“Awesome…?” Matt whispered, taking another swig.
“Yeah,” Liam said. “Kids are…cool.” His expression was as awkward as his words. Aside from visiting numerous nieces and nephews, he had zero experience with kids. I smacked him across the chest.
“Kids are awesome, and you’ll do great, cuz, just don’t overthink it.” Matt raised his eyebrows and I understood. He overthought everything. I smiled and shrugged. Kids were a just-go-with-it kind of deal, and I excelled at that. Matt…not so much.
Evan laughed when Matt took another drink. “Don’t worry about it, Matt. We’ll figure parenting out together.”
All of us swung our heads Evan’s way. “Jenny’s…pregnant?” Kellan asked.
Evan shrugged, like Kellan had asked him if she’d gotten a pedicure. “Yeah, we just found out last night.” He didn’t look worried at all, but that didn’t surprise me. It took a lot to ruffle Evan.
Matt offered him the flask. “Want a swig?”
Grinning, Evan shook his head. “Keep it. I think you need it more than I do.”
Matt raised the flask in a toast, then took another drink.
He seemed calmer during the ceremony, but that was probably because he was half-lit. By the reception, he was full-on blitzed and feeling no pain. And he finally seemed to be excited about his upcoming child. From the middle of the dance floor, he shouted above the music, “I’m gonna be a dad!”
Naturally, everyone started cheering. I booed, just to be an ass to Matt. He didn’t hear me though, he was too busy sucking Rachel’s face. Anna thwacked my chest, then asked me if I knew about Evan and Jenny’s good news. “Yeah, he spilled the beans right before the ceremony.”
Anna nodded, not surprised. She had her hair pinned up, away from her neck, and all I wanted to do was suck on her exposed skin. And because I could, I did. Anna purred when my tongue brushed against the vein in her neck. Her voice a little throaty, she murmured, “Did Evan happen to mention that twins run in Jenny’s family?”
I pulled back to stare at her; her green eyes were lusty and amused. Grinning, I turned to look at Evan and Jenny slow dancing near the center of the room. “Well, that might finally ruffle him.” I started laughing, and just because I was having such a damn good day, I couldn’t stop.
By the time Anna and I threw our reproclamation celebration the next May, the results were in—Jenny was preggers with twins. Matt had been damn near constipated while he’d waited to see if he was sharing Evan’s fate, but, unfortunately, no, he wasn’t. Rachel was only having one. Damn shame if you asked me. I would have given anything to see Matt fumbling with two screaming babies. God…that would have been awesome.
Evan was a little pale at the party, but he always looked that way now. The closer it got to Jenny’s birth, the more of a jittery, nervous wreck he became. One of my favorite things to do now was silently sneak up behind him and scare the shit out of him. He always jumped and screamed like a little girl. It never got old.
I gave him a beer to unwind, then I gave him another one. I had a feeling it was best if he two-fisted it all night. Having someone more nervous than him put Matt in a really good mood all night. When we weren’t picking on Liam, who’d had his first successful groupie mating on St. Patrick’s Day, we were planning our next tour. “We’re gonna wrap this one up a little early, you know, because of the babies and stuff.” Matt looked over at Evan. “End of August, man. You ready? Got your duplicate car seats, cribs, bassinets, swings, bouncers? All that shit?” Evan cringed, then took a drink from both beer bottles at the same time. Matt chuckled. “At least there’s one thing he can handle two of.”
With a snort, I mimicked a pair of breasts. “I’m sure there’s one more thing he can handle in duplicate.” While the guys laughed at my comment, I reached down to grab my junk. “All this talk of boobs and babies is turning me on. I need to go find my wife and spread my seed again.”
Kellan grimaced. “I will give you my entire cut from the band next year if you never say ‘spread my seed’ again.”
I flashed him a smile. “Aw, Kell, I don’t need your money. And not only am I going to say it again, but I’m including it as a lyric in the next album. No, actually, I’m making it the title of the next album.” I raised my eyebrows and Kellan tossed a beer cap at me.
Laughing, I dodged his halfhearted throw and left the guys to go find Anna. She was having an in-depth conversation with Jenny when I approached her. Unlike Evan, Jenny was excited to be having twins. I think she underestimated how much work came with newborns. Or so I’d heard. My kids were nothing but awesome.
Walking up to Anna, I grabbed her elbow. When she looked over at me and smiled, I told her, “Kumquat.”
She looked at me blankly for a second, then turned to Jenny. “We need to…we’ll be back in a minute.”
Jenny rolled her eyes. “If you guys are going to pick a code word for sex, you should really pick something a little less obvious.”
Giving Jenny a mischievous smile, I said, “Where’s the fun in that?”
Anna and I were laughing as we darted away into the night. “Where do you want to go?” she asked me.
I looked up. There was a section of our roof that was secluded from view by a big tree in the front yard. We’d have an awesome view of the stars from up there, and if we were close enough to the peak, we’d also have a view of our guests. That was kind of hot to me. “This way,” I told her, pulling her toward the garage.