Page 1 of A Very Miller-Cooper Life

Chapter 1

Charlie

“Fuck my life.”

I broke into a fit of giggles as I watched my wife lay on the floor and stare blankly at the ceiling. The scene was humorous, but definitely not as funny as I was making it out to be. Lack of sleep would do that to you. I bounced the one baby that was still awake on my knee. Reagan had just spent the past hour getting the other two down, hence her current mood.

When I didn’t answer her, Reagan continued her curse filled rant. “Seriously, fuck this. We’re not having any more fucking kids.”

I covered Carter’s ears as if our three-month-old was somehow going to absorb Reagan’s words and shout the wordfucksuddenly. If that actually happened, I wouldn’t be mad because it would be ridiculously impressive. I laughed out loud at my own thoughts, then finally responded to Reagan. “I’ve never heard you swear this much. Also, don’t we need one more? What about Disney?”

“Fuck Disney. Someone can sit alone. Hell, I’ll do it. I don’t care.”

I laughed once again. I was pretty sure the lack of sleep these past few months was getting to both of us. “Deal. Three sounds good to me.”

Reagan waved a finger in my direction. “How’s that going?”

I watched as Carter slowly blinked her eyes, the eyes staying closed longer with each blink. “I think she’s finally falling asleep,” I whispered just loud enough for Reagan to hear. The last thing I needed was for my voice to snap her awake.

“Thank the fucking Lord.” Reagan let out an exaggerated yawn and rubbed her eyes. “With the way Carter was thrashing around in her crib, I didn’t think she would ever fall asleep.”

I blinked my eyes a few times as I stared down at the baby in my arms, wondering if I was losing my mind. When those soft hazel eyes looked up at me, I knew I wasn’t. Our daughters, Carter and Olivia, might be identical, but as their mom, I could still tell them apart. Apparently, the same couldn’t be said for their other mom. “You do realize it was Olivia that you just spent the past two hours getting to sleep, right?” I asked with a laugh.

Reagan shot up into a seated position and furrowed her eyebrows at me. “Bullshit. I know my own daughters.”

“Clearly you don’t,” I said with a giggle while pointing down at the baby who was now sound asleep in my arms. “Because this is most definitely Carter.”

“How can you tell?” Reagan stood up and walked over to me, looking down at our daughter in wonder.

I smiled up at her and whispered, “It’s all in the eyes.”

Reagan softly scoffed. “They literally have the exact same eyes.”

She wasn’t wrong about that. They had the exact same everything. Before getting pregnant I had no idea it was possible to have an identical pair of children and a third who is fraternal, but apparently it is. The odds are about one in a million, but of course, if something like that could happen, it would totally happen to me and Reagan. “They have the samecoloreyes. Carter’s are softer, while Olivia’s have a fire behind them.”

“Of course they do. We should have known when we named a child after Nana that they had no chance of being chill.”

“You should have realized as soon as she was thrashing around in the crib that it was Olivia and not Carter.”

Our daughters might look exactly alike, but their personalities were already completely opposite. Carter was content as long as she was snuggled up in someone’s arms (which made it hard to ever lay her down in the crib), and Olivia wasnevercontent. She would go wild until she had no energy left and no choice but to pass out. I already had no question that she was going to be our troublemaker.

Reagan nodded slowly as if she was considering what I just said. “That’s true. It did seem out of character, but I’m so fucking exhausted, the fact that I might not have the child I thought I did never crossed my mind. Olivia is laying in Carter’s crib by the way. There’s no way I’m moving her now.”

I waved my hand. “I’m too tired to deal with this one waking up as soon as I lay her down, so I think I’ll just let her sleep in my arms for a while anyway.”

Reagan yawned once again as she sat down next to me on the couch. “Seriously though. I’m so exhausted. How thefuckam I going to make myself look human for Jamie’s wedding in three weeks?”

I looked at my wife who clearly had the exhaustion written all over her face with the deep bags under her eyes and the wrinkles on her forehead that seemed to have become a permanent fixture, but she was still the most gorgeous woman in the world to me. Hell, she was even more gorgeous now. She was exhausted from raisingourchildren. This was our little family, and although the last three months had been completely insane, I couldn’t help but smile about that fact.

I patted Reagan’s arm. “You’re going to look absolutely breathtaking, my dear. I have no doubt about that.”

A smirk spread across Reagan’s face as she carefully leaned closer to me so our lips were just inches apart. “So, what you’re saying is you still think I’m hot, huh?”

I licked my lips as I stared at hers, heat rising in my belly at the thought of things we hadn’t done in much too long. “I think you’re very hot.”

Reagan leaned a little bit closer, but instead of kissing me, her eyes moved to the baby I had almost forgotten was sleeping in my arms. “Think we can get her into Olivia’s crib so we can have some special mommy time?”

There’s nothing I want more.“I’m certainly willing to try.”

---