Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24

C ady gasped when Sebastian went down. Everyone stared in shock, but then chaos erupted again. Greer was patting her husband's cheek. Colton and Jace were checking him out for injury and then Mrs. Marcy Davies strode over with a rag. Cady's eyes watered at the strong ammonia smell.

Mrs. Davies waved the rag under Sebastian's nose. His eyes popped open and Mrs. Davies grinned. "Two babies! Oh Jake, I can almost die happy. If only Colton and Cassidy would get married. And if Jace, Porter, Parker, and Landon would give me some great-grandbabies." She tsked her finger at the offending childless couples. "Then I could die happy."

"Bash, are you unhappy about the baby?" Greer asked, obviously trying to get a read on her husband.

Bash didn't look at Greer's face though. He kept looking at her stomach. "Piper, can you make a bulletproof onesie? Cause if this little one is anything like her mother, I'll need all the help I can get."

Piper laughed, but Cady could see her mind working out the design.

"As for being happy," Sebastian said, wrapping his fingers around the nape of Greer's neck and pulling her down to him. "I'm so happy I could burst. I love you, but for my heart, please tell me you're out of the field for a while."

Greer leaned forward and kissed him. "I'm out of the field. I have a lot of recruiting to focus on since Grant and Valeria just had a baby boy. The President's Guard is ramping up and Abby and Dylan are taking over on-site ops."

"Cami got to go to her first political coup last week," Abby told them. "My dad was so proud he cried. I set up the op and ran comms while Dylan and the team executed it."

"I can't wait for Take Your Child to Work Day," Sebastian told Greer before kissing her again.

Cady stepped back to give the Davies family room to hug Ryan, Sienna, Greer, and Sebastian. The men were extra jovial while the women were listing, giggling, and slurring their words.

Cady felt Colton come up behind her. He slid his arm around her, resting his hand on her stomach and pulling her against his chest as they watched the celebration. "Someday that will be us," Colton whispered into her ear before kissing her shoulder.

"I want lots of children," Cady whispered back. "I had thought just one, but then I fell in love with you and I see what a happy family we have. Now I want at least three."

Marcy glanced at Cady and gave her a wink, as if hearing her. "Let's toast the new babies with Cady's bourbon! A double!" Marcy called out. "Then we need to eat before the food gets cold."

"Did your grandma just help me keep people drunk?" Cady asked suspiciously.

"You bet she did. My grandma would do way more than push some drinks if it helps her get another granddaughter and future great-grandchildren."

Drinks were poured and shared. Everyone was celebrating the babies and Cady thought she might get away with no interrogation at all. Cade and his brothers would look impressed if they hadn't also been imbibing. Now they were locked in the battle over who had the most badass daughter- or son-in-law.

"Maybe they forgot," Nash whispered to her.

"I think Piper is snoring," Aiden said, joining them.

"Sydney is too busy trying to remember the lyrics to a song that was popular when she was in seventh grade to remember your little interrogation," Deacon said about his wife.

"What's going on?" Cady asked.

"We're the in-laws. We're here to help," Matt told her as he and his brother-in-law, Carter, joined them.

"I'll distract Layne so you and Colton can slip out," Walker said, looking around the area for the best escape route.

"Oh, come on, it's not that bad. Is it?" Cady asked.

"Well, getting everyone ripped does make it easier. Maybe we'll tell our wives they did interrogate you and they were too drunk to remember," Carter suggested.

"It could work," Matt added.

"But if not, we need to make sure there's no live rounds out there," Aiden told them.

"Come on," Walker said to Aiden and Matt. "Let's go drunk-proof the weapons course."

"Shh, here comes Cassidy," Nash whispered as the others disappeared.

"Did you think you could get away without a little girl time?" Cassidy asked. She was still standing upright, presenting the biggest problem. "Hey, Soph, we need to have some quality time with Cady."

Sophie stood up suddenly, as if remembering Cady for the first time. "Ladies! We need to interrogate the crap out of Cady to see if she's good enough for my brother." Sophie giggled. "In-tear-oh-gate. What a funny word."

Annie snorted with amusement.

"One last toast!" Marcy called out before giving a wink to Cady. "To Cady, my future granddaughter. We love you already and are so proud to call you family."

"Hear! Hear!" Cade called out as Nash and Deacon hurried to fill glasses.

"Aren't you going to take one?" Cassidy asked her. "Or can you only make bourbon and not hold it?"

Cady grinned at the challenge. She could hold it. She didn't want to drink when she thought she'd have to actually fire a weapon. But now that live ammo was off the table, she'd happily go drink for drink with Cassidy.

"I'd be glad to." Cady held up her cup and Nash filled it. "Cheers."

They tossed back their drinks.

"One more," Cady said sweetly. "For good luck."

Down her second shot went, which was probably Cassidy's sixth.

