Total pages in book: 167
Estimated words: 157175 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157175 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
A million memories come back to me, times I’d forgotten recently amid the chaos of our lives. The times the twins would lie on my chest and snooze, Ava curled into my side. The times I juggled feeding both of them, getting it down to a fine art. How quickly I figured out that Jacob was more patient than Maddie, so I’d see to her dirty nappy first. The joy I used to get at bath time, watching their little limbs splash the shallow water. And that smell. The smell I couldn’t get enough of. Pure, perfect baby scent. It was like a sedative, could send me to sleep. And it often did.
‘Hey, man, you okay?’ Sam’s question rouses me from my reflections, and I pull back my finger from Betty’s cheek, coughing my throat clear as I hand her back to her dad. Sam lowers his mouth to his daughter’s head. ‘I think Uncle Jesse is getting broody.’
I scoff for the sake of it, to mask our secret. ‘My baby days are done.’ Total lie. ‘Where’s Kate?’
‘She’s just using the ladies before she finds somewhere quiet to feed Betty.’
A riotous applause breaks out when Drew and Raya enter the marquee, all attention turning their way. And when Drew dramatically dips Raya and kisses the living daylights out of her, the noise ramps up a few thousand decibels.
Betty starts squawking, the shrillness piercing the cheers. ‘Oh, fuck, it’s dinnertime and she’s pissed off at the noise.’ Sam heads off to find Kate, and I head to Drew, pulling him away from a playfully scowling Raya.
‘Your turn in a minute,’ I assure her cheekily, landing a kiss on my mate’s cheek. ‘Congratulations, you great pussy.’
‘Fuck you.’ He laughs, his blue eyes sparkling happily. ‘How’s Ava?’
Pregnant! My head screams the announcement, but my mouth refuses to say it. Not because I don’t want to, I kind of do, maybe to get some reassurance from my pals, but because this is Drew and Raya’s day, and the shine shouldn’t be taken off that. ‘She’s good. But just you worry about giving your wife the day she deserves.’
He smiles, looking across to the gorgeous Raya, a section of her platinum blonde hair plaited and pinned, forming a pretty band across her head, flowers woven throughout. ‘Doesn’t she look gorgeous?’ Drew muses as she joins us, tucking herself neatly into his side.
‘Beautiful,’ I agree, bending to kiss her cheek before returning my attention to Drew. ‘Hey, do you remember that time when you turned up at my house in a state because you’d made love to a woman?’ I very nearly have to dip to miss the daggers coming at me.
‘What’s that, then?’ Raya asks, interested.
‘Nothing,’ Drew says moodily, his dark stare on me.
He knows me. Too well. ‘For the record, the woman he’d made love to was you.’
‘I’d hope so!’ she laughs. ‘Since before me he only fucked with those chains of his.’
Drew moans, claiming a glass of water from a tray and placing it in his wife’s hand. ‘Yes, I was a fucker before I met you and now I’m a lover.’ He pecks her lips. ‘You’ve turned me.’
‘Who’s turned who?’ Ava asks, joining us.
As the waiter passes again, I take a glass of water from the tray and put it in her hand. ‘Raya turned Drew from a fucker to a master lovemaker. Not dissimilar to you and me.’ I smile bright and cheekily.
‘You still fuck, Ward,’ she says drily, smiling at Raya when she laughs, each of them taking a sip of their wa—
Hold up.
My eyes meet Drew’s, and I know we’re thinking the exact same thing. ‘Why isn’t your wife indulging in champagne on your wedding day?’ I ask.
‘Why isn’t yours?’ he retorts.
‘She’s thirsty.’
‘So is Raya.’
I feel my lips twitching, prompting Drew’s to tweak at the corners, too. ‘Oh my God,’ Raya breathes. ‘Me and Drew are pregnant!’
‘Us too!’ I yell, way too loudly, earning a knock of my arm from Ava.
‘What the fuck?’ Drew baulks.
‘Oh my God!’ Raya sings.
‘What?’ Sam asks, scanning us all as he rejoins the group. I look to Drew, to Raya, and then to Ava. And shrug. I’m not leading on this one.
Drew sighs, but his smile isn’t containable. ‘We were saving it for after the wedding, but doesn’t look like that’s happening.’ He wraps his arms around Raya’s shoulder. ‘We’re having a baby.’
‘No way!’ Sam’s on them with enthusiasm, knocking Raya’s water all over the place. ‘Congratulations, you two!’
‘Thanks.’ Raya blushes somewhat, pointing her empty glass to us while she wipes down her dress. ‘And congratulations to Jesse and Ava, too.’
‘Huh?’ Sam swings around, looking at us in turn. ‘What are you two celebrating?’
I look at Ava. She looks at me. ‘The medication she’s on screwed with her pill.’
Sam is silent for a few uncomfortable seconds, looking between us. And then he falls apart, hands on his knees and everything. ‘Fuck, Jesse. Say hello to karma.’