Page 227 of Deceit

I envy how my so-called buddy knows more about those kids than I do. That he gets to spend all his time bonding with them, and I’ve only had moments. How he and Emmy work so perfectly together that, if Mills was the father, she’d never have to worry about a thing.

“You might have to up her ounces,” she tells him, plopping carelessly down on the couch. “Is Alaric the same?”

“Nah, dude is mellowed out as shit. Unlike the man he was named after.”

That gets me to smirk as I lean over the white granite island and cover my mouth with my hand.

“Where is that asshole?”

“Eavesdropping on our conversation,” my wife tells him without glancing over at me. No, she knows my eyes are always glued on her because she’s the only damn thing I see. “You hear that, Atlas? You’re gonna need to watch what you say.”

“Don’t teach her that shit,” Mills chides. “You’re gonna make us all gray-haired and on anxiety medication.”

Emmy scoffs. “Like you’re not above hair dye.”

“I dunno…I might rock the silver fox look.”

“Don’t teach my son to be a tool. Lemme see him.”

“Hold on.” There is some rustling on the phone and Emmy rises from the couch and walks over to me.

“Do you want to see how big they are?” Her voice is excited for the first time since I’ve been around her, and she holds out her phone for me to look. The excitement she’s wearing is one of many that broke me down and got me to fall in love with her.

I nod as she stands beside me. With my forearm wrapping around her waist, I pull her over to sandwich her between the counter and my body.

Standing over her short frame, I can see perfectly, and Mills catches me on the screen a moment later.

“Oh, hey man. Enjoying the heat?”

“No.” The screen pans over to Atlas who has a yellow headband on and a pink flower on the side.

“You look so pretty,” Emmy croons. “Mama will be home soon…I promise.”

“Here he is,” Mills says behind the call and then another identical baby shows up in a blue shirt, staring at us while sucking on those plastic things.

“Aw, my little man.” Emmy brings the phone to her face and kisses the screen. “Hey, baby.”

I feel a shift in Emmy’s body as if she’s just tampered down a sob or a shiver.

“They’re doing good, Lou Boo,” Mills professes and he must visibly recognize how much this is destroying her. That each day she’s away from her babies is pure torture for her. “Atlas is in love with me.”

Emmy chuckles, and that’s when I feel the break in her torso. The uneven intake and exhale of air. She’s barely holding on by a thread.

“If you cry, I’m teaching Alaric my cocky smirk.” Mills, for the loyal bastard that he is, tries to lighten the mood, and it must work because Emmy wipes away at her face.

“Teach him, and I’ll choke your ass out.”

“Hey, is that my girl?!” shouts a voice in the background and before Mills can even confirm or deny the fact, the phone is snatched and Marty’s face shows up. “Hey, Emmy Lou, how did it go?”

“Let’s just say Kai isn’t B723,” she comments. “Bishop had to go at half the bar.”

“A-fucking-again?” Kyson’s voice chimes in before his redheaded-ass appears. “Dude, you should’ve been a bouncer.”

“Not enough action,” I convey.

“How much of it did you break?” Marty asks off with a proud lift of his lips.

“A few chairs.”

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