Declan had been talking about legalities and inheritance and she knew it, but she’d turned the tables on them. Her answer floored them both. “So, you wouldn’t be opposed to having kids sooner rather than later?” Declan’s face flushed, his eyes darkening with desire at the prospect.
Trick felt her hand cover his where it stilled on her hip. “Definitely not. This house is way too big for the three of us. Babies and pets are the obvious answer. We can get me that dog anytime, by the way.”
“If there were twenty of us and ten dogs, it would still be too big.” Trick hid his shaky smile against her shoulder.
Jen made a face. “Twenty is a hard limit. But maybe three or four little Dunham-Kelleys and a pair of Boxers would be nice.”
“Dunham-Kelley?”
“If you don’t both agree on that they’ll be Finns,” she informed them smugly. “And you know I have no problem with—”
Trick pulled her down and interrupted her with a kiss. A slow, hungry kiss that tried to show her how much she meant to him. Kids. Now that she’d said it he wanted to start right away. A family. The Dunham-Kelleys.
He felt Declan’s hand on his head, gentling him. He understood what Trick was going through. The idea of a redheaded girl with gray eyes on his shoulders, carrying both their names…
“Thank you,” he murmured, reaching up to tangle his fingers with Declan’s without lifting his mouth away from Jen’s. “My loves.”
***
“Team Jeremy, here we come.” Trick grabbed her small overnight bag and loaded it into the car with his. He looked up and saw Jen in the doorway, locked in yet another Declan power kiss. He’d been on the receiving end of a few of those himself in the last hour. Professor Hot Lips really needed to give it a rest. “Damn it, Declan, I promise I’ll bring her back in one piece in the morning. Just don’t get so sad without us that you’re tempted to take a bite of that chocolate statue. You don’t want to lose all your Finn points overnight.”
Jen’s laughter made Declan lift his head to glare at Trick in the waning light. “I won’t have time to be tempted. I called Noah while you were in the shower and he, Owen, Rory, Wyatt and Brady are all on their way over now. I thought my “TV wall” might help distract the groom. Go Team Owen.”
Trick grinned. That’s my man. “Now I’m worried. Guard the liquor with your life.”
They said goodbye and Trick drove them to Stephen’s house, unable to let go of Jen’s hand. He couldn’t stop thinking about what she’d said, letting Declan know it was all of them or none of them. It was, he realized, exactly what he’d most needed to hear.
And she wanted to have children. Even now, when she’d spent the last few months worried for her pregnant friend. Now, when she’d been dealing with reconnecting with her mother and her internship and two attention-hungry, sexually demanding men.
“I think it’s going to snow again,” she said, breaking the silence with a smile. “It smells like snow.”
Trick inhaled and shook his head. “People say that all the time. What exactly does snow smell like?”
She opened her mouth then closed it again, thinking. “I don’t know. It smells clean, I guess. Like all the noise and smoke and grime is suddenly gone and the world is brand new again.” She chuckled. “Too much cheese?”
His hand tightened on hers. “Acceptable levels for a Christmas wedding. Jen?”
“Yeah?”
He forced the words out as gently as he could. “When you’re ready? We’ll be good fathers.”
She gasped, turning toward him in her seat. “I know that, Trick.”
“We didn’t have the best examples,” he continued as if he hadn’t heard her. “And I know your dad is a tough act to follow, but—”
“I said I know.” She sounded choked up, and he didn’t dare look away from the road. “There is no doubt in my mind that—when we’re ready—our babies will never want for anything, and never doubt how much they’re loved.”
“Good.” He was such a fraud. Cocky Trick. Laid back Trick. He was a big, fat phony. Tristan Dunham wanted to hold a baby in his arms. Wanted to grow old beside the only two people in the world who mattered. “I wasn’t expecting that conversation. I didn’t know you thought about babies.” With me.
“Oh, Trick,” she said, patting his hand playfully. “I’m a woman. I was born into this world, I cried when they spanked my ass, and then I started thinking about it.”
He laughed then. He almost had to pull over because he couldn’t stop and his eyes were watering. She’d used his words against him. His response to her question, “What started you thinking about ménage?”
They turned onto Stephen and Tasha’s street and Trick pulled over, putting the car in park to tug her into his arms. “I love you, Jennifer Finn.” He buried his face in her neck and breathed deep. “You smell like snow.”