Page 2 of Pack Plus More

“Just say the word when you're ready,” I said, planting another kiss on top of her head.

If it were up to me or any of the males in the pack, we would have had Daisy pregnant months ago. As soon as Poppy and Petunia were born, our entire worldview shifted. Our lives had become about being dads. We wanted a whole pack of babies—but that wasn’t up to us. We would accept however many babies Daisy wanted to bless us with and in whatever time frame. After all, she was the one having to go through with the birth, and I knew that the early days of her pregnancy with the girls weren’t easy.

She had been completely on her own. Now that wouldn't be happening again, but I understood that it gave her some pause.

“It’s tempting,” she admitted.

Part of me wanted to push, but I didn’t want my excitement and desperation to grow our family to pressure her, so I just lightly rubbed her shoulders.

“Do you want to come last minute Christmas shopping with me and Jeremy tonight? We need to grab the last few things for Christmas dinner, and I think Jeremy wants to get a few more toys.”

“More toys?” She asked, turning to give me an incredulous look.

“You know Jeremy,” I laughed.

I didn't admit that I was probably the one who had gone the most overboard with the gift buying. Fortunately, we weren't addressing the gifts as being from individual dads. They were just from the dads or from Santa.

So hopefully Daisy wouldn't realize that I was a complete shopping addict and had spent probably the income of a small household on our daughters.

“If you don't mind taking the girls with you, I can take the opportunity to wrap some Christmas gifts,” Daisy suggested.

Gift wrapping is definitely not my strong suit. The girls' gifts had so many weird edges and shapes that wrapping them in paper was a gargantuan task for me. In the past, my solution would have been simply to put things in gift bags, but that didn't feel quite as magical as it should for the girls. This Christmas was the first time they were really going to be able to rip into wrapping paper and I didn't want them to miss out on that.

“That sounds like a plan.” I beamed down at her for a moment before turning to the girls. “Who wants to go out with Daddy?” I asked the girls excitedly.

The little chorus of “me!” made me grin.

I couldn't even remember what my life was like before them.

Jeremy

December 23rd

“Why did you wait so long to get these?” Nate laughed as we made our way through the crowds.

“I didn’t!” I grumbled. “I ordered the gifts months ago, but do you know how hard it is to get them in that size?” I asked, my voice unsure.

I didn’t know if I was making the right call, and I hadn’t spoken to Daisy before ordering these particular gifts for the girls. We had come out solo, Devon had taken the girls, and Daisy was wrapping parcels. This close to the holiday, everywhere was so packed that bringing the girls felt impractical. They were small and easily overstimulated. We had taken them to meet Santa a few weeks ago, when things were a lot calmer. The pictures from that day were now displayed on our walls and I was even using them as my phone screensaver.

“I should have consulted Daisy, shouldn’t I?” I asked as we approached the counter. Christmas music thundered through the speakers, making it hard to hear anything other than the happy Christmas jingles that were impossible to escape.

“They’re going to be awesome,” Nate assured me. “If she wants to wait a bit longer we can just buy bigger ones down the line.”

The ice rink shop was packed out. Everyone was getting last minute Christmas gifts. Despite the last-minute nature of our own excursion, I had planned this gift a long time in advance. My daughters had tiny little feet, and so their skates needed to be custom made.

“Hey, are you Jeremy Monroe?” a voice said next to me. I looked down to see a child, probably no more than ten, gazing up at me.

Crap.

I had worn a baseball hat in an attempt to conceal my identity. Ice rink stores were not the best places for me to remain anonymous. Even though I was officially working into retirement, I was still recognizable.

Nate laughed. “You should have had those skates delivered.”

Ignoring my pack mate, I turned to the kid kneeling, so I was eye level with him, even though I felt claustrophobic with all the bodies around.

“I am,” I nodded, giving him a warm smile.

The child’s eyes lit up and he bounced happily on the spot. “I asked Santa for your jersey for Christmas!” he said, his words almost blurring together in his excitement.

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