It just felt like an asshole move to fuck off so I could play action movie hero for a while while they were stuck home with them but…
“We really need you, Janus. Come on, we’ve got to finish off the film if we’re going to keep the release schedule we want. So?” Ty’s voice over the phone. “Can I tell them you’ll be there bright and early tomorrow morning?”
“Jesus, man, give me a second here,” I hissed into the phone.
“Well, they need an answer. And I need a goddamn Mavros twin. Leander’s contracted for any and all reshoots. So figure it out!”
The line went dead. Aha, yep, this was more the Ty I was familiar with. When flattery didn’t work, then the threats came out.
Fuck. What an asshole. I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at it, frustrated. I was gonna have a conversation with Leander. It was time to get a new agent. Especially considering all I had planned for our career. We needed people who would work with us, not against us.
Besides it was Leander’s connections that had gotten him the audition for the last movie, not anything to do with Ty. How you treated people mattered.
Maybe I hadn’t even realized that before I’d met Hope. Because I’d never known such a good person could exist. But now that I knew, damn. I had to be better, and I would demand it of the people I worked with too.
I walked over to where Milo held Apollo, who was still fussing. “Here, I got him,” I said, and Milo handed him over.
“Aww, what’s up, little buddy?” I said into his red, tear-stained face.
“You grabbed him just in time,” Milo grinned at me. “Pretty sure he just unloaded in that diaper.”
Oh yeah. I could smell it.
“Did you do a pooper in your pants, kiddo? Did you do a pooper in your pants?” I danced with him around the kitchen. Then looked back at Milo. “You think Hope’ll mind in if I pop in there to change him while she’s feeding?
Milo shook his head. “Diana’s pretty unflappable when she’s feeding.”
“True,” I said, holding Apollo from underneath his armpits as we headed towards the twins’ room. “It’s only Princess Apollo who’s so fussy if anyone’s around during mommy time, isn’t it? Isn’t it, buddy?”
I gave him a little raspberry on his tummy, which startled him a moment from his crying into a surprised smile. Almost a laugh. But then right back to crying.
“Grumpy pants.”
“Well, they are poopy,” Milo said.
“Fair.” I gave Apollo another raspberry. He did the same pause from crying smiling thing, and then I had him in the room and swept over to the changing table.
Hope briefly looked over from where she was lounging on the bed feeding Diana. “Mr. Poopy Pants?" she asked.
I grinned at her and nodded.
Then proceeded to deal with the absolute shit-storm that was my son.
After getting his diaper off and then realizing this was a remove-the-entire onesie situation, I started tackling him with wet wipes.
“How? How, son?” I asked, wiping shit from places shit should never be on a human body. “How do you always do this?”
He was finally calmed down and grasping happily for one of his little fluffy animals.
He let out the most adorable giggles that made my manly heart squish into absolute fucking goo.
And then, before I could get the clean diaper fully on, his little wiener popped up and he let out a stream of piss that hit me straight in the chin.
Hope burst out laughing and I just shook my head staring down at my son.
“Nice,” was all I could say. “Real, real nice, kid. I guess you’re gonna pay for your own college one day, huh?”
Chapter 22
HOPE
I expected Leander to curve his arms around me. He’d be gone for months, and this was our last chance to—
But instead, he took my arms gently in his and removed them from around his neck.
What was he—
But he just looked me sternly in the eye. “Milo needs to tell you something.”
I turned around to Milo, confused. “What’s going on?”
I didn’t like the tone in Leander’s voice or the sudden dread that struck me in the gut. I hadn’t noticed when I walked in, but now I felt it—the tense atmosphere between Leander and Janus. And when I looked to Milo for explanation, his body had gone still in a defiant stance.
“Seriously, guys.” I looked between all three of them. “Someone tell me what’s going on, right now.”
“Milo,” Janus said. “Now. Tell her or I will.”
The dread in my gut bottomed out and I turned to Milo.
“Tell me what?”
Milo was still another long moment, glaring at his brothers before finally looking at me, his face gentling with a pleading expression I didn’t like. No, I didn’t like anything about this. At all.