Page 21 of Ever After Between the Lines (Montgomery Ink Legacy)

“I’ll clean up this little guy. You guys clean up each other. But separate showers, or we’re going to be late.” I narrowed my eyes at the two, and they just shook their heads. “Later.”

“You say that as if I have any energy to please our woman.” My husband looked over at our wife. “Sorry, babe.”

“Oh no, I get it. At this point, I would just have to lie back and think of England, and I don’t think that’d be fun for any of us.”

“You better be lying back and thinking of one of us,” I growled playfully, and brought Kingston into his nursery.

We had gone with yellow flowers and giraffes, with splotches of green, and bumblebees.

It was a happy, fun nursery and only clean at this point because we had hired a maid.

Between the three of us having full-time jobs and working more than forty hours a week usually, we didn’t have time, and we made decent enough money that we could help someone else feed their children by paying them to clean our house.

They also helped us with prepared meals for the fridge, but they wouldn’t be here for the holidays because we wanted to make sure they had time with their family after we paid them holiday bonuses.

That meant, somehow, we needed to feed ourselves, and it was like we had forgotten how to as soon as Kingston was born.

I missed sleep.

Kingston started burbling, lifting his little feet in the air, and I undid his little onesie and changed his diaper.

He was such a happy baby when he wasn’t screaming.

I knew he was in pain, and hopefully we would find a way through colic and get to the point of being parents where we could sleep again.

My mother said it happened in about eighteen years, so I was counting down.

“I love you so much,” I said, before kissing Kingston’s little belly.

Kingston just grinned a little gummy smile, and I quickly pulled another onesie on him.

We were contemplating putting him in something cuter, but he was just going to mess it up anyway, so we had a dozen onesies ready all over the house.

We had a lot of family members, and that meant a lot of baby gifts. Thank God.

“Okay, this is as clean as I’m going to get,” Lincoln said as he walked in. He wore partially unbuttoned linen pants, no shoes, no shirt, and his hair was wet and slicked back from his face. “You need to go shower too. There’s spit-up down your back.”

I sighed. “Damn it. I already showered. But thank you.” I kissed Lincoln hard on the mouth as I handed over Kingston, and Lincoln put a blanket over his shoulder and lulled Kingston to sleep.

I somehow showered quickly, found my shoes again as I dressed, and walked into the living room.

Holland was there, her hair braided up in a complicated updo, but it was still wet.

“I know it’s cold, and I’ll put a hat over it, but this is as good as it’s going to get.”

“You look beautiful,” I said, and kissed her softly.

She was wearing a dark red dress and black tights with black boots and truly looked gorgeous.

“Thanks for saying that. I think the dark circles under my eyes despite makeup really make the outfit.”

“They match ours,” Lincoln said dryly.

I went to pick up my keys and looked around and cursed.

“Stop cursing in front of the baby,” Holland said. “His first word is going to be the F-word if we’re not careful,” she scolded.

I winced. “You know what we forgot?”

And Lincoln sighed. “Well, it looks like someone’s going to be missing green bean casserole.”

“It was the easiest thing to do. It’s just cans mixed together in yummy goodness,” I sighed. “I need to call my mom,” I said, and Lincoln nodded, searching through the kitchen.

“Maybe there’s something we can bring. Crackers?” he asked.

“Oh, this is good. We totally have this under control,” Holland said, and I groaned.

Mom picked up at the first ring. “Are you guys on your way yet? Or having a little bit of trouble getting out the door?”

She always knew us better than we knew ourselves. “The latter. But I don’t want to jinx anything by saying we’re clean and ready to come over.”

“Just bring extra clothes for all of you. We know how babies are. And don’t worry about bringing the green bean casserole.

I already made one, knowing that if you got busy taking care of that beautiful baby and yourselves, it might get forgotten.

Either we’d have double, which is fine because I know that’s your favorite side, or we would have a backup. ”

I had her on speakerphone, and Lincoln and Holland looked at each other and then smiled at me, looking a little sheepish.

“We’re sorry. We’re trying to help out, but we just messed up.”

“You did not mess up,” my mother said sharply, if not unkindly.

“You guys are raising a baby with colic, still running Holland’s shop, you’re still working full time, Lincoln is under an immense amount of pressure, thanks to his upcoming show, and it’s the holidays.

You’re allowed to be stressed out. Now come over here so I can hold that baby, and my baby,” she added.

“Well, I guess it should be all of my babies because I love all three of you. But quickly. You do not need to bring food. Just yourselves. And don’t forget diapers. Although I do have some just in case.”

I laughed, Holland and Lincoln joining me. “I love you, Mom.”

“I love you too. Now be quick.” She hung up, and I slid my phone into my pocket, looking around the house. “I hope to hell we have everything.”

“Language,” Lincoln laughed.

“I’ll get better at it. Maybe. Maybe once you do,” I added.

Lincoln shrugged. “You’re right. His first word’s going to be a curse word.”

Holland shrugged. “It’s going to end up being Dad. I’m outnumbered, two to one.”

“But we love you anyway,” I said, kissed her on the mouth, then Lincoln grabbed the diaper bag and headed out, Kingston in Holland’s arms, being quiet for once, and I grabbed the extra go bag for us.

I had always wanted a family. I just hadn’t known how it would come about.

I had done my best never to think about what my future would be because I hadn’t known how Lincoln would fit in.

And now he was my touchstone, just as Holland was my everything.

Somehow, I got so damn lucky I could barely breathe.

But now we were here for Kingston’s first Christmas, and I knew that no matter what happened next, I always had my family.

Spit-ups, crying jags, lack of sleep, no green beans and all.