Page 160 of Full Mountie

Matthew’s boyfriend leans in and the conversation veers into a parking garage construction debate.

I lean into Lachlan’s arm and close my eyes.

“How’s the tattoo?” he murmurs.

“Achy.” I take a deep breath. I’m still spinning from the experience. How crazy that we walked in on a whim and now I’m branded like this.

As theirs.

I smile to myself, then glance up at my lover. “I can’t wait to take the bandages off when we get home.” And carefully get between my men, and their tattoos that will both point to mine.

“We’ll have to be gentle,” he says under his breath as he laces his fingers through mine.

My smile grows.

Max appearsin the doorway an hour later. His eyes are bright, his hair is standing on end, and he’s sporting the world’s biggest shit-eating grin. “I’m a dad,” he announces as we all stand up and crowd around him. “Violet’s holding our son. My boy. I have a boy! His name is Noah. And I’m his dad.”

Gavin throws his arms around his best friend, and there’s a lot of back thumping. We all take turns congratulating him, then he tells us he’ll be back in a few minutes with Noah—and we’re allowed to look at him, but probably not touch, because while he likes us, that’s his son and he doesn’t care if that’s paranoid.

It’s the sweetest, most overwhelming thing I’ve ever seen.

My eyes are wet when he disappears again.

“A boy,” Ellie says, wiping tears off her cheeks too. “How amazing.”

Sasha’s beaming. Her smile slips when Lachlan mentions that Tate isn’t responding to messages to get his ass to the hospital, but then Max returns with a tiny, perfect baby wrapped in blue and white striped flannel, and nothing else matters.

Unlike Max and Violet, Noah’s fuzzy head is fair. “I was blond as a kid,” Max says, his voice full of marvel. “But I never thought…he’s just so perfect.”

I gently rub Noah’s tiny foot. “And tiny.”

“Do you want to hold him? I didn’t think I could let him go, but maybe I could. For a second.”

My heart explodes. “Could I?”

He nods, and carefully hands me the most precious eight-pound bundle in the world.

“Oh, my…” I press my lips together to try and keep from crying. “He’s gorgeous, Max.”

“That was all Violet’s doing.” He glances toward the door.

I gaze down at the baby, then carefully hand him to Ellie. She has the same here-take-my-ovaries expression on her face that I’m sure is painted all over mine. Sasha takes a quick cuddle, then it’s Gavin’s turn.

“Hey, little man,” says the prime minister. “Ready to take on the world?”

I turn to smile at Lachlan, but the look on his face steals my breath, my smile, my entire heart. Then he tosses his arm around Hugh and hugs him tight. Both of their gazes are full of emotion.

One day soon, we’ll talk about a baby of our own.

And she will be the luckiest baby in the world, to have three parents who love her to the moon and back.

59

Tate

I’m standingin the middle of the empty Senators locker room when my phone pings again.

Another text message, to go with the dozen others I haven’t been able to reply to.

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