Page 63 of Unscripted Love
“What guy?” Chaz asked fiercely.
I stopped on the steps and turned to face him. “You.”
“Oh, in that case…”
I shook my head and continued down the stairs. “I think you’ve been hanging around Gabe too long,” I announced. “You’re starting to drag your knuckles around like he does whenever he sees a guy get too close to Josh.”
“You should see him keeping an eye on things at the salon now that Wren works there. He didn’t drop by this often to see Josh when they lived above the salon,” Chaz said. “Of course, you’re not much better.”
“Me?”
“Don’t act like you didn’t bust your ass getting to the salon to buy styling crap for your hair after we returned from New York.”
“Do you say ‘styling crap’ when you talk to the clients?” I asked, changing the subject.
The sneering smile said he knew what I did there, but he didn’t call me out on it because I opened the door to greet our first guests. We gave them an arrival time that was thirty minutes earlier than the one we gave Josh and Gabe. Luckily everyone was punctual, so I could stash them down in the basement where we set up the party.
Even though Josh and Gabe expected our friends to be there, they didn’t expect them to yell, “Surprise!” when they walked down the steps.
“What’s all this?” Josh asked, looking around the room in surprise. I thought the pink and blue balloons, cupcakes, and decorations were pretty obvious, but that ginormous stork that Chaz bought for a centerpiece should’ve been a dead giveaway.
“Oh wow,” Gabe said in awe. “You guys didn’t have to do all this for us.”
“Like there’s any way in hell we’d let this occasion pass without a celebration,” Mere said. “Those little angels will be here before you know it.”
“Probably sooner than we planned,” Josh told us. “The doctor put Renee on complete bedrest to try and delay labor for another week or two.”
“Is it too soon? Will they be okay?” I asked.
“It’s more of a preference and precaution than a necessity,” Josh said. “Their weight is good, and they’re healthy, but the doc wants them to bake as long as possible.”
“Of course, he uses baking terms,” Chaz teased.
“We’ll be heading to Florida the day after tomorrow, and we’re going to stay there until after the babies are born.”
“Are we ever going to learn their names?” Harley asked. “Or are we going to keep calling them Baby Girl and Baby Boy like they refer to them on the ultrasound pictures?”
“We’re keeping it a surprise,” Josh said.
“Bonnie and Clyde,” Adrian suggested. “Perfect names for a lawman’s kids.”
“Very funny, partner,” Gabe said. “Not even close.”
“Beavis and Butthead,” someone else suggested.
It went downhill from there, and we shared big laughs at the things people came up with until Chaz said, “I’d bet big money that you name your son Dylan to honor Gabe’s brother.”
Josh and Gabe smiled sappily at one another. “Dylan James,” they said at the same time.
“You’ll never guess our daughter’s name though,” Josh said. Of course, we wouldn’t let that challenge go untested. We tossed out every name we could think of—some sweet and some ridiculous—but Josh and Gabe kept shaking their heads.
“I think we have to tell them,” Josh said to Gabe. “It feels like we’re playing favorites with our kids otherwise.”
Gabe nodded his head. “I agree. Her name is…”
“Destiny,” Emory said with a huge smile on his face.
“Destiny Renee,” Josh and Gabe said at the same time.