Michael chuckled as he pulled his shorts on. He followed them with his jeans while he thought about what his brother said. Lucien didn’t seem to be interested in finding any woman, and he hadn’t been interested for a very long while.
“Knock, knock,” Ruben said cheerfully as he walked into the bedroom looking just as relieved to have the door shut behind him as Lucien had.
“What the fuck is wrong with everyone today? It’s like Grand Central,” Michael complained while pulling a t-shirt on.
The wedding wasn’t for a few hours so he’d planned on escaping for a while on one of the horses, but that didn’t look like it was going to happen now.
“Mom has it in her head that her four remaining sons need a wife. Do you want me to go on?” Ruben grumbled throwing himself on the bed.
Michael smirked. “No. I think I get the picture.”
Try as he might, he couldn’t wipe the grin from his face. Little did they know that Lily was on the look out for some more female company for them. Part of the reason was that she didn’t like being outnumbered when they visited the ranch. The other part was that she wanted his brothers to be as happy as they were. Both facts were pieces of information he was going to keep to himself.
“I thought you had a date for the wedding?” Michael asked shoving his feet into his loafers.
Shaking his head, Ruben replied, “Bad idea. You bring a woman to a wedding with your family; they start to get the wrong idea. We’re all flying solo apart from Ramon, hence why mom keeps trying to get us to agree to help seat the guests. Mainly the single female ones.”
Michael took the seat across from Lucien on the sofa wondering why his brother had been quiet.
“Mom, doesn’t know when to quit,” Lucien stated.
Lucien seemed to be about to say something else when the bedroom door opened again. The three brothers stiffened before collapsing in relief – it was only Ramon.
“Moms five minutes away,” he said, his back up against the door.
Michael snickered, standing up, he moved Ramon away from the door, reached to open it, but before he could someone knocked on it.
Looking at his brothers had Michael’s lips twitching because his brothers looked ready to jump through the window. They all knew that knock – mom.
“You’re all being ridiculous, and you have Carla. So what is your problem?” Michael asked Ramon.
She knocked again.
Sighing Michael pulled the door open and met his mom’s pissed expression.
“Are you hiding three of your brothers in here?” she asked pushing her way in, finding Lucien, Ruben and Ramon sneaking into the bathroom; comical really.
“Well really. How old are you boys, hiding from your poor ol’ mama? Stop being stupid and go out there to help your father.”
“Yes ma’am,” Ruben said hiding his laughter as he kissed his mom on her cheek and left the room, followed by Lucien and Ramon in the same manner.
“Your breakfast will be ready in five minutes,” she said as she slipped out the door behind his brothers With the door closed, and finally on his own again he thought about Lily and hoped she was okay.
Occasionally in the mornings she felt nauseous with the pregnancy so he’d always get out of bed first to run down to the kitchen where he would pour her a small glass of Canada dry ginger ale and take her some crackers, which she would nibble on until she started to feel better. They seemed to be working so far.
Michael wasn’t supposed to see Lily on their wedding day until she was walking towards him in all her wedding finery, or so tradition told him, but nothing was said about texting each other and he needed to know that Lily was all right.
Chapter 2
<><>L<><>
Lily opened her eyes slowly as she rolled over onto her back. What she really wanted to do was jump up and race down the hall to Michael’s room, where she'd throw herself into his arms. She’d beg him to show her everything she’d been missing for this excruciatingly long week. What had possessed her to come up with her no sex for a week rule?
Grinding her teeth, she buried her nose under the thick duvet and counted the seconds as her stomach rolled and threatened to come racing up her throat. As much as she wanted to see Michael, she needed to wait for the nausea to settle. It usually did within a few minutes, but Michael insisted on taking care of her.
He pampered her and insisted it was his job to make sure she was well looked after. Every time Lily tried to tell him she was quite capable of looking after herself, and she didn’t want him running around after her, he would point out that she was carrying his child and it was the least he could do.
Eventually, Lily had realized that Michael really did want to do everything to make sure she was comfortable, not because he felt obligated, but because he got enjoyment out of being needed.