Page 54 of Redemption's Inferno

“Yes.”

“When are you due? How are you feeling? Oh my God, I’m going to be a dad! Viggo!” He looked at his husband, waving the tests in his hand. “Viggo!”

“I know, lover, I can see.” Viggo was smiling.

“I mean, Simone is great, but—”

“You don’t have to explain,” Viggo interrupted. “We’re having another kid—there’s no lack of excitement just because we already have one.”

“So, when and what and tell me everything!” Jamie’s eyes glittered.

“I don’t know anything,” she smiled. “Aside from the pregnancy tests and starting prenatal vitamins, I haven’t even seen a doctor. I’m not doing any of that without you. You’ll be there to hear the due date, see it on the ultrasound screen for the first time—everything. I didn’t allow Viggo that pleasure, so this time you’ll be as involved as you want to be.”

“Emilie. Oh my God.” Jamie was just staring at her. “I, I don’t even know what to say. I thought…”

“I didn’t give it away because I wanted it to be special when you found out. I’m sorry if that caused you stress all this time, thinking it hadn’t happened and that I had a new boyfriend so now it probably wouldn’t.”

“Yeah, I…I didn’t know what to think.”

“You all right with this, mate?” Viggo looked at Chains knowingly. “If we’re going to be a family, you need to weigh in.”

Chains nodded. “Yeah, I’m good. I’m not thrilled with the idea of you three being intimate, but the part about being a family, well, that’s all good.”

“I think the sexual part of the intimacy is over,” Jamie said quietly, glancing at his husband. “Viggo and I have strong feelings about monogamy, despite our mutual attraction to the occasional woman.”

“Our friendship goes deep, though,” Viggo cut in. “We should talk about all of that.”

Noting Chains’ discomfort, Emilie squeezed his hand and spoke for him, hoping he wouldn’t mind. “Chains has never been in love like this before, so we’re taking it one day at a time. No long-term commitments just yet, until we’ve worked through my very complicated life and relationships.”

“It’s not that complicated,” Jamie said, looking at Chains. “Maybe to the outside world, and I suppose when the kids are older we’ll have to be a bit discreet for their sake, but here? In our home, it’s not complicated. We all care for each other and Emilie is doing something for me I couldn’t even imagine asking anyone else to do—even though she offered, I never asked.”

“Jamie and I are in love, completely monogamous,” Viggo added. “There won’t be a third—not Emilie or anyone else—in our marriage. Sexually, there are things we’ve discussed about threesomes and such, but if that happens, it will be at the club, and most likely only with strangers. We’re not even sure we want to do that, but if we do, it will be no different than the threesome Jamie had with Becca and Dante—there was no relationship other than friendship.”

“We will be parenting together,” Emilie said, her chest tightening a little as she watched Chains soak in all the information. “Most likely we’ll be sharing holidays and vacations, sending the kids to the same schools…”

“What if Viggo or Jamie is traded?” Chains asked a question that they’d all had in the back of their minds.

“I guess it would depend on when and where,” Emilie said slowly. “If it’s a Canadian team, the logistics would get extremely complicated for us because you and I are neither U.S. nor Canadian citizens and our jobs are here.”

“I’m not getting traded,” Jamie said quietly. “My contract with the Sidewinders includes a no-trade clause. Because of the attack and my injuries, we don’t even know if I’ll play again, so Lonnie pretty much secured my ability to play here until I’m done. And he knows with Viggo and me being married, moving Viggo would be complicated. It could happen, but if they were even considering it, they would come to us first. I don’t think that’s going to be an issue. If it comes up, I think the best move would be for Viggo to go and leave the kids here with either you or you and me both. He’d be traveling all the time anyway, so we’d have to work out a schedule to see them. If I’m not playing, I’d go back and forth to be with him but we’d keep this house and rent a small apartment wherever we are.”

Chains nodded. “Is the plan to live together?”

Viggo, Jamie and Emilie looked at each other. “Uh, I never thought about it,” she admitted.

“I think short-term, while she’s pregnant and you two are still navigating this new relationship, it might be best for us to keep living here together.” Jamie glanced at Viggo, who nodded. “But if you two decide this is forever, you’ll want your own place.”

“Absolutely,” Emilie said.

“Yeah.”

“Short-term, you could live here…” Viggo said slowly. “It’s a big house and with us, Emilie, Simone and Misty, there would be seven people living here, but it’s not like you’d need another bedroom.”

Chains laughed. “Definitely not.” His head swirled with all the details and information, but the thought of not sleeping next to Emilie every night made him realize that being apart wasn’t even an option.

“You could get rid of your apartment,” Emilie said, “and move in here. Since we’d only be paying some utilities and for food, we could start putting away money to buy our own place nearby. If things don’t work out between us, it’s not like you’ll have trouble finding another apartment and that saved money wouldn’t be touched.”

“Not worried about money, love.” He kissed the side of her face. “Just don’t want to muck things up for any of us. If there was something between the three of you—”

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