Page 282 of Second Sets Omnibus

“I’ll uh…make sure she’s settling in okay. Looks like we have a guest for the night.” I nod at Asher as he walks away with a grin lining his face. I bet he can’t wait to cook and play with her.

Callum sighs. “I’ll help him.”

“She wanted to stay with you guys,” River says, sinking her teeth into her bottom lip. Amusement soars through hersparkling eyes like she finds the prospect of us alone with Ly hysterical.

“Oh, yeah?” Rad asks, lighting up at the idea.

“We don’t mind,” I say, meandering over to where they’re standing at the bottom of our porch. “She’s welcome any time. You know we love to spend time with her.”

“You could sleep over, too,” Rad says in a low voice, smirking when she shudders from his touch.

“That, too,” I say, brushing her hair over her shoulder. “You could sneak in after we put her to bed. Then we could play some adult games.”

She snorts, batting us away. “Such charmers. Would these adult games include the no pants dance?”

“That could be arranged,” Rad says, waggling his eyebrows as he undoes his belt.

“Jesus, keep your pants on,” she laughs, shoving him away. “Listen, I couldn’t stop her. She just packed a bag and told me she was going. I barely had time to grab shoes when she stormed out the door. For some reason, she was determined to get here. I think—” Her brows furrow. “I think she misses seeing you guys all day, every day.”

“We could fix that, River Blue. We could build a big house right over there for the five of us.”

I can see it now. Our beautiful forever home rises in the distance with enough room to accommodate all of us, plus more. If we wanted, of course. There’s nothing that sounds better than knocking River up ten times more and having kids and pets running around. It’s the normal family I’ve always dreamed of. With an abundance of love pouring through the house to fill the ocean. Our children would never know what it felt like to lie in bed at night, wondering where the next meal or hug would come from.

“Keep dreaming, Romeo,” she quips.

I don’t miss the way she looks out in the distance to the place I pointed to with dreamy eyes. She’s keeping us at arm’s length, doing what she needs to do. That’s fine. I can tell it’s eating her alive not to be by our side. She’s aching to fall into our loving arms and ride happily out into the sunset.

“Well, then, Pretty Girl. Enjoy your day all to yourself. Just if you take a hot bath or play with that amazing little rose later, take lots of videos for me. Moan my name a little so I can go to sleep with a smile.”

River rolls her eyes, leaning in to kiss his cheek. “Mmmhmm,” she hums with mischief.

“Enjoy your day, River Blue. We’ll take good care of our baby girl.” I kiss her lips before she walks away.

What could go wrong?

“What the hell do we do!?” Rad hisses, panicking as Lyric throws up every fucking thing we’ve given her tonight.

Cotton candy. Cake. Cookies. Pizza. Shit. We broke our child with junk food.

“Jesus,” Callum grunts, pushing a fist to his lips. “Hold her hair or something.”

“She’s going to need a bath,” Asher remarks, standing at the edge of the bathroom with a sickly green tint taking over his complexion, staying as far away from the spewing child as possible.

“My belly hurts,” Ly says, sitting near the toilet with her bottom lip puffed out. “Hurts so bad, Daddies.”

I turn away, taking a deep breath when she yacks where she sits, spewing chunks of candy, cake, and whatever the hell else Rad engorged her with all down her shirt and onto the floor.

“Oh God, I think I’m going to be sick,” Rad groans, clutching his stomach next. “Yeah, I’m going to—” Rad doesn’t say another word when he leans over the toilet and empties his stomach into the water.

“Daddy,” Ly whines, puking again.

“Jesus Christ, we need an exorcist,” Rad moans into the toilet. “Be gone, devils!” he hisses, spitting into the toilet and finally flushing it.

“Fuck,” Asher hisses, pressing his hand to his mouth again. “This is like a goddamn puke fest.”

“Should we call River?” Callum whispers in hysterics. “We need to call her. She can fix this. Fix this, Kieran!” His wide, gray eyes scan the room frantically, searching for God knows what.

“No!” Rad hisses. “Then she’ll never let us have Ly alone again. You won’t tell Mommy we fed you too many sweets, will you?” he asks, batting his eyelashes just like she does.