16. Jackson

Chapter 16

Jackson

I bounced on my seat and wound the car window down, eager to catch a glimpse of the amusement park.

Each Sunday, one of us would choose an activity that he hadn't done previously, and we would try and do it.

Brooklyn said he'd never been to an amusement park and neither had Marcelo. I'd been tons of times as a kid, but my alpha dad was an engineer and worked at the park closest to our house, so we never had to pay full price for admission. I understood not every family was as fortunate as mine, so I pleaded with my father to get us tickets.

I told him I had friends who'd never been, and he was aghast they hadn't experienced the thrill of their tummy dropping as they fell from a tall tower or zoomed up a steep slope and down the other side, screaming the whole time.

"We're almost there." People walking along the sidewalk to the park laughed.

Brooklyn was almost as excited as I was, but Marcelo's pale cheeks concerned me. He'd been enthusiastic when we'd talked about us coming here earlier in the week. Maybe he was scared of heights and didn't want to admit it.

I leaned over to the back seat and patted his knee. "You don't have to go on any rides. There's lots of yummy food—the corn dogs are to die for—and we can see who's the best at the bumper cars."

He nodded and smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. He leaned his head on the headrest and closed his eyes. I was overwhelmed with guilt at him wanting to be part of today's activity but not having the courage to tell us. Perhaps Brooklyn and I should stay with him and not go on the roller roaster. I could come any time. Niall was always up for an afternoon on the roller coaster or tower of terror.

We got out, and I tucked my arm in Marcelo's. "If you had to choose how to spend the afternoon, what would you do?"

He leaned in close. "Be with my two loves."

"Is that coffee and cake?" I quipped.

He shuddered and cleared his throat. That wasn't like Marcelo. He never refused cake, and he and Brooklyn often had coffee early in the morning before I woke up. That pair never needed as much sleep as I did.

We wandered into the park and wove around the crowds. I sidled up to Brooklyn. "Is Marcelo afraid of heights?"

He guffawed. "He most definitely isn't. He's spent a major part of his life in the air."

"Huh? Was he a pilot?" Marcelo had a job which had his feet firmly on the ground.

"No." He hurried off to Marcelo who was staring at the Ferris wheel. Was Brooklyn trying to say Marcelo was a dreamer?

"I want to try the roller coaster." Marcelo strode toward the line of people waiting to get on the ride.

"Should we try and dissuade him?" Brooklyn and I were scurrying after our omega. I forgot sometimes that Marcelo was an omega because he looked and acted more like an alpha. Or how society expected an alpha to behave.

"Trust me. Marcelo is more at home on a roller coaster than you." Brooklyn kissed my cheek.

That was a little odd because neither Marcelo nor Brooklyn had been on this ride. They were roller coaster virgins. But Marcelo was an adult, and he could tell us if he was terrified of going on the ride. So, I stopped worrying.

"A lot of people throw up on roller coasters." People in front of us groaned, and someone yelled they'd been on this ride fifty times.

I sat in the front cart, and Brooklyn and Marcelo in the one behind me. "Buckle up, buttercups. You're in for a wild ride."

Neither of them appeared nervous, and I prepared myself for the thrills that awaited as we tore up, down, and around. We started slowly, and Marcelo hissed, "Is this all it is? What's so?—"

But the rollercoaster train hurtled around a bend and up a steep slope.

People behind us screamed, and I told the guys to put their hands up as we tore downward. Up and up we chugged, the anticipation growing. I was shaking as I awaited that terrifying dip when we plunged down.

"Can we speed it up?" Brooklyn yelled.

"Nooooooo!" Down we zoomed, and my two loves squealed.

"Yessssss!" The train swerved around a bend and dipped down again.

"My stomach," Marcelo yelled.

There was nothing I could do if he was going to throw up. I just hoped the vomit wouldn't fly in my direction. We'd had a delicious curry for lunch, but I didn't want to see it reappear.

When we reached the end of the ride, I ran my fingers through my hair and unbuckled. Brooklyn hopped out to the cart, but Marcelo was slumped over in his seat, groaning. We helped him out as people shoved past us, yelling how much they'd enjoyed the ride.

"We'd better leave." I got on Marcelo's other side.

"No, I don't want to spoil your fun."

I explained how I couldn't have fun when he was ill, and we could return another day. "But could I get a corn dog to eat on the way home? And one for you, Brooklyn?" Brooklyn refused, so I got one for me, but when I returned, my two loves had their heads together, talking animatedly.

A pang of something like worry stabbed my side, fearing Marcelo was confiding in Brooklyn but not sharing whatever it was with me.

Brooklyn didn't start the car but turned to Marcelo who once again was in the back. "We'd prefer to break the news to you at home, but I can sense you're worried or perhaps just confused." He squeezed my hand. "And there's no need. Marcelo is fine, he has a queasy stomach, but there's a reason for that."

"You have the flu?"

He shook his head. "We don't get the flu."

Why did I get the impression he was talking about him and Brooklyn when he said "we"? And who was immune to the flu? No human I knew, and we were all human, so…

"I'm pregnant." Marcelo fixed his gaze on me.

"What?" I leaped up, and my head hit the car roof. "A baby?" I looked at Brooklyn who nodded. "You're having a baby?"

"Maybe more than one."

"Twins." I undid my seat belt and crawled into the back seat, hugging Marcelo and yelling at Brooklyn to get back here too.

"Who knows, maybe more?" Brooklyn added as we were smooshed together in the very small back seat.

That was kind of ominous, because there were often complications with multiple births, but he was just guessing, as he hadn't seen a doctor or had a scan. Marcelo had never shared much about his birth family. Maybe multiple births were common.

"There's something else we have to tell you that's potentially more earth-shattering than a pregnancy."

I drew away from them, because what could be bigger than finding out you were going to be a dad? "Are you kidding me?" Brooklyn didn't have a poker face, so I didn't think he was joking.

"Nope." Marcelo brushed his lips over my brow. "Wanna see?"

I half expected him to unzip his pants and show me his cock. But I'd seen that many times, even though my mouth gaped each time at its huge girth.

"Okay," I said warily. I didn't like surprises.

"It's outside town a ways." Brooklyn climbed in the driver's seat, but I stayed in the back with Marcelo who slept as Brooklyn drove. I thought about what my folks would say when they discovered I was in a relationship with two men and one of us had impregnated the omega. I didn't give a damn about DNA. This baby—or babies—belonged to all three of us.

Brooklyn turned off the main road onto a small side road. There were dense woods on either side, and I shivered. He pulled up in a clearing with a view to the mountains.

"Did you buy a piece of land for us to build on?" I was a city boy, but a big house out here with space for our kids to run around would be pretty great. I'd have a longish commute, but that didn't matter.

"No. Would you like to live outside the city?"

I'd never considered it, but maybe. "So what did you want to show me?" I wandered through the long grass until Marcelo warned me about snakes. Yikes. Maybe a house in the countryside wasn't for me.

"This is what we should have told you earlier, but we can't avoid it now, with the babies coming." Marcelo stood beside Brooklyn.

I wrapped my arms around myself. I was with my two loves and yet felt so isolated.

"You're scaring me."