Page 75 of Cautious

Kellen places the box down gently on the counter and steps back so I can rip it open.

Reaching inside, I pull out a letter and open it with one hand as I lift out a bottle of tequila and then a bottle of vodka from the box and place it on the counter. I scan the words on the note and smile before reading them out loud.

Sorry we can’t be with you today for your belated house warming celebration, but we’re thinking of you all the way from sunny Barbados. Here’s a little housewarming gift. Can you ask Peaches to hold on until we get back, pretty please? Wade was mean and wouldn’t let me change our vacation dates.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the gifts, see you soon.

Olivia, Mia, and Mr Mean.

P.S. The answer is always both.

I pull a little pink and white onesie from the box with a netted tutu around the middle and a fluffy pink stuffed bunny. Digging a little farther, I find a basket filled with pamper products for me and a pile of black T-shirts.

Lifting out one of the T-shirts, I see it’s a large men’s and it has writing across the chest. I can’t help the laugh that escapes as I toss a T-shirt to each of the guys in the room.

Marcus is the first to read it, and his laughter soon joins mine. “These are awesome,” he comments as the others read theirs, laughter ringing out around the room.

“I have a feeling this was all Wade’s doing.” Aiden laughs, slipping his T-shirt off over his head and replacing it with the new one.

Of course, now he’s done it, they all decide to follow suit, making me swallow my tongue and my panties dampen. I’m a bad, bad wife perving on the calendar boys. But in my defense, these pregnancy hormones have turned me into a sex fiend. Blake needs to hurry the hell up and get home so I can get my afternoon fix.

I frown when I realize my panties are really, really wet before it dawns on me. I’m not turned on; my waters broke.

Ah, goddamn motherfucking dickballs.

“Um guys,” I call out as they joke among themselves.

They carry on talking and making their way through the stack of sandwiches.

“Guys,” I call louder when nobody answers.

Kellen steps forward to move the box off the counter onto the floor when he sees the puddle by my feet. “Something is leaking,” he mumbles, dumping the box and grabbing up the paper towels.

“For fuck’s sake. It’s me I’m leaking!” I shout, and everyone freezes, taking a collective step back just as a contraction tightens across my stomach, making me hiss.

“Move out of the way.” Aiden shoves past Kellen and tucks me under his arm, moving me away from the frozen men in the kitchen and up the stairs to the bedroom. “Take a quick shower and get changed while I grab the go bags from the nursery and call Blake. I’ll leave the door ajar, so yell if you need me, okay?”

I nod, thankful that one of them managed to stay level-headed. “Thanks for not losing your shit,” I tell him, wincing when another contraction hits.

“If Matilda has taught me anything, it’s how to work under pressure,” he informs me with a wink. “Make that shower super quick.” He presses a kiss to my forehead before leaving me to clean up.

When he returns ten minutes later, I’ve already had another contraction, and I’m a hot, sweaty mess again despite the shower.

“How you doing?” he asks gently, placing his fingers on my wrist.

It takes me a minute to realize he’s taking my pulse. “I’m okay, but I think we should leave for the hospital now. You know those women that want to give birth all-natural like without any drugs? I’m not one of them. I want drugs, Aiden, all the drugs. You make sure to tell them that when we get there, okay?” I urge him, starting to feel anxious.

“I got you, short stuff, don’t worry. Let’s go. I have your stuff in the car already, and Blake is going to meet us at the hospital.”

I nod, feeling better, knowing he has everything under control. I take the hand he offers me, letting him help me to the bottom of the stairs where the other guys are.

“Who’s coming with me?” I ask, biting my lip as tears prick my eyes.

And that is how I find myself arriving at the hospital twenty minutes later with six hot guys, each wearing T-shirts that say:Guns don’t kill people, uncles with pretty nieces do.

BLAKE

“If you don’t slow down, you’ll arrive at the hospital in an ambulance instead of this car,” my grandmother says from the passenger seat beside me, her words slurred and halting, but understandable, unlike just after the stroke when she accidentally used the wrong words or forget some altogether.

---