I just shook my head, knowing this wasn’t a fight I could win.

“Did you check your blood sugar?” I asked.

I could hear her growl of annoyance at my question.

I asked it a lot.

Sometimes too much.

But I liked the effect it had on her.

“Yes,” she hissed.

“Give me a kiss, wench. I’ll be back in time for Way to go to bed, okay?” I asked, bending down.

She got up onto her knees and offered me her upturned lips, which I took without hesitation.

“I fucking love you, asshole,” she said, smiling up at me.

I grinned. “I fucking love you too, witch.”

She winked, knowing I wanted to call her something else, but also very aware of the fact that I wouldn’t say something like that in front of Way or my mother.

I touched my lips to my mother as I moved off, and said, “Take care of her.”

She gave me a droll look. “And when have I not?”

I scrunched my nose up at her, and finally caught Way, who was being chased around by Reagan seeing as Way had stolen Reagan’s iPod cord that she was using to charge it.

“Give me a kiss, heathens, so I can go,” I said, bringing Way’s belly up to my mouth so I could blow a raspberry on it.

She squealed, and I tossed her over to my father who caught her effortlessly.

Reagan was next, and I gathered her into my arms and gave her the same directions I gave my mother. “Take care of Nox for me, okay?”

She rolled her eyes. “Mom can take care of herself, but I’ll keep an eye on her and let you know if she overexerts herself, okay?”

Knowing that would be as good as it got, I gave Max a wave, and headed out to the house.

But it was only fifteen minutes into my trip home that I realized that I wasn’t alone in the car.

In fact, the longer I thought about it, the more convinced I was that I felt something slithering around at my feet.

“Fuck me,” I breathed, pulling the SUV over without making any sudden moves.

I about bit a hole in my tongue as I slowly eased the door open, and bailed.

Somehow I managed to look back as my feet hit the pavement, only to see a long rattle tipped tail ease back under the seat of my Tahoe.

“Holy fuck,” I breathed, after I realized I’d nearly just died.

Then I cursed myself when I realized that not only had I left my phone in the truck, but my sidearm as well.

Lennox may very well kill me for shooting her car up, but there was no way in hell that I’d get back into the SUV without being assured that the fucker was dead.

So there I stood, for fifteen minutes, as I opened every single door, and backed away to wait.

Downy and Luke rolled up five minutes later, and they were looking at me like I was fucking possessed.

“What the fuck man?” Downy asked, stepping out of Luke’s truck.

I nodded my head to the Tahoe. “There’s a fucking rattlesnake in the Tahoe.”

“Seriously?” Luke asked with a raised brow.

I nodded. “Lennox made me take the old smoker out of my parent’s flower bed. It’s in the back of the Tahoe; it must’ve been where it came from.”

Luke, ever curious, made his way to the open door to the Tahoe, took one glance in the backseat, and back pedaled like his dick was grabbed.

“Holy fucking shit, that thing’s massive!”

Then, like horrible fucking timing, none other than the rest of the Motley Crew pulled up, and they all piled out of Max’s Suburban.

“What’s up?” Max asked, easing up to the side of us without getting out.

I nodded my head towards my Tahoe. “There was a snake in the smoker.”

Max blinked. “Not shit?”

“No shit,” I confirmed.

“Well, what’re you going to do now?” He asked.

“Not a fucking clue,” I admitted.

So, one by one, the lot of us got out and tried to see the snake, which had taken up against the baby’s car seat that I’d tossed into the front seat.

“Shoot it,” Michael muttered.

“Grab the top of the car seat and pull the fucker out with it,” Sam suggested.

“Your phone’s ringing,” James said, stating the obvious.

“Maverick calling,” my Tahoe announced to me.

I reached in and pressed the phone button on the steering wheel, knowing I wouldn’t get too close to the snake, which meant getting anywhere near my actual phone wasn’t gonna happen.

“Hello?” I asked warily.

This was all her fault!

“Umm,” Lennox said. “I might, or might not have, over done it. And I’m currently standing in a puddle of my water that just broke.”

I squeezed my eyes tightly shut as terror gripped me in its claws.

“Get my dad to take you to the hospital,” I said quickly.

“I can’t. Your dad has cloth seats. We have leather. Come back and get me,” she said urgently.

I cleared my throat. “There’s no can do on ours. There’s a snake in there, and there’s no way I’m getting it out by myself.”

She was silent for a few moments before she started giggling. “I’m sorry.”

I ground my teeth. “You should be. It crawled out of the smoker.”

She hissed, and my stomach clenched with the sound.

“At least,” she breathed out roughly. “It didn’t come out when you were carrying it to the car. Or if you’d have left it, and I moved it. Things could be worse.”

“Get dad to take you to the hospital. Mom’ll have to watch the kids until dad can get home to get my truck. I’ll catch a ride with Max,” I told her.

She sniffled, and my heart broke to know she was in pain.

“It’ll be okay, baby.”

The men around me shuffled their feet, none of them liking the fact that a woman was in pain any more than I did.

“I know, Benny Boo Boo,” she sniffled. “I fucking love you.”

I winced at the use of the nickname she’d given me.

She’d watched How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days, and had ‘fallen in love’ (her words not mine) and had used the nickname in private ever since.

Now, though, I figured my free pass was gone.

“I’ll meet you there, baby. Love you too.”

Lennox hung up, and I backed away from the Tahoe warily, fishing my keys out of my pocket and handing them to Max.

“Thanks man,” I muttered, tossing him my key.

He narrowed his eyes at me. “What makes you think I want to deal with that?”

“Because your niece or nephew is on his or her way, and I’m not there yet?” I asked with a raised voice.

He waved me off. “Get out of here.”

Thirty minutes later, with five men in tow, I burst through the maternity wing doors and headed straight to the room I’d been told via Downy’s phone.

I got there in time to see them wheeling her down the hospital hall and straight into surgery.

“Over here!” Payton called, waving me over.

I ran to her and started stepping into the clothes she offered me.

I ripped the booties with the size of my feet, but Payton waved me onward. “It’s fine, just get them on as far as you can and let’s go.”

I left my sister with a kiss at the door of the operating room, and hurried through the glass doors.

“Mr. Alvarez, I assume,” a nurse fully garbed in her surgical gear asked lightly.

I nodded my head, looking over the nurse’s shoulder. “Yeah. That’s me. Is she okay?”

The nurse nodded, her eyes shining with humor. “She’s fine. They’re just getting to the good part.”

She led the way further into the room, and I nearly dropped to my knees at the sight of my wife’s belly gaping open with a diagonal line gaping open.

I swallowed thickly, forcing myself to move, one foot in front of the other, until I came to Lennox’s side.

“I knew you’d make it,” she whispered, not bothering to open her eyes. “The snake didn’t bite your wiener, did it? I’m quite fond of that.”

I blinked in surprise. “No, my wiener is all good.”

The anesthesiologist snorted in amusement.

“She could feel a little more than what we were comfortable with, so I shot her up with a nice cocktail about a minute before you walked into the room,” he informed me.