“Do you regret anything?” Jack asked gently.

“I regret a lot of things,” Riley said. “I regret my weird childhood, I regret not having a relationship with my real father as a child, I regret what my brother did in this world. But regret being here, with our twins nearly with us, and being so much in love with you and Hayley and wanting to keep Max? No, I could never regret any of that.”

“I love you,” Jack said softly.

Riley moved his head slightly to steal a kiss that Jack didn’t argue about at all. His thumbs were a breath away from Riley’s balls and the awkwardly trapped cock.

“One last thing though,” Riley said with a smile. Jack looked up from the position on his knees, and Riley looked deliberately from Jack’s mouth to his interested cock then back up into Jack’s eyes. “As long as you’re already on your knees…”

* * * * *

The Henderson family visited again in early June. Riley and Jack had seen Rebecca at the clinic only two weeks ago, and Riley couldn’t believe how much changed in that short time. Rebecca was now well into what the books called the third trimester. Riley pointed out the picture of what their babies looked like in every single one of his ten books to Jack. Luckily each book mostly agreed that twins were a special case and they would be small so Riley didn’t have space to panic.

Beth was at a similar stage. She and Steve had come over the weekend before, and she looked utterly beautiful. They were having a boy and asked Riley and Jack to be godparents when Zachary, or Zack, as they were going to call him, arrived.

Rebecca looked tired but well and she was happy to stand for quite a while and watch the kids and the horses. She mentioned puffy ankles, and Riley dismissed the comment in a gentlemanly fashion by saying she looked fine. He didn’t want to be the man to tell her that her ankles did look puffy and that she was actually looking kind of tired. Instead they watched Jack and the kids. Jack was in his element and even had Max up on one of the smaller horses. The one Riley thought was named Hatty.

“I’m kind of done now,” Rebecca said with a small laugh. She sounded a little breathless, and Riley immediately offered her an arm and led her to the porch area by the house. The shade here was good and he had a cooler of water bottles ready to go.

“Is that better?” Riley asked solicitously. “I’ll leave you to rest.”

“No. Stay. Please.”

Riley sat down in the chair opposite her and couldn’t help staring at Rebecca’s belly. When she’d arrived she’d asked him and Jack to feel the babies move in her tummy. The feeling of a rolling motion against his hand made everything even more real than the scans.

Scans hadn’t revealed the sex of the other twin, but the technician and ob-gyn suggested that was entirely normal, even going so far to suggest that the second twin was ‘shy’. Somehow Riley doubted any child with Jack’s blood would be shy, but he didn’t say so. He expected two little firebrands if Jack’s and Josh’s stories of their childhood were to be believed.

“We’re interviewing nannies this week,” Riley blurted out. “Do you think that’s awful of us?”

“Awful?” She frowned as if she hadn’t understood the question.

“To get in someone to help us out with the twins?”

Understanding removed the frown. She shook her head. “You are two people with careers and responsibilities. You will be there for all the important stuff: dinners, playing, horses, parent-teacher conferences, graduation. I’ve seen you with Hayley. She doesn’t have a nanny but she’s older. Babies are hard work, and times two with twins and you’ll be begging for family support by the time you hit the wall.”

“The wall?”

“That moment when you are so tired you can’t function.” She said this so matter-of-factly. Riley swallowed at the sudden image of him and Jack up against this wall she described. He didn’t like the sound of it and instead chose to focus on the part about Hayley.

“She was eight when she first arrived here, nine soon after, she seemed to slip right into the rhythm of the Double D and our lives.”

“Don’t get me wrong, Riley, the twins will blend in as well.” She shuffled in her seat a little, and the little pillow at her lower back stuck stubbornly to the chair. Riley immediately stood and helped her, and with a sigh of thanks she finally settled back. She looked so damn big. Beth had never been than big when she was pregnant with Emily.

“How is your back?”

“Sore, but the pillow helps. It gives me the support I need to get comfortable.”

“We’re sorry it’s twins.”

“You keep saying that like it was your fault. It was the risk we ran by implanting both embryos, and now you’re getting two beautiful babies instead of one. Now hush and tell me about the plans to refurbish the attic and upstairs. Jack tells me it’s a big job.”

Riley nodded. “The crew we have at the ranch working on another project have it penciled in for the first week of July so that any construction is out of the way before the twins are here. That gives them a couple of months, but I get that they may not finish if the twins arrive in July. I hope they decide not to arrive early.”

Rebecca huffed a laugh.

“I heard Jack teasing you about your pregnancy books. How many do you have?”

Riley was initially confused at the change in direction of conversation but assumed there was a link there somewhere. “I had ten, but Eden dropped a couple more off yesterday.”

“What do they say about carrying twins and early birth?”

Riley knew exactly what she meant. “That twins often arrive early. I know he was giving us the real deal. But I can’t help wanting a little more time.” Rebecca patted her stomach.

“I want them well,” she said simply.

“Me too,” Riley said immediately. “I want you to be safe, and the twins well.” The thought of an emergency or Rebecca and the twins being in danger scared the hell out of him. Sudden anxiety gripped him as he contemplated a scenario where everything went to shit.

“Riley, are you okay?”

Riley could hear Rebecca’s voice and he allowed the fear to subside as he focused on her. This was freaking stupid. He was a grown man and quite capable of handling anything that came at him.

“Yeah,” he said. He hoped to hell she hadn’t noticed the tiny panic attack.

“Last guys I carried for, one guy fainted on me. Twice. And neither time in the actual delivery room.”

They laughed together at this, and Riley spent a good hour listening to Rebecca’s stories of previous surrogacies. She never gave names but she made every story funny. As he listened he became more determined that he and Jack, together, could handle twins, Hayley, horses, renovations, work, and finding a nanny.

He really needed to think about picking up some superhero capes.

Chapter 18

~July~

Riley’s birthday was the last real get-together of everyone in one place before the twins scheduled arrival in early September. Given the whole twins-being-early thing, this could well be one of their last weekends as a family of three. Jack wanted Riley to enjoy it and had organized another Double D barbecue. He and Josh were grilling, and Jim organized everyone’s drinks. Sandra was in the kitchen helping Donna, and the last Jack had seen of Riley, he had disappeared off to supervise the kids in the pool. Robbie and Eli sat under the tree chatting with Neil.

Eden and Sean were due to arrive on the hour, as were Beth and Steve. They’d raise a toast to the twins and Beth’s baby today as a family in entirety. The Hendersons had been invited but already had plans, and to be honest, Rebecca and the ob-gyn were in agreement that delivery wasn’t far away. Every time the phone went, every single time his cell vibrated, Jack felt excited, sick, terrified, exhilarated, and a myriad of emotions in between. Beth admitted she wished their son would arrive soon as well, but the doctor had already booked her in for a caesarean the first week of September.