Page 110 of Pucked and Pregnant

My mother ignores him and continues to ooh and aah over her grandchildren. “What are their names going to be?” she asks.

I relay our chosen names and my mother claps her hands. “Oh, I love that you picked a Russian name!” she says. “That’s so unique.”

“It is an excellent strong name,” Dimitri pipes up from out of frame.

“So, when is the wedding?” my mother asks, looking away from me to stare at Aiden. Aiden gulps and glances down at me.

“Mom, we don’t have a date yet, you know that” I remind her. “You’ll be the first to know when we do, I promise.”

“I just want to be sure that we get things right is all,” my mother insists. “I think you should come here and…”

I let my mom chatter on about the wedding of her dreams, which is also supposed to be the wedding of my dreams, apparently and look at my sleeping children. I know that they will eventually be pooping, puking, and screaming all the time, but for the moment, they are so beautiful and perfect.

“You boys take care of her for me,” my mother tells Aiden, wagging a finger at him sternly. “She needs rest, and you guys had better call me first if you have any questions. Don’t bother her if she’s sleeping and don’t ask her to cook for you and…”

I tune my mom’s lecture out, feeling Adam stirring in his sleep. He brings his little fist up to his mouth and starts a tiny squeal that soon turns into a full-bore shriek.

The nurse comes in and waves at my mom, then starts walking me through the process of getting the babies to latch on for breastfeeding for the first time.

“I’ll talk to you later, Mom!” I call out over the crying of my two hungry sons.

Max takes that as his cue and turns the camera around before leaving the room.

“You guys pay attention to this,” I tell them, my brain feeling soupy with fatigue and emotion. “I might forget how to do it later,” I add sarcastically.

They cluster around as the nurse hands Alexei to Dimitri, then lifts Adam, helping me position him against my breast. He takes a couple of tries to figure out how to start nursing, but once he’s got it figured out, he gets to work. We repeat the process with Alexei, and then blessed silence fills the room.

“Is it possible to just feed them 24/7?” I ask wanly, my ears still ringing from the cries of my hungry children.

The nurse laughs. “Sadly, no, but we will get them started on formula while you are here for the next couple of days. Then your men can help you with the feeding schedule.”

“Yippee,” I say sarcastically.

“Have I mentioned that I love you,” Aiden tells me, leaning over to kiss my forehead.

“Yes, but I never get tired of hearing it.”

“You were a fierce warrior, my angel,” Dimitri tells me, leaning down and kissing me on the lips.

“Thank you for blessing us with these perfect little humans,” Connor tells me, a tear slipping down his face as he cups my cheek.

“I love you all so much,” I tell them, my voice thick with emotion. “And I love both of you,” I tell the tiny people happily nursing in my arms. “We are so lucky,” I whisper to them. “We have three wonderful men to share our lives with, to help us, and to share their love with us.”

I look at the circle of love surrounding me, and realize just how blessed I am. This might be unconventional, and it might make some people uncomfortable, but it has always been the one thing I wanted most in this world.

“Hey, Stanley Cup champs. Can one of you slapshot some ice chips into my mouth? My hands are kind of full.”

I know that there are going to be challenges, and we are all going to have to perform as a tightknit team to make things work out, but I have total faith that we can do it.

EPILOGUE: LIV

“Why can’t I know where we’re going?” I demand for the hundredth time, holding my hands out in front of me as my men lead me through the airport.

“It’s a big surprise. Telling you where we are going would ruin it,” Aiden says.

“Where are the kids?” I demand, trying to look around.

“Stop freaking out,” Connor tells me. “Dimitri has them.”

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