“Ow. Did you need stitches?”
“A couple.” He’d needed five and his foster mom had done them herself. She’d been used to patching kids up. The other two boys had needed more stitches than he had.
She smiled as she stroked it. “I’ll bet that hurt but I have to tell you, it’s kinda sexy. Very pirate-y.”
“Pirate-y? Arr!” He kissed her and made her giggle some more before she looked up at him with serious eyes again.
“My heart aches when I think of the three of you growing up in that environment. I’m very glad that you found each other though.”
Cody shrugged. “It wasn’t all bad. We did have some good people in our lives.”
“Jean Goodman?”
“Yes. When we were a little older, we went through a period of rebellion and were moved to a group home together and told it was our last chance. We were too old to adopt and too young to be on our own. We were one bad decision away from living on the streets when we met her.”
“I like that you still visit her.”
“Far as I’m concerned, she’s my mom.”
“Do you know much about your biological mother?”
“Not much. Jean had a friend who helped me do some research a few years ago when I got curious. We gathered a little information from hospital records. I know my mother was really young, fifteen, and in the report it’s mentioned that they suspected she was a victim of domestic abuse. She delivered me and someone picked her up from the hospital during a shift change. There’s no other records of the name she gave so it most likely was a fake name.”
“If you’d like to pursue it sometime, I’d be happy to help you, or Heath and Spencer. It’s important to know your roots.”
“Thank you, angel. It used to bother me to think of her coming into the hospital to have me and being all bruised up and battered. I used to blame myself for it. I’d wonder and worry about what happened to her. I think all three of us worry about that sometimes. It’s probably why we’re all so protective of women. But whatever happened is long in the past. Life may have been hard at times but we managed, and we had Jean. She was good to us and taught us a lot.”
“Think you ever want to be a father some day?”
He smiled down at her and stroked the underside of her breasts, raising goose bumps on her flesh. “I know I do, angel. When you’re ready.”
“I think the three of you would make great dads. I can imagine a little boy with your dark eyes and your smile, and another with Heath’s personality and his green eyes, and a serious little boy who takes after Spencer and melts girl’s hearts with one look from his golden eyes.”
“Now who’s waxing poetic, angel?” he said with a smile. He could envision them just the way she described them. “What about little girls? I want a little girl with her mommy’s wild curly hair and sweet brown eyes the color of molasses. She’ll probably give her daddies fits.”
“Just wait until the boys take interest in her when she’s a teenager.”
“Can you imagine the reign of terror we’ll have on all her boyfriends?” He gleefully imagined the three of them meeting the boy foolish enough to ask their daughter out, on the front porch, ready to have a “little talk.”
“And what if we have all girls?”
“I feel gray hairs sprouting at the thought. I’d rather focus on just you for right now. We’ll deal with the babies when they come.”
She kissed him and giggled as he kept imagining the future and said, “You’re thinking of buying a shotgun, aren’t you?”
“It pays to be prepared.”
Sighing happily, she snuggled up in his arms again. It was a fanciful notion but it really did seem as though the future was laid out before them. He laid his head beside hers and they drifted until it was too cool to stay outside any longer. She shivered when he moved around her but didn’t wake as he carried her inside, snagging her garments on the way in. It was later than he’d thought when he glanced at the clock, so he tucked her into the bed and turned down the lights for when the guys arrived home from work.
Chapter Thirty
A week later, Maizy frowned when her friends, Lucy, Grace, Jayne, and Rachel prodded her in through the doors at the main offices for the Divine Independent School District, located just down the road from the elementary school. The parking lot was full of cars and as Rachel held the door open she could hear many voices inside the central meeting room. Maizy didn’t want to be there.
“Why am I here?” Maizy groused to Lucy as they kept her moving forward. She was relieved when she saw Cody, Heath, and Spencer there, and then worried. As they came to her, Maizy asked, “I thought you were all working tonight. What’s this all about?”