“Not so fast, G. Pull up your big girl panties. Time to yank the Band-aid off,” Gianna said into my ear while she held onto my arm.
Jillian held my other arm. “She’s right. It’s time,” she said in a low voice, hardly moving her lips. “We’re here, just relax.”
My heart was already thumping wildly, but when I heard everyone begin to cheer, it went into overdrive. I looked toward the iron gate and saw Beau—and two, tiny Beaus—making their way through.
Everyone stood to greet them and congratulate Beau.
Gosh, Beau had this look on his face that melted my heart into a big old pile of goo. Every time he looked down at one of the boys or patted their heads, this expression of pure and utter—love—spread right across his face.
It seemed I was the only one not to have a wrapped gift down here for them. Which verified the fact my teammates and the show had left me out on purpose. Likely knowing I’d be MIA if I knew such a thing were being planned.
After Beau had introduced everyone to his sons, he sauntered over to where I was still being held hostage. “Boys, this is Jillian, Gigi, and Gianna. Ladies, meet my boys, Cooper,” he said, moving the boy on his right closer to us, “and Carson,” then he nudged the other boy forward.
“Gigi? Your Gigi?” Cooper asked, his head cocked in a cute way as he looked at his dad.
His dad.
“That’s the one,” Beau said, smiling down at him and ruffling his hair.
“She’s our Gigi, dummy,” Carson said with a big, dramatic roll of his eyes.
Cooper frowned at his brother and swatted him in the chest. “Not until they get married, dummy.”
“Oh, right,” Carson said, as he shook Jillian’s hand, then Gianna’s. “At first, we thought Dad was going to marry Mom. But Dad said that was never going to happen.”
“Yeah, then when we asked if he was going to marry Gigi, he said, ‘Yes’,” Cooper said, taking his turn to shake hands with Jillian and Gianna.
It was Carson’s turn to roll his eyes now. “No, he said, “I sure hope so.”
I bit my lip as I gazed up quickly at Beau. Instead of correcting them, he laughed at what his kids were saying. Not one bit embarrassed or concerned.
I guess I was embarrassed enough for all of us. A flush rose up my neck to my cheeks. “It’s nice to meet you, Cooper,” I said, interrupting their conversation to shake their hands, “and Carson. You two look exactly like your father.”
“Yeah, we know. Everybody says that,” Cooper said, his eyelashes fluttering the same way Beau’s did sometimes. That made me smile. “My grandpa said we’ll have lots of girlfriends when we grow up.”
“Blah, you’re gross,” Carson said, scowling at his brother. “Girls are yucky.”
“You might change your mind on that one someday,” Beau said to him as he rubbed his neck gently.
Cooper crawled onto the lounge with me and decided to climb into my lap. “Oh,” I said, my hands sliding under his armpits to assist.
Once he was settled, he said, “If you don’t want to marry Daddy no more, you can always just marry me instead. Since we look the same, you won’t even notice.” His little shoulders shrugged, and the sincere look on his face made me want to burst out laughing.
But I didn’t.
The male ego was a very delicate thing.
At any age.
“I will keep that in mind, Cooper. That’s extremely noble of you.” He looked at me, his sweet face containing a slightly confused expression. At any rate, he nodded and snuggled in closer to me.
“Did you buy’d us anything? Everybody else gave us fun stuff,” he said with a slight yawn, then laid his head on my shoulder.
“Umm,” I started to say, but Beau cut me off.
“Coop, that’s not a polite thing to say. Mind your manners.”
Cooper raised his head. Giving me the sweetest of puppy dog faces, he said, “Sorry, Gigi.”