Chapter Twenty-Four

“MAYBE I SHOULD CHANGE.” He glanced down at the getup he wore. It was a knit fabric with pleats in the front so there’d be room for his stomach and tied in the back.

“You look great. You’re due in a couple weeks. No one is expecting you to be ….” I had to be careful with my words. I didn’t want to make him cry.

“I look like I weigh five hundred pounds and think I’m going to barf.”

“If you’re not ready, we don’t have to go. Also, please don’t aim it at me again.” The last time was absolutely disgusting, but I never told him that because I knew he’d feel even worse about yakking all over me than he already did.

He frowned. “I said I was sorry.”

“We can reschedule.”

“No, let’s do it. When would we reschedule anyway?”

“After you have the baby?” There really wasn’t any other time. We were going to be dads very soon.

“Nope, let’s go.”

***

“So, this is the ever-elusive Max,” Theo said, letting us into their house of chaos.

“Sure is. Max, this is my cousin Theo.” They suggested they’d come to our house, but Max insisted we go over there. Once he had his mind set on something, there was no changing it.

“Nice to meet you,” he said, throwing his arms around Max. Theo was a hugger.

Garver smiled. “I’m so happy to finally meet you. Every time we see Bauer, you’re all he ever talks about.”

“Sorry it took so long,” Max said with a wince.

“We totally understand,” Garver said, leading us inside.

Max’s eyes went wide when he saw all of the kids. I told him how many they had, but seeing them all in person was a bit different. The twins ran in circles after each other, the quads were everywhere, climbing on the furniture, eating cereal from a pile on the floor, and one was clung to Theo’s leg. The fourth wasn’t in sight. That was never a good thing. The triplets were all in their bouncy seats.

We had a wonderful meal and talked well into the night. Well, Max only made it so far. He passed out on the couch. Theo and Garver said he was great, and I was very lucky to have found him. I couldn’t have agreed more.