Page 22 of Second Chance for a Made Man

“Daniels! I’m home!” I call out as I unlock the door of the penthouse apartment I share with my twin. I frown as I toss my keys in the bowl placed on the foyer table. “Daniella?”

I’m met with a silence interrupted only by the sound of traffic. I check the time on my phone and see it’s past five. She should be back from work by now. She had promised she would leave early so we could talk about my meet-up with Ezra. I shrug as I make my way to my room. She’s most likely running a little late. I’ll call her after my shower.

I sigh as I get under the spray of warm water. The chill is slowly dissipating as Vermont makes the shift from winter to spring, but the cold seems to be clinging. I adjust my stance so my hair isn’t under the spray as I think about what Ezra said.

To be honest I wasn’t expecting that response; and if Ella hadn’t insisted, I probably wouldn’t have told him about the babies at all. He’s a playboy who doesn’t want to settle down. As evidenced by the fact that our engagement had fallen through. How could I have known that he wants kids?

My lips tilt up a little. Ella will have a field day when I tell her. She was so sure he’d want to be involved despite all the evidencepointing otherwise. He’s always in one magazine or the other with a flavor of the month. Now that I think about it, he hasn’t made the headlines this year as much as he usually does.

I turn off the shower and wrap a towel around my body. As I walk into my bedroom, I hear the beep of the elevator in the foyer. Ella is finally home. “Daniels, what took you so long when you promised you’d be–” I trail off when I see the mountain of shopping bags adorning her arms.

She grins at me, her blue eyes sparkling with so much excitement. “You’re back, Charles. You won’t believe the goodies I got. I was only going to window shop, I swear, but then I just couldn’t resist purchasing a few necessities.”

“A few,” I say dryly as she dumps the bags on the living room chair. “What are these?”

“You’ll love them!” She takes off her suit jacket and toes her heels off. She sits cross legged in front of the couch and picks up one of the bags. She tips it, upending the contents. I frown, not understanding what the tiny items are. She does the same with another bag, and another until they’re all empty. Now the items are scattered across the tiled floor.

“Yo–you went shopping for baby items?” I blink, taking a step back.

“Isn’t it all so precious?” she asks, not looking up at me. “These are called onesies, adorable! Undershirts. And these are washcloths for the babies.” She picks up each item she names. “Apparently baby skin is so sensitive and needs to be treated with the utmost care. Obviously.” She rolls her eyes self-deprecatingly.

I take another step back, overwhelmed. There are tiny towels, mittens, caps, shoes, socks, sweaters, shampoo, body wash, even a miniature nail trimmer!

“Isn’t it too soon to get all these?”

“That’s why I got neutral colors, since we don’t know their genders yet, but it was so fun buying everything in twos! I can’t wait to go back there with you. Wait, which room are the babies going to sleep in? Oh, my God, we have to move out of here.”

“Wait, slow down, Ella. what the hell?” My back hits the wall, and I rest on it weakly.

She finally glances at me, and when she sees my expression, she slumps. “It’s too

much, isn’t it? I’m sorry. I’m just so excited!”

For some reason seeing her expression go from happy to downcast makes me feel horrible. I slowly slide down the wall until my ass hits the cool floor. Ella slowly blurs in front of me and before I know it, hot tears are spilling down my cheeks.

“Oh no!” my sister exclaims jumping up from where she’s sitting to walk to me. “Charlie, what’s wrong? What happened? I’ll pack it all away and return it back to the store…they did say I could get a refund.”

“N–no, it’s not that.” I sniff, swiping my hands over my face to clean off the tears but even more spill down. “They’re all really cute.”

“Was it your trip to Brattleboro? What did Ezra say? That bastard!” She wraps her arms around me and draws me to her chest.

I chuckle tearily, “No, it’s not him. He took the news better than I had expected. He actually wants to be involved in the babies’ lives.”

“As he should.” She tsks patting my back lightly, “So what is it? What happened?”

“I don’t know!” I burst out on a low wail, the tears spilling down again. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. You were so excited, and then I made you sad, which mademesad…and now I can’t seem to stop crying.”

“Shh, it’s okay, love. It’s the hormones.”

“I hate hormones,” I grumble, tucking my face underneath her chin. “I hate crying.”

“I know, darling, I know. Hey, want to know a fun fact?”

“Is it going to make me laugh?”

“I don’t know about it making you laugh, but it should pull you out of the funk you’re in.”

I raise my head to look at her. She has a mischievous smile, which makes me narrow my eyes. “Let’s hear it then.”

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