we usually end up in it with him, but I'm sure those days are numbered with us being pregnant, and why does that word kick me in the gut every time I even think it?

Stella comes out to the pool with Sebastian, but she wants to lounge in the sun rather than joining us in the pool, so he stays there with her, and Gage joins us, swimming, splashing, and generally chilling out. Already that trip away from home feels like a mile away. I'm not sure I'll ever stop feeling guilty for insisting on it, especially with what happened to Stella while we were at the bookstore, even though that wasn't necessarily part of the trip I'd insisted on. In fact, the part I'd wanted, apart from being a waste of our time, had been the shortest part of our time away. I know one thing though, I'm in no hurry to leave here again any time soon.

Water hits me in the face again, and I splutter, before I send a pathetic wave of it back at Gage. He laughs, and reaches for me, dragging me close to kiss me, then passing me off to Mav, so he can do the same.

Home sweet home. It's not about the house at all. It's about the four people I live in it with. I was dumb to think it was about anything else. It's about people, the ones we choose, and not necessarily the ones we're born to. I think things can only get better and better for us now too. We can grow old with these men, and raise babies with them, and build generations of our own family, where there's no judgement, no disappointment, and no labels. If it feels good, do it . Everyone should live that way.

GAGE

I flash Sebastian a look, telling him to follow me out of the pool, and since he's such a good boy, he obeys. I nod to Mav and motion my head toward the pool once we make it to the deck. He lifts Stella over his shoulder like a caveman, and she kicks him repeatedly yelling, "Put me down, you dick!"

He chuckles obnoxiously. "I plan on it."

Mav continues laughing as he drops her into the water, while Lucy watches with a giggle. "Enjoy your swim, baby."

She sinks to the bottom before quickly emerging through the surface of the water. "I hate you, Maverick. You're such a jerk."

He stops walking toward us and turns to her briefly. "I am, and no you don't, baby."

Sebastian hands us both a beer, and we sit down on the lounger while we watch our women in the pool. Stella's stomach is still flat, but Lucy's, while not huge, she has an obvious baby bump. I can't fucking wait until it's noticeable with both of them that we've put babies inside them. I've never had this craving to be a father. There was nothing inside me that was driving me to impregnate a woman, but that has changed. Fuck. If I could get them both pregnant right now, I'd be in the pool with them. Unfortunately, we will have to wait until the babies are born. According to my research, we'll even have to wait six weeks after they are here, because a woman needs recovery time. Six weeks without fucking them? Sebastian is going to be very busy taking my cock.

Mav chuckles. "What are you thinking about over there, Gage?"

I can't help the grin on my face. "Fucking, but first things first. How are we going about this?"

Sebastian speaks up first. "Chicks dig flowers and candles and shit, right? I looked at some pictures on Pinterest. "

He shows us both photos from a field with a romantic setup I know the ladies would love. Only we'll be doing things a little differently. I scratch my head in thought. "How will we set this up without them knowing?"

Mav shrugs with a devilish smile. "I'll keep them busy."

"And why do you get to keep them busy?"

He sits back and chugs his beer. "I've earned it. You owe it to me after making me do so much shit."

I nod with a groan. "Alright, fine. You keep them busy, and we will set it up."