‘Wouldn’t be the first time,’ she grunts, and then she gasps, her eyes wide. ‘Oh my God!’
My head drops back, my eyes closing. ‘Yes, I did that,’ I confirm. I don’t get all excited at this morsel of a memory, and I don’t search for more. This is how it is now. How it’ll always be. Little pieces here and there, and maybe one day in a few hundred years, she’ll have the whole story. I’m hoping minus a few not so pretty parts. Like Lauren. And the accident. And the . . . I let my thoughts trail off there and bat back the growing guilt. I have more important things to think about. Especially now.
‘You animal,’ Ava teases, and I laugh. She never fucking fought me. ‘So what now, then?’
‘Now,’ I say, slowly bending at the waist, keeping our eye contact as I lower my head. ‘Now we have another baby.’ It’s that simple. I drop a kiss on her tummy and take pure pleasure from her happy beam. How could I deny her this? Bottom line, I couldn’t. And I won’t.
‘When should we tell the twins?’ she asks, losing her delight for a split second. She’s worried. There’s no need. I saw Maddie with Betty the other day. She was besotted. And Jacob is so laid-back he’s nearly horizontal. They’ll be fine.
‘Let’s focus on Drew and Raya for today.’ I lift her down and drop a light kiss on her forehead. ‘Let’s not steal their thunder.’
She smiles, and her eyes sparkle brightly. It’s the sparkle that’s been absent for far too long. So I’m gonna be a dad again? I roll my naked shoulders and smooth my hair in the mirror. I must be the best-looking fifty-year-old dad who ever lived.
Chapter 49
The ceremony was beautiful, the small church in a village on the outskirts of the city crammed with white orchids and a few dozen guests. Kate and Ava cried like a pair of babies. And Raya looked out of this world in a long satin gown. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Drew smile so wide. The man looked like he was walking on clouds the entire service, and little Georgia was grinning from ear to ear.
We finally make it to the elaborate tent in a field in the quaint village after being accosted for photographs and ordered into various groups here and there. I’m not surprised when we break through the billowing voile sheets at the entrance to find Sam with a beer in one hand, Betty in the other. Maddie is off like a rocket when she spots Georgia helping to ladle punch into glasses for guests, ever willing to help, and Jacob goes about finding our names on the place cards around the tables.
I leave Ava to use the ladies and approach Sam, my eyes nailed to the bundle of joy lying across his left arm. One minute my hands are empty, the next they’re full of a baby. I look at Sam, alarmed. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Just give me a minute; I forgot to bring in Betty’s changing bag from the car.’ He’s gone before I can protest, leaving me to fend for myself.
Like a big oaf, I carefully negotiate her into the cradle of my arm. So carefully. I’m all nervous. I did this a million times with my own, but that was a long, long time ago. I look down at her adorable little face. Her hair is Kate all over, red and vibrant, even now, but she has Sam’s cute nose. She’s awake, her hands at her mouth. I remember the signs. She’s hungry. And the flakes of skin scattered between the red strands of her hair are signs of cradle cap. I remember that, too. I smile, taking my index finger to her cheek and stroking her baby-soft skin.
A million memories come back to me, times I’d forgotten recently amid the chaos of our lives. The times the twins would lie on my chest and snooze, Ava curled into my side. The times I juggled feeding both of them, getting it down to a fine art. How quickly I figured out that Jacob was more patient than Maddie, so I’d see to her dirty nappy first. The joy I used to get at bath time, watching their little limbs splash the shallow water. And that smell. The smell I couldn’t get enough of. Pure, perfect baby scent. It was like a sedative, could send me to sleep. And it often did.
‘Hey, man, you okay?’ Sam’s question rouses me from my reflections, and I pull back my finger from Betty’s cheek, coughing my throat clear as I hand her back to her dad. Sam lowers his mouth to his daughter’s head. ‘I think Uncle Jesse is getting broody.’
I scoff for the sake of it, to mask our secret. ‘My baby days are done.’ Total lie. ‘Where’s Kate?’
‘She’s just using the ladies before she finds somewhere quiet to feed Betty.’
A riotous applause breaks out when Drew and Raya enter the marquee, all attention turning their way. And when Drew dramatically dips Raya and kisses the living daylights out of her, the noise ramps up a few thousand decibels.
Betty starts squawking, the shrillness piercing the cheers. ‘Oh, fuck, it’s dinnertime and she’s pissed off at the noise.’ Sam heads off to find Kate, and I head to Drew, pulling him away from a playfully scowling Raya.
‘Your turn in a minute,’ I assure her cheekily, landing a kiss on my mate’s cheek. ‘Congratulations, you great pussy.’
‘Fuck you.’ He laughs, his blue eyes sparkling happily. ‘How’s Ava?’
Pregnant! My head screams the announcement, but my mouth refuses to say it. Not because I don’t want to, I kind of do, maybe to get some reassurance from my pals, but because this is Drew and Raya’s day, and the shine shouldn’t be taken off that. ‘She’s good. But just you worry about giving your wife the day she deserves.’
He smiles, looking across to the gorgeous Raya, a section of her platinum blonde hair plaited and pinned, forming a pretty band across her head, flowers woven throughout. ‘Doesn’t she look gorgeous?’ Drew muses as she joins us, tucking herself neatly into his side.
‘Beautiful,’ I agree, bending to kiss her cheek before returning my attention to Drew. ‘Hey, do you remember that time when you turned up at my house in a state because you’d made love to a woman?’ I very nearly have to dip to miss the daggers coming at me.
‘What’s that, then?’ Raya asks, interested.
‘Nothing,’ Drew says moodily, his dark stare on me.
He knows me. Too well. ‘For the record, the woman he’d made love to was you.’
‘I’d hope so!’ she laughs. ‘Since before me he only fucked with those chains of his.’
Drew moans, claiming a glass of water from a tray and placing it in his wife’s hand. ‘Yes, I was a fucker before I met you and now I’m a lover.’ He pecks her lips. ‘You’ve turned me.’
‘Who’s turned who?’ Ava asks, joining us.
As the waiter passes again, I take a glass of water from the tray and put it in her hand. ‘Raya turned Drew from a fucker to a master lovemaker. Not dissimilar to you and me.’ I smile bright and cheekily.
‘You still fuck, Ward,’ she says drily, smiling at Raya when she laughs, each of them taking a sip of their wa—
Hold up.
My eyes meet Drew’s, and I know we’re thinking the exact same thing. ‘Why isn’t your wife indulging in champagne on your wedding day?’ I ask.
‘Why isn’t yours?’ he retorts.
‘She’s thirsty.’
‘So is Raya.’
I feel my lips twitching, prompting Drew’s to tweak at the corners, too. ‘Oh my God,’ Raya breathes. ‘Me and Drew are pregnant!’
‘Us too!’ I yell, way too loudly, earning a knock of my arm from Ava.
‘What the fuck?’ Drew baulks.
‘Oh my God!’ Raya sings.
‘What?’ Sam asks, scanning us all as he rejoins the group. I look to Drew, to Raya, and then to Ava. And shrug. I’m not leading on this one.
Drew sighs, but his smile isn’t containable. ‘We were saving it for after the wedding, but doesn’t look like that’s happening.’ He wraps his arms around Raya’s shoulder. ‘We’re having a baby.’
‘No way!’ Sam’s on them with enthusiasm, knocking Raya’s water all over the place. ‘Congratulations, you two!’
‘Thanks.’ Raya blushes somewhat, pointing her empty glass to us while she wipes down her dress. ‘And congratulations to Jesse and Ava, too.’
‘Huh?’ Sam swings around, looking at us in turn. ‘What are you two celebrating?’