“What’s wrong?” I asked as I walked up to her, my arm automatically going around her hip.
“I just.” She grimaced as she rubbed her back again, pressing her head into my chest. “My back really, really hurts. Like, nothing’s touching it. I’ve taken ibuprofen, Tylenol, and even took a nap to see if that would help. But it’s only gotten worse.”
“It’s the sympathy pains,” Dillan said as she rubbed her belly.
I grinned.
Delanie rolled her eyes.
“I am not having sympathy pregnancy pains,” she growled.
I honestly wished that she was.
Why?
Because I wanted her to have my children.
But, sadly, that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.
Not if Delanie had anything to say about it.
Delanie wanted to focus on Asa, the dog training that had hit an all-time high, and her new marriage to me.
I couldn’t argue with her, because what she wanted was for me.
She wanted me to feel special.
She wanted me to have her love and attention.
And I couldn’t complain about that.
How could I?
“I’m nervous as hell,” Dillan said as she rubbed her belly, her eyes getting a faraway look in them.
“It’ll be fine,” Booth said as he walked up to his wife and wrapped his arms around her burgeoning belly. “Tomorrow’s going to go smoothly.”
She looked at me and rolled her eyes.
“He thinks it’ll go smoothly.” She snorted. “Nothing ever goes smoothly for us.”
It didn’t.
What could go wrong, did go wrong.
That was why the house we were going to be sharing took five months to build instead of two like they anticipated. Why we always got called out on SWAT calls when we were in the middle of something. Why Asa always got sick when we were the busiest.
But again, that was the good thing about having such a good family structure now.
Someone was always there when they were needed.
And whether it was me, Dillan, Booth or Delanie, there was always someone there to help.
“Tomorrow you’ll get called out on a SWAT call in the middle of her birth,” Delanie drawled. “I can feel it now.”
“I’m not on call,” Booth shot back, grinning.
“No,” I agreed. “But I am. I know that this isn’t my kid or anything, but I sure the fuck want to be there when my brother’s child is born. I’m the kid’s uncle, he needs to see me first so that he knows I’ll always have his back.”
Booth rolled his eyes. “The kid doesn’t need to see you first. He needs to see his father first. Because I’ve been highly anticipating his arrival.”
“Her,” Dillan corrected.
Booth rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”
They hadn’t found out the sex of the baby.
Not because they hadn’t wanted to find out, but because the baby was uncooperative and didn’t want them to find out.
Honestly, I found the whole damn thing kind of comical.
“Uhhhhh,” Delanie said as she pressed her face into the space between my pecs. “Now my stomach hurts, too. The pain is radiating. God.”
“How about you go to the bathroom. Take a bath,” I suggested.
“There’s so much left to do,” Delanie whined.
There was.
Today hadn’t been the best day to move in, but we’d put it off so long thanks to the builders taking for-fucking-ever getting their finishing touches done that we literally had no choice but to move in today.
So, gathering all of the SWAT guys, we’d moved all of our shit into the house in a couple of hours while the SWAT ladies had helped Delanie unpack. Dillan had sat where she was, baking cookies and watching babies, while the rest of us worked.
Honestly, it worked out really well, and despite having a lot to do inside the house, we were moved in.
“It’ll still be there tomorrow,” I teased.
“It’ll still be there next week, because I’m damn well going to have my sister with me tomorrow through this labor,” Dillan chirped.
Grinning, I popped my hand down onto Delanie’s ass. “Go. I’ll get dinner ordered. Then come help you organize the bathroom while you soak.”
She sighed and did what she was told, moving slowly as she put her hands on her back and rubbed to help relieve the pain.
“She shouldn’t have moved all those boxes,” Booth muttered, watching her go.
“I agree,” I said. “But telling that woman anything is like pulling teeth.”
My girl was stubborn.
She’d wanted the house as perfect as she could get it so that she could help Dillan in any way that she could.
I looked around the state of the art kitchen that had been so fucking hard to build.
With Dillan, Delanie, Booth, and me all wanting our own specific touches added onto it, the thing ended up being one of the most expensive rooms in the house.
But, now that I was seeing it, it was totally worth every single penny and tussle that we had to go through to get it.
The house ended up being almost like two houses in one. The only thing that we would really share was the one bedroom in the middle of the house off of the very large family/dining room. The kitchen, and the overly large laundry room that was big enough to accommodate two families.