"Let's go! I'm looking forward to this," Cady said with a smile. She turned to walk out and heard a thump .

When Cady looked back, Cassidy was on the floor, snoring.

"I'll put her on the couch with Piper," Pierce said of his two daughters.

"Let's do that! That?" Sophie asked. "Those? This? Tits?"

Cady somehow led the women outside. Some swayed. Some giggled. She lost Morgan and Katelyn to the porch swing. Two swings back and forth and they were sound asleep.

"What the hell is wrong with everyone?" Greer asked.

"Someone got them drunk," Sienna told her.

They looked to Cady who smiled sweetly. "I needed some help on a new bourbon recipe," she said innocently.

"Okay everyone!" Greer clapped. "Let's start with the spoon. Let's go."

They strode across the lawn to a far pasture as Tammy jumped around pretending to be a fairy ballerina. Cady looked around at the various stations set up. She turned back and noticed Annie and Gemma had fallen pretty far behind.

"Layne, you're up," Greer said, clearly taking command of this interrogation.

"En garde!" Layne called out, picking up a spoon and trying to attack the dummy. She went after it, tripped, and fell onto it, taking it to the ground.

"Kill the dummy with the spoon," Greer said with a roll of her eyes. "Either the strawman or my cousin."

Cady did exactly what Miles taught her. Greer and Sienna looked impressed. Layne snuggled up to the dummy with the spoon now sticking out the neck. "I love you, Walker. Goodnight."

"What's next?" Cady asked.

"Hand to hand!" Sophie called.

Boxing gloves were strapped on and Sophie punched. And hit the air three feet away from where Cady was standing. "Hey," Sophie said with a frown. "Stop moving."

Cady looked down at her feet. She hadn't moved.

Cady leaned forward, held out her pointer finger, and pressed it against Sophie's forehead, right between her eyes. Sophie went cross-eyed and then went down like a sack of potatoes.

"How'd you do that?" Sophie asked.

"Next!" Sienna called out.

"Guns!" Annie answered.

Oh, this should be interesting. Cady really hoped the guys had swapped out the guns for fakes. She hadn't needed to worry. There were Nerf guns on the table at the shooting range.

"What kind of guns are these?" Annie asked. "Why do they look familiar?"

"I think Sophie invented them," Cady said, picking hers up and shooting it at the target. Boink . "Direct hit!"

"Damn, you're good." Annie raised her Nerf gun, wavered, and shot. "Did I get it?"

"Yeah, Aunt Annie. You got it," Greer said, shaking her head. The Nerf projectile had hit a target three lanes over.

"I want to throw an ax!" Riley said as her twin, Reagan, nodded her agreement.

So off they went, Tammy twirling the entire way.

Cady laughed when they reached the table. Gone were axes. In their place were sticks with a piece of paper taped on the end to look like an ax.

"I can really tell I've been working out," Riley said to her sister. "This doesn't weigh anything." Doink "Did I hit it? It's too dark to see."

Reagan threw hers. Doink . "How did I do?"

Greer glanced at the two sticks lying on the ground. "Bullseyes," she said dryly. The girls cheered, completely forgetting Cady's need to throw.

"I think we can call it," Greer said. "There are better things we can do tonight than trudge along out here. Besides, we all love Cady, right?"

"Right!" everyone shouted.

"I'd rather do my husband," Paige said with a grin.

"Eww, Mom!" Greer made a face at the idea.

"Oh, I'd love to have sex right now," Gemma said, her face lighting up. "Cy can still pick me up. I mean, wall sex, right? Makes you feel twenty again."

" Mom! " Reagan and Riley shouted in unison.

Willa and Tilly just shrugged and high-fived each other.

"Wall sex is the best," Tammy said, waving her hand in front of her face. "Oh, girls," she said, turning to Stella and Abby, her daughters-in-law. "I hope my sons are still strong enough to pick you up and fling you around during sex."

Stella's eyes went big. Abby didn't react.

"Dylan doesn't have any problems with that," she said with no emotion as if trying to be cool about it.

Tammy sighed a big sigh of relief. "Oh good! What woman doesn't like to be picked up as if she weighed nothing and just fu—"

"Aunt Tammy!" Sienna gasped.

"Don't pretend you don't know what we're talking about," Paige said to her daughter-in-law, pointing at her stomach. "We know how babies are made."

"That is true," Greer said as they all started to walk, or stumbled, back to the house. "I love being flung around during sex. Picked up onto the counter, carried to the bed, flipped over..."

"Or when they have to have you and shove your arms above your head and hold them while they..." Evie stopped talking. "Um, yes ma'am, we know what you're talking about," Evie said to Paige, her mother-in-law.

"Jace came in from mowing the other day. He stripped off his shirt and had his hat on backward. Even did the door lean thing," Stella confessed. "I might have ovulated on the spot."

Tammy clapped her hands. "More grandbabies!"

