Page 15 of A Very Montgomery Christmas

And I promptly burst into tears.

Chapter 5

Francine

Ihad made many mistakes in my life, but somehow I had ended up the most blessed and happiest woman in the entire world, at least from where I was sitting.

Liam had just returned to the waiting room after dropping off Arden, Lake, and Jasper at home. Lake had wanted to be there, but it was nearly midnight now, and she had fallen asleep. Arden had needed to take her meds and get some rest as well, as her flare-up was starting to get worse. But she was doing okay. And I was grateful for that. I love my daughter-in-law. She was vivacious, with whatever energy she had. She was brilliant, caring, and one of the most generous souls I had ever met. She had brought Liam out of his shell and brought him back to us.

I held back a sigh that twisted my heart, familiar but gentler than it had been over the years. I had almost lost him, not due to circumstance or outside forces, but because of my own decisions. We had nearly lost him, I thought, looking over at my husband. He gave me a small smile and squeezed my hand. He gestured towards Liam, and I knew his thoughts were along the same as mine. After over three decades of marriage, our minds tended to do that.

He might not be Liam’s biological father, but he was his dad in every way that mattered. We may have stumbled on our way to this peace of mind, but now we were one big happy family that was slowly watching our children raise their children.

And sometimes the emotion was too great for me even to bear.

“You doing okay, Mom?” Liam asked, as he squeezed my shoulder. I leaned into my son, wondering when he had gotten so tall. Bristol was the only one my height, but my boys had gotten their height from the other end of the gene pool. They were all over six feet, broad, muscular, and sometimes strained my neck to look at.

But even with all that width and strength, they were gentle.

“I’m doing just fine. I’m waiting to hear more news coming,” I whispered.

“It should be soon. And hey, if things speed up in the next hour or so, we’ll have a Christmas baby.”

“Of course, Bristol would want to do that. She needs to make sure everything is sparkly and in celebration.”

“That’s my baby sister,” he drawled, before moving out of the way for Ethan.

“We need to head home,” Ethan began, “though I’ll stay. As long as you don’t mind giving me a ride home?” he asked Liam, and Liam nodded.

“No problem.”

“Thanks,” Ethan said before looking at me. “We don’t want Kingston to be sleeping here for too long, and honestly, I think I heard Lincoln sleeping earlier.”

“It was only a little snore. I’m fine.” Lincoln leaned forward, kissed the top of my head. He was just as big as my sons, and I felt like he was my own. I liked his parents, though I wished they were here more often. However, I got another son and daughter and the cutest grandbaby in the world out of it. So I didn’t mind.

“You guys lasted longer than I thought you would,” I said, and then leaned into put a kiss on Lincoln’s cheek, and then Holland’s. “Are you two safe to drive?”

“I’m good. That little power nap there helped,” Lincoln said dryly.

“Tell Bristol we love her, and we’ll come to see the new baby when they arrive,” Holland said, and I leaned forward to kiss the top of Kingston’s head. “We were just here a couple of days ago for Kingston’s first round of shots, and we’ll be here soon for the second round.”

“That was a couple of weeks ago, darling,” Lincoln said, and Holland crossed her eyes.

“Days, weeks, they’re all blurring together,” she said on a laugh. “Update us, even if it wakes us, we want to know when there’s a new Montgomery in the world.”

“I’m pretty sure the earth will rotate off its axis just a bit when that happens,” my husband said wryly. “Every time a new Montgomery is born, the world shudders.”

That made me laugh. “That is our family slogan.”

“Good to know,” Lincoln said. “See you soon.”

“And Merry Christmas,” Holland added. They walked out, and I just smiled after them, my eyes watery.

“We did okay,” my husband said, and I looked up at Timothy.

“Oh?” I asked.

“Francine, darling, we did better than okay. Look at all of them, bringing new life into this world, and soon we’re going to have enough chubby cheeks to pinch and babies to spoil. And as soon as they make a mess or start to stink or make a loud noise and cry, we hand them off to their parents.”

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