Page 106 of Breakaway Daddies

“We’ll get one of those bouncy castles installed in the backyard,” Thomas calls out without looking away from the speaker. “For enrichment.”

Rowan raises a brow. “Like we’re raising a zoo animal?”

“More like a very fast raccoon,” Bruno says solemnly. “With excellent genetics.”

I groan and flop my head back. “Why did I think I could handle all of youandthe babies?”

But even as I say it, I feel the smile tugging at the corner of my lips.

Because deep down, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Rowan’s face is a shade of pale I didn’t think possible for someone who’s usually sun-kissed and golden and annoyingly hot even first thing in the morning.

He’s crouched in the corner, head between his knees like he’s the one going through labor. Ally’s got a hand on his back, murmuring reassuring things to him while also shooting me an amused little glance.

“I’m fine,” I groan through a contraction, then point a finger in Rowan’s general direction. “He’s the one about to pass out. Somebody get that man a juice box.”

“He threw up twice already,” Ally says under her breath.

“Jesus,” I mutter. “Why do I feel like I’m the only one holding it together right now?”

Thomas bounces back over like an over-caffeinated waiter, dropping a new cup of ice chips beside me, then holding up another one.

“These are fresh,” he announces. “In case the other ones… like… expire or something.”

“They don’t expire, Thomas,” I grit out, but I take a handful anyway and chew with more aggression than necessary. It’s better than yelling. Barely.

Bruno, meanwhile, is pacing by the window, muttering in Slovak and waving his phone like it’s a talisman.“Nie, babka, pocujem ta, ale hovorím ti, je to v poriadku…”

He pauses, listens, then nods furiously. “Yes, Iamrubbing her lower back! No, not with mustard! That’s for colds…”

I let out a bark of laughter between ragged breaths and shake my head. “Is he talking to hisgrandma?”

“Yup,” Ally says cheerfully. “For the fifth time.”

I close my eyes and lean my head back against the inflatable wall of the birthing tub. I am inhell.

Loud, chaotic, love-drenched, ridiculous hell.

And even through the pain and the sweat and the bone-deep exhaustion, I wouldn’t trade these idiots for anything.

Finally,finally, after what feels like centuries of sweat and pain and deep, primal noises I didn’t even know my body could make, there’s a rush of movement around me, and then…

A cry.

One strong, piercing, beautiful cry.

It cracks through the room like thunder, raw and alive, and I sob with it, collapsing against the edge of the tub as Nina lifts a slippery, red-faced baby into the air like it’s the goddamn Lion King.

“She’s here,” Nina says, calm but glowing. “You’ve got a girl.”

My girl. My baby girl.

Ally’s wiping tears off her face. Rowan is openly crying. Bruno makes the sign of the cross and mutters something reverent. Thomas just stares, wide-eyed and dazed, like he’s just been tackled by joy itself.

They wrap her in a warm towel, hand her to me, and for a minute, the whole world stills.

But only for a minute.

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