At that moment, Ozzy and Chewy were running around it along with the family’s other dogs, all with pink and blue ribbons wrapped around their collars. This family went all out for everything.

I was busy watching them when a pair of arms wrapped around me from behind. “How you feeling, mama?”

“Bell, Tate, bell!” I warned, something which I seemed to say to him at least twice a day. The guy was like a kitten ninja.

Chuckling against my back, he shifted so that he could rest his head on top of mine. “How’s my boy doing?”

“Your daughter is doing just fine,” I assured him, putting my hand over the one he was using to rub my bump.

“Don’t even kid about that, baby. The world wouldn’t survive two of you squatting like a Sumo to pee on the r…”

Spinning around, I slapped my hand over his mouth and looked to make sure no one was near us. “Shh, not everyone has to know. Your child is the size of a baby cow, Tate, and my bladder is apparently the size of a pea. It’s a match made in hell.”

When he mumbled something behind my hand, I lifted it and bent closer, hoping he’d whisper it. Nope, not Tate. “Did you wash your hands with soap and water when we got here?”

“What’s that?” Hurst and Levi asked as they walked up to us. “Did you get something on your hands?”

Sighing, I dropped my head back and waited for the inevitable. There was no way the big shit wouldn’t tell them this story. Turns out I was wrong, well at least with exactly when he told them.

TateIt was killing me not knowing what the scan said we were having. Yes, it was a baby. No, it didn’t have hairy ears and a tail. Yes, they’d counted and there were ten toes and ten fingers. And the best news was, everything looked healthy and perfect. The Mayans and Chinese couldn’t both be wrong, but having picture proof was like having a screenshot from something on social media – it was everlasting, and proved everything.

I wanted to know, badly!

We’d gone yesterday for the scan to find out the sex of the baby. We hadn’t been able to get it done at our normal OB/GYN because the two women who did the scans were off sick with a stomach bug when we’d originally had our appointment. One of them had ended up in hospital, and the other one wasn’t allowed back for another week in case it was contagious. Why would they say that? Oh, because half of the damned staff had contracted it. This meant they were crazy understaffed.

So, we’d gotten an appointment for the scan at a place an hour away. The piece of paper they’d given us to pass onto Lily’s OB/GYN had been given to the woman who was baking the gender reveal cake and coordinating the other shit for it, and she’d put it inside the pinata we’d ordered for safe keeping. As soon as we opened it, we’d pick it up, and I’d hand it in on my way to a meeting I had tomorrow. It was all sorted and ready to go.

We’d decided not to find out using the color of the sponge in the cake, and instead we were putting it all into the pinata. Soon we’d either see pink or blue floating down to the floor as it split open… what was I saying? It was going to be blue, just blue, but I humored Lily when we’d chosen the shade of pink if it was a girl.

Turning up and seeing my grandparents here had been the best surprise anyone could have given me for the biggest moment of my life to date. I’d known they were getting some stuff for the party, but no one had said they were going to be here. Sure, he was still somewhat salty after we’d paid him back for scaring us a few months back by holding a funeral when he couldn’t talk to us, but he was coming around. None of us held him not realizing someone had drugged us against him, and we’d let him know that. All the blame for it went to Mandy and whoever she’d blackmailed to help her out.

So saying I was happy that they were here for something so huge and important to me, was an understatement. At least, that’s what I thought until I saw what they’d done.

Holding onto Lily’s hand, we slowly approached the table, our eyes on the cake trying to figure out what the hell it was. It wasn’t until we walked around to the other side of the long table that we saw it all, and trust me – there was no unseeing it. The cake was in the shape of a pair of spread legs, and in the middle of them was a big vagina hole with the top of a fucking baby’s head poking out of it. I wasn’t sure who was staring at who – the baby’s wide and crossed blue eyes felt like they could see into my soul, which was screaming by that stage.


Tags: Mary B. Moore Providence Gold Romance