Mia leans in so she can give Tristan’s small hand a kiss. “You’re Mommy’s perfect boy, aren’t you?”
He blinks up at me a couple times, then he yawns.
Mia snuggles closer to me, content as a kitten. “He says yes.”
For all her talk about her Wolverine-grade vagina’s magical healing powers and the baby I definitely needed to fuck into her tonight, Mia falls asleep before Tristan does. I can’t move until she’s been sleeping a little longer, so I stay put and look down at my newborn son. He was born a couple weeks early—Tristan Mateo Morelli. I wanted to let the line of Mateos die out with me, but Mia insisted. Perhaps because I let her give Dom Vincent as a middle name, but that didn’t bother me. Being the third Mateo in a line of them, never having had any affection for any of my namesakes, the passing on of a family name doesn’t do anything for me.
I could have done without her blending genes with Vince, but to be honest, I can’t complain about Dom. He’s a good baby, low-maintenance and loving. He puts up with all of Roman’s shit, and Roman has a lot of shit to put up with already. I’ve told him on multiple occasions that Dom is going to grow up and beat his ass, but he already gives me a look like he can go ahead and try it.
I think Roman’s going to be a handful.
“What do you think?” I ask Tristan. “Is your big brother going to be a pain in the ass?”
He’s still holding Mia’s finger in his little hand, but he gazes up at me. He’s a little observer, this one.
“Probably,” I answer myself, since Mia the baby whisperer isn’t awake to translate. “Daddy was a pain in the ass. I know, you can’t believe it, right?”
Tristan makes a little noise as if to contribute and continues to stare up at me.
“I was worse before I met your mom, believe me. You’re all lucky because you get her from day one. Took me a lot of years to find her.” I lift an eyebrow so he knows I speak with authority on this next part. “Your mom is a fountain of love. She’s really good at this stuff, so none of you should grow up to be as big of an asshole as your old man.”
He grins, like he likes hearing me call myself an asshole.
I can’t help smiling back. “Is that funny? It’s really not. I’ve been a big jerk, but your mommy loves me anyway. That’s pretty nice of her, huh?”
He smiles again, dragging her finger closer and looking up at me.
“I should probably give her one more baby, huh?” I ask. “You want a little sister to look after? I’m not sure how much she’ll like being the youngest girl with three big brothers. If she’s anything like your mom, she’s gonna be a real headache. I’m not sure I’m prepared for that. I’m not sure the world is.”
Tristan yawns and a couple minutes later, he drifts off to sleep, too. I extract Mia’s finger from his little grip and ease up off the bed, cradling him in the crook of my arm. I take him to his bedroom and gently place him in his crib, keeping an eye to make sure he stays asleep before I leave. Don’t want him waking up crying for Mia before I even get back to the bed.
He stays asleep, so I straighten and my gaze lands on a photo. There are new pictures on the wall. Now there’s one of Tristan, naked but for one of my gold ties around his little neck. Beside it is the one I’m looking at—Tristan snoozing, tummy down, on top of a wrapped Christmas present with all his siblings gathered around. When we had that picture taken just a few weeks ago, I thought our family was complete. I thought we could be done having babies and stick to raising them.
Now Mia wants one more.
I can’t say I want to have another child, but I do like to give Mia what she wants. I suppose it wouldn’t be so bad to watch her go through pregnancy one more time.
If I wait until her birthday month, she’s going to have another December due date.
Jesus, three babies in three years.
I’m going to put her off a little longer.
I leave our sleeping son and return to our room, hitting the lights and crossing over to my side of the bed. Mia is curled up in the center, so I slide in and she rolls right up against me. I wrap an arm around her waist and tug her close. She’s facing me, so I see her sleepy blue eyes when they open and she looks up at me.