Page 284 of The Broken Aztec Princesses

Once they were properly settled, I nodded at Chris, who cleared his throat and addressed my students.

“What did the boy say to his fingers?” he asked the class.

“What?” Every single one of the children asked as one.

“I’m counting on you,” Chris told them seriously.

In the fashion of seven-year-olds, they burst out laughing and cackling. I shook my head, and let them laugh it out of their systems.

Every day, Chris told them a different joke. A few parents had asked me where they were getting so many jokes, and groaned when I let them know it was their end-of-day treat. They were all good-natured about it, thankfully, because I wasn’t about to deny my husband the joy he got when they laughed at his jokes.I even bought him a new book last Christmas, so he had more material.

“How was your day, Little Warrior?” Chris asked as he stood behind me while parents began to pick up their children.

“Good. Most of them are getting the hang of sentence structures. They’ll be ready to do their own cards by Mother’s Day.”

Once the last kid was gone, I gathered my purse to leave. I turned to my husband, and he pushed me gently with one hand until I was against the desk. He dipped his head, and lay a kiss on my lips.

“Daddy, no!” Elijah grabbed Chris’ cheek and pulled.

Chris pulled back, having to cut the kiss short, chuckling.

“We protect mami (mommy) from others, not me, Eli. I would never hurt mami.”

“Mine. My mami,” Elijah continued to push his daddy’s face from mine until Chris shook his head with another chuckle, and gave in. Once Elijah was satisfied no more kisses would take place, and settled down, Chris placed his hand on my stomach.

“How’s my other little warrior doing in there?”

“She made me throw up once today,” I tattled.

“Well, at least that's an improvement,” he chuckled.

We’d only found out our third pup was a girl a week ago, though I’d already guessed this one would be different. Like the true protectors they both were, neither Oliver nor Elijah gave me any trouble during my pregnancies. But this little girl was giving me a fight. I was three months along, and still had the occasional nausea.

We walked to the park near the school and let Elijah run and join Oliver and Bells’ kids, Liz, Cora and Ian, who was almost five, as they played in the jungle gym. Every day, Bells picked up Oliver when she picked up Liz and Cora, and hung out at the park until I was done with work.

Chris and I sat down on the bench next to Bells, as she watched the children play.

“Where’s Cade?” Chris asked, eyeing Bells suspiciously.

“Annoyed and stuck in a meeting,” Bells chuckled. “It’s going on so long. I was so happy to ditch him there, and come pick up the kids.”

“He lose the rock, paper, scissors?” I asked.

“Nope. I used the pregnant lady needs some air card,” Bells grinned, unrepentantly.

Bells was due in two weeks and she insisted this would be her last pregnancy. She was expecting twins again and already threatened to cut off Cade’s equipment if he didn’t get a vasectomy. It appeared five pups splitting her open was her magic number.

Evie and Cory showed up with their brood a few minutes later. Lucas and Leo ran straight to the kids, while Anna appeared to take after her mother and already loved having her nose stuck in a tablet, though she did put it down when the kids called for her, and she joined whatever game they were playing. Their fourth, Alex was not walking yet, so he was firmly stuck on her hip despite his attempt to wiggle off to join the fun. Emi and Luis came barreling into the kids a few minutes later, Lucien running to keep up while Cecilia trailed behind, her four-month pregnant stomach making it difficult for her to move very fast.

Dad had a running joke about how his kids kept coordinating their pregnancies. Evie and Cecilia had gone through parts of their first pregnancy together. After that, Bells, Evie and I had our babies. Then Bells and Cecilia went through another pregnancy together a year later. Two years after that, I was pregnant along with Areli. Last year Evie and Areli had been pregnant together, and now Bells, Cecilia and I had fallen pregnant within a month of each other.

All of our kids were close in age to each other, guaranteeing no one ever felt alone. All of us brought our kids here to bond after school. Areli was too far away to make it during the school days, but she always brought her three every Saturday morning for breakfast and lunch at grandma’s, something everyone was still more than willing to attend.

“Hey, am I late?” Adrien called from behind us.

“Nah, they just got here.”

“Go play!” Adrien told his shy five-year-old while he gave him an encouraging little shove.

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