"The door lean," Evie sighed.

"What's the door lean thing?" Annie asked.

But now Cady was picturing Colton shirtless, in gray sweatpants, leaning against the doorframe. He'd grab her as she walked by and kiss her. Then he'd... "Let's pick up the pace, ladies!"

Colton paced as the men all tried to calm Sebastian down. He wanted to bubble wrap Greer. Dylan was trying to give him pointers on how to handle a pregnant wife.

"Cady did well tonight," Colton's dad said to him.

"We'll see what happens when she comes back."

"Cady got them so drunk they probably got totally off topic. They'll come back here and want to redo the kitchen or build a chicken coop or something. At least they'll be nice and happy."

The knock on the door had everyone looking confused. No one knocked here. "Did Morgan and Katelyn forget where they were when they took a nap on the swing?" Marshall asked, opening the door. "Who are you?"

An older gentleman in navy slacks and a white dress shirt was standing at the door. "I'm Oliver Foster, Cady's uncle. I want a word with this boy she's shacking up with."

"Oh, plot twist," Landon laughed at Colton.

"Sir. That would be me." Colton held out his hand. "Colton Davies. And that idiot is my brother, Landon."

"And I'm their father, Cade."

"You going to try to stop me from having a nice little chat with your son?" Oliver raised an eyebrow, challenging Cade.

Cade chuckled. "Hell no. My son will do fine in your little chat. Let me pour you a bourbon."

"This won't be quick. This won't be friendly." Oliver took the bourbon and gestured at the table.

Colton wasn't worried. He'd grown up with Cy, Miles, his own father, the Rose sisters, and especially his grandma. "Fine by me," Colton said, taking a seat.

Oliver glanced around and stopped as he looked at Sebastian talking with Cole. "Is that Sebastian Abel?"

"Yes, he's my cousin-in-law."

"His lawyer, Ms. Townsend-Fox, made my second chair cry in open court."

"Then maybe he wasn't ready to be second chair."

"You think you can handle a strong woman like that?" Oliver asked.

"It's not about handling them. It's giving them the respect they deserve and someplace safe to come back to after a long day."

"What do you know about safe? I've heard you're quite the playboy."

" Was a playboy," Colton admitted. "Past tense. And I know a lot about safety. It's my job."

"Do you think you're going to come in and marry my niece and run her distillery and her bank account?"

"No, sir. I won't run her distillery. I don't know anything about making bourbon. Will I support her in doing so? Absolutely. I'm also perfectly happy with being kept off her business accounts. No reason for me to be on them. She won't run the fire station budget either."

Oliver rapid fired questions the second Colton finished answering one. "Pre-nup?"

"If she wants one," Colton answered immediately.

"Children?"

"She wants three or four."

"What do you want?" Oliver asked.

"However many Cady wants to bless me with."

Oliver grunted but continued on with the interrogation. Finally, Oliver sat back and crossed his arms over his chest. "You know I'll destroy you in every legal way possible if you hurt her like Jordan did."

"Jordan's a dick and I wouldn't respect you if you didn't protect Cady."

Oliver held out his hand and Colton shook it. "Call me Uncle Ollie. If I see you tomorrow when I'm supposed to come visit Cady, you just pretend it's our first time meeting. I was never here unless you mess up, then you'll never be able to forget me."

Oliver strode from the farmhouse as if he'd never been there.

"That was strange, right?" Colton asked his family.

"Not really. We always threaten the boyfriends. Gives me a lot of respect for him," Cade told him as everyone else added their agreements.

But then they all stopped at the sound of people stomping up the stairs. The door was flung open and the women piled in with red faces and talking a mile a minute. His grandmother was instantly there with the coffee she'd been plying the men with for the past hour.

"Shh!" Evie said. "Stella, show them."

"Cade, can I borrow you for a second?" Stella asked, grabbing a cup of coffee. Colton looked at his father, who looked slightly worried.

Stella looked around, grabbed a baseball cap that was hanging on a hook then grabbed Cade's hand, dragging him down the back hallway. "Just do it. Like this," they heard Stella instructing. "It's not silly. Y'all do it all the time and don't even realize it."

A second later, his father came out with the baseball cap on backward and leaned against the doorframe. "Like this?"

There were several gasps. Colton didn't understand why. He did that all the time.

"Look at your wife and say her name," Stella whispered. "Smolder."

Cade winked at his wife. "Annie," he said, his voice low and... sexy?

Suddenly Colton's mother jumped up, strode across the room and slid under Cade's arm. She stopped and looked up at him, then turned wide-eyed to the women. "I totally get it now." Then she grabbed Cade's hand and pulled him from the house.

"What just happened?" Colton asked Cady.

"Are you sober?" Cady asked, not answering. "Because I am if you need me to drive."

"We're all sober. Grandma made sure of it. Why?"

"Because we are leaving. Right now."