Page 155 of X's and O's

Hotel staff in sharply pressed black shirts handed out champagne. Children ran wild, only half clothed in pretty dresses and miniature suits, their shoes and ties strewn about the room. Bridesmaids sat in chairs while hairdressers fussed, curling irons waved about haphazardly, and styling spray misting the air, choking us all.

I met Bliss’s gaze in the mirror as she took a flute of bubbly liquid from a tray. Her eyes widened, taking in the scene.

“What. The. Fuck,”I mouthed silently at her reflection.

But she just smiled and shrugged, sipping her drink and watching them all.

‘All’ being her three, baby Ridge not even old enough to sit by himself yet, so Lord only knew how we were going to get him down the aisle. Maybe one of his older sisters could push him in the Tonka truck one of my boys had brought from home. It would be a better use for it than the current way they were pulling apart a couch to create a ramp to roll it down. Mae’s three boys and Lacey’s son had joined them, forming a little pack of ferals who hadn’t had naps and were hopped up on the candy Uncle Aloha had fed them earlier.

Lacey’s eldest, Luna, had a swarm of small girls, including two of my own and two of Bliss’s following her around, hanging off her every word. As one of the older kids, Luna was often swamped by the younger ones whenever all of us were together. But she took it in stride and had them all practicing their roles, creating a makeshift aisle between chairs and instructing the younger ones on how to simultaneously walk and throw flower petals from their baskets.

I shook my head, watching them, and said out of the corner of my mouth, “With this many flower girls, there’s going to be so many petals being flung around, we’re going to be buried in them.” I dove out of my makeup chair and rescued poor baby Ridge from the mouthful of flowers my youngest daughter had dumped on his head.

Bliss stifled a laugh. “I kind of love it though.” Her eyes sparkled, and the love she had for every person in the room shone through.

I squinted at her. “That’s just because you’re drunk.”

She slapped my arm and laughed. “I am not.”

She wasn’t, but I was jealous of the champagne, because it had to at least be taking the edge off the din. I was fairly sure if I’d been wearing my smart watch, it would have been reporting high levels of noise that could cause temporary hearing loss.

Bliss patted my rounded belly sympathetically. “Won’t be much longer until you can have a drink again.”

I still had a few months to go on our fifth and absolutely, definitely, positively final child, which I could say with certainty now, since I’d sent my guys off for vasectomies the day after we’d found out about our current little bundle of joy.

I’d only just stopped puking my guts up every morning and had less than zero percent desire to do it again.

Second trimester was so sweet.

A knock at the door was barely audible over the kids, but I was closest to it, so I added to the chaos by shouting, “Nobody is naked!”

Kian stuck his head around the doorframe and did a double take. “Holy heck. What in the black-tie daycare is going on here?”

Bliss threw a makeup sponge at him that bounced off his forehead. “Hey! No boys allowed in here!” She glanced at the kids over her shoulder. “At least none over four foot tall.”

He gave her his most charming grin. “Not even if I came to relieve you ladies of all these tiny people we seem to keep popping out?”

Bliss pointed her champagne glass in his direction and grinned at him. “You always were my favorite, Kian.”

Vaughn stuck his head around Kian’s shoulder. “Hey. I heard that.”

She blew him a kiss, and I hid a laugh.

But it faded quickly as I took in two out of my three guys.

Bliss handed me a tissue with a giggle. “Wipe your mouth. You’re drooling.”

I elbowed her, tossing the tissue back in her direction, but she probably wasn’t wrong. “I don’t know that I’ve ever seen both of them in suits at the same time,” I whispered back, unable to take my eyes off them as they rounded up children. “Is it just me, or do they look really freaking good?”

Bliss pretended to fan me with the tissue. “Tell those second trimester pregnancy hormones to settle down. We’ve got a wedding to go to.”

I glanced at the time. There was over an hour until we had to be walking down the aisle. My hair was short, so the hairdressers were already done with me.

Queenie, head to toe in deep-purple satin, belly laughed. She’d refused to let anyone touch her mane of glorious dark hair, so she too was finished and ready to go. She put two fingers to her mouth and let out a sharp, short whistle.

All the kids instantly stopped what they were doing and looked at her.

Actually, so did all the adults.