Page 116 of Scapegoat

“Mummy! Mummy!”

I jerked my head up off the pillow and then blinked, seeing my twin daughters come rushing into the room. Jayden groaned and then pulled me closer, but that didn’t protect me. Two little squirming bodies came and jumped on both of us, forcing the breath out of their father.

“God, how do they manage to get my—”

“Hello, beautiful girl!” I said, picking up Harper and putting her in my lap as Amelia climbed over to her dad.

“Did they…?” Atlas burst into the room, looking flustered. “You little rabbits. I told you to let your mother sleep in. Your daddy could get his butt out of bed though.”

Harper went rigid, a wicked grin spreading across her face. As I stroked her bright blonde hair back from her face, her eyes danced as she pointed at Atlas.

“Daddy said butt.”

“You just said butt too,” Jayden said, putting Amelia between us and then snuggling into all of us. “And you two are gonna get a smack on your butt for waking us up.”

The girls just cackled at that.

“Mummy, it’s our birthday!” Amelia looked up at me with a face completely alight with joy.

It was weird, but sometimes that was a hard thing to see with her. If Harper was the guys’ daughter through and through, Amelia was mine. Long dark hair and flashing brown eyes, but there was no fear in her. That was the bit that made my heart skip a beat and my lungs seize. I never let her see it though. She giggled wholeheartedly as Jayden tickled her, the sound only getting louder as Harper leapt off my lap to join in.

When you saw the two of them together, the twins differed in colouring only. They rampaged like little monsters, getting into everything and laughing, crying, screaming and talking their whole way through it.

And I loved them so much my heart ached.

“Happy birthday, my baby girls,” I said, smiling down at them, catching the way their cheeks flushed and their eyes shone, the giggles barely suppressed, so I threw myself down amongst them, tickling my daughters, my mates, everyone until they turned on me.

“Grandpa’s here!”

When we got up and got showered and dressed, we all worked together on the party preparations. I’d already cooked the cake and most of the treats, but there were some foods for the adults that needed finishing touches. The guys were ferrying stuff outside, getting everything set up before the guests arrived, but then my daughters came rushing back in. They were in pretty new party dresses for the day, but I saw grass stains on their knees and mud on their hands already.

“Is he?” I picked them up and set them up on the kitchen bench, then kissed each one of their noses. “Then you little monsters need to wash up, again.” They giggled as I shot them a fake grumpy look. “Grandpa doesn’t want grubby hands all over him.”

“Oh, I don’t think he minds.”

Dad came in with way too many presents in tow, the girls squealing when they saw them and then threw themselves off the bench without cleaning their hands, rushing towards him.

It’d taken awhile, but I’d come to appreciate Dad. He was never going to be my rock and expecting that would always lead to heartbreak, but… With the girls he was kind, gentle, attentive, listening to their weird little stories for hours, just glad to be around them and it was then I could see it. In a relationship with Mum, he was always going to be weak, but here? He could love them and get their love in return, be the kind of grandfather they needed and that helped heal a lot of the pain between us.

Then Anna walked in.

She caught the mess and the fuss with a slight frown, then walked over to me.

“Don’t you want to clean them up first?” she said, eyeing the kids.

“And hello to you, Anna,” I said, cocking one eyebrow.

She met my gaze, flushing when she realised what she was doing. She was still the girl I grew up with, but without Mum constantly puffing her up, she’d had to learn a little humility if she wanted family and friends. But her focus shifted back to the girls.

“Oh, Harper looks lovely in the dress I bought her,” my sister said, clasping her hands to her heart. “She’s such a pretty girl.”

A dress she’d bought for Harper only.

I wasn’t sure if it was deliberate or not, but she tended to look over Amelia, sending her instead a gift card. I’d opened the presents, knowing my sister, and when I’d talked to the guys about it, we’d tossed around whether or not we let her come to the party.

“I’d cheerfully drop kick that bitch over the back fence,” Jay said with customary bluntness and Atlas had just stared at the card fixedly, as if willing it to become a dress.

“But you want to try and have a relationship with your family,” Xavier said, and I nodded. “So make shit clear to her. She sees us, sees the girls, as long as she can behave in an appropriate manner.”

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