Page 46 of Their Perfect Daddy

SKYE

“ H e’ll have a water or some tea if you have it,” I tell Poppy as I rock Juni in my arms.

Monty smiles at me, thankful to handle the sometimes-awkward questions about why he’s no longer drinking. Granted, I don’t think my siblings care. If anything, they're probably happy to know he’s trying to be the best version of himself.

Poppy tilts her head. “Is it ok if it’s mixed with lemonade? We don’t keep regular tea since no one else really drinks it.”

“It’s so plain by itself. Arnie Palmie all the way,” Snow shouts from his seat across the room. He pumps his fist, as if to emphasize his words.

Laughter breaks out around us as Monty nods to my sister to let her know the mix is fine.

He’s not really picky, and since he’s working out full tilt again, he can afford the extra sugar.

Honestly, I don’t think he’d turn anything Poppy offered him away.

He doesn’t want to dare upset the woman who gave birth to his new best buddy.

“Can I hold her now, pleaseeeee,” Monty whines.

Smiling down at my niece, I wait just a second longer than I should and nod. He bounces excitedly on the couch next to a drowsy Danny. Our princess smiles at the eagerness Monty shows over holding the baby.

We’ve all had the talk about whether or not we wanted to be parents. While we all love kids, we’re not so sure we want our own. Mostly it’s an issue of time and attention. We’d all want to be able to commit ourselves to whatever child we bring into this world.

We have enough love to spread to all the children in this world who need affection. There are many who don’t have good home lives. Even more who do fine at home physically, but emotionally they’re left in the dark.

Our first hope is to help those who are here already and need it. The second is to have my siblings give us lots of kids we can spoil rotten. Juni just so happens to be the first.

“Grab the pillow to put under your arm,” I tell him as I lean forward. He’s quick to position it where he needs, then he’s still as can be while I place the bundle in his arms.

My boy sighs and sinks deeper into the couch. “She’s perfect.”

“Damn right she is. All our genetics make it so,” Gale quickly throws out.

Dewey snorts and shoves another bite of food in his mouth. The man has been acting as if he’s starved all day. Part of me wants to check in with him one on one. I have an urge to ensure his needs are being met. It stems from all the years of helping my mom be a parent rather than being a sibling.

While pushing down the emotions, I notice Daisy nervously fidgeting in her chair. I normally wouldn't think anything of it, except her gaze is firmly locked on the bracelet she’s wearing.

The rainbow bracelet.

“Daisy,” I call out softly as I ease into the empty spot beside her. Taking her hands in mine, I squeeze them gently to get her to look up at me. “You know you can tell us anything, right? We won’t ever judge you.”

Whereas the room was once bustling with noise, it quiets at my words. Poppy hands Monty’s tea to Danny, who holds it tight to his chest like he’s protecting a precious item. I ignore how it makes me want to laugh in favor of focusing on my sister.

She swallows thickly, her gaze firmly on mine. “I… I know.”

“Good. I don’t ever want you to think you can’t tell us anything. Even if it’s murder, I’ll be there to help.”

My teasing gets a watery laugh out of her. “We all know I’d call Storm before calling you.”

Gasping with a mocking expression of outrage, I turn to face our brother. “You cannot gloat about this.”

“When do I ever gloat?” he replies with a smirk.

“Always!” the room collectively says.

Daisy takes a deep breath. “I’m gay.”

There’s silence, then Dewey is up and shoving me out of the way. He tackles his sister onto the couch with a shriek.

“I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU!”

Daisy laughs and cries as a few more of the guys pile on. “You’re crushing me,” she eventually says, her voice raspy from the exertion.

When everyone goes back to their own seat and she’s upright, I take her hands in mine again. “I’m proud of you for telling us this. And Dewey is right — we love you no matter what. Considering I’m gay and several of your brothers are queer, I’m a bit unsure why you were nervous to begin with.”

“Don’t invalidate her feelings,” Rayne says calmly. “Not every person is treated the same.”

I frown. “It wasn’t meant to be that way. I only meant to imply we’re a welcoming bunch. I don’t care who she likes so long as the person treats her well.”

Daisy rolls her eyes at the dad tone I take on. “I get that. It’s just… seeing how everyone reacts to Juni, I was worried everyone would be disappointed in me for not having kids with a man. Poppy’s ex isn’t anything to write home about.” She winces, saying, “Sorry, sis. Low blow.”

“No need to apologize. The man is a piece of shit. If it weren’t for Juni, I’d have keyed his car and torched his place.

” Poppy’s reply makes Rayne groan as he mutters about us discussing illegal activities.

“Besides, you could still have kids. It would just be different. There is no one way to build a family.”

“She’s right,” I add in.

“I know.” Daisy squeezes my hands, then pulls back to wipe her eyes. “Now can we please discuss something else? I’m far too emotional right now. I need some comedic relief.”

“Since we’re throwing out secrets, can we finally talk about Skye’s porn hands?” Gale asks with a wide grin.

Danny giggles. “Porn hands… That’s funny.”

“We’re not supposed to call them that, Princess. Remember what he said,” Monty corrects gently as he snuggles Juni tighter.

I raise said hands, then drop them immediately when the group all begins to smirk. “How long have you known?”

All eyes turn to Storm. “It wasn’t hard to figure out. The tattoos are pretty distinct, brother.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t think it was something you’d be watching.”

“It wasn’t me. I’d been at the bar one night and the girls next to me kept gushing about some channel they’d become obsessed with. When I looked over to get a glimpse, I damn near fell off my stool.”

Groaning, I scrub my face to shake loose the mixed-up feelings I have.

On one hand, it’s good they know. I don’t have to explain it to any of them since they’re familiar.

On the other, I’m a bit bothered at the thought of them watching any of my feeds.

How am I supposed to keep going now that I know they watch?

“Before you overthink yourself to pieces, know the only person who’s watched more than one video is Snow,” Rayne tells me.

Poppy snorts. “Yeah, brother. Sorry not sorry, but I can’t. It’s too much for me.”

“Agreed.” The others join in to let me know I shouldn’t be worried.

My gaze turns to Snow. “Why have you watched so many of them then? It doesn’t make sense.”

His return stare is a blast from the past. Gone is the brother of now.

In his place sits the unruly teen who was mad at the world after watching those around him get hurt.

He’d wanted to protect people. Wanted to ensure the bad people of this world got what was coming to them.

Part of his desire to go into tech spans from that goal.

Unlike Storm who prefers to take out his enemies in a more physical form, Snow has always done his magic in the shadows.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this look.

“Snow?”

He shakes his head. “While I think it’s great for you to have a creative outlet, I’m also aware you likely didn’t do a lot of work on the backend to keep yourself fully anonymous”

Frowning, I open my mouth to argue that I have. He raises his hand to ask me to wait.

“As I said, I knew you didn’t do the backend work.

I’m not talking about making sure your picture wasn’t seen and that the background was different.

I mean rerouting your IP address so hackers couldn’t track you and sell your information.

I mean weeding out spam emails and bots sending you viruses to make your system crash. I mean — ”

“I get the point. So what? You were a secret guardian over my account all this time?”

“Sure was. You got some fucking creepers after you, bro. I had to put a stop to it.”

Danny reaches a hand out toward Snow. My brother frowns, though he leans over anyway. The second their hands touch, I see the tension leave his body as Danny smiles at him.

“Thank you for protecting him. We might have never met him if someone bad went after him first.”

Snow dips his head in understand. “I’m glad he found you both. He clearly needs more people watching his back.”

He softens the words with a wink, to which my boy giggles and leans deeper into Monty’s side. My other partner is still enamored with Juni, though I can tell from the tightness in his shoulders he isn’t happy knowing I could have been hurt before now.

“Thank you,” he says softly.

Conversation afterward drifts into other topics. I think everyone is aware of how heavy the day turned, and they’re happy to get it back on track. It’s only later as we’re finally back home in in bed that Monty opens up.

“I don’t enjoy the idea of never having you. If I’d missed out on this, I’d still be lonely in my old life. Promise me you’ll be safer, Daddy.”

“Now that I know, I’ll be even more careful. And Snow isn’t going to let anything happen to me. He’s really damn scary with all that tech stuff when he puts his mind to it.”

“Good. The world needs scary good people in it.”

He cuddles closer to me, his head against my chest and his arm tightly wrapped around me. While I hate how my brother’s words brought a sense of worry to our world, I’m more thankful than ever to have the support of those around me no matter what endeavor I take on.