I spread the quilt under our magnolia tree, the tree where Lou and I said our vows just days after I asked her to marry me.
I hold out my hands. “Here, let me take him.”
Lou passes Daniel to me as she hikes Maggie higher onto her other hip.
I settle onto the blanket with my son and run my hand down the back of his mother’s leg. “I’ll take her too, you go take a nap. I got this.”
Lou gives me side eyes. “I’m not sure you and these two won’t find some sort of mischief to get into if left unsupervised.”
“I think I can handle the twins by myself for an hour or two.”
She narrows her eyes. “Nan’s on her way up, isn’t she?”
I shake my head, somehow managing to keep a straight face.
“Aunt Delores?”
I stand and take Maggie, leaning in to kiss Lou’s temple. “Go rest. These two are enough to wear anyone out, and since you won’t let me hire a nanny—”
She grimaces. “I’m not sure—what if they decide to go different directions? They’re mobile now, you know?”
Every suggestion to get her some help is ignored. She says she wants to spend as much time as she can with the babies.
I set Maggie on the quilt next to Daniel, who immediately takes her binky. Maggie’s bottom lip pokes out just before a wail splits the Louisiana sky wide open.
Lou squats in front of the babies, giving Maggie her pacifier and popping Daniel’s into his mouth. “See? You need me.”
I sigh. “Do you want to have a nap, Lou? Or do you just want to come up with a ton of excuses and be a total pain in the nads?”
She frowns. “I’m always going to be a pain in the nads, Buck.”
Pops calls from somewhere in the trees. “Hey. Don’t worry, Lou. I’ll help him wrangle those two long enough to give you a break.”
Damn. Cold busted.
She stands, shaking her head, but grinning.
I shrug. “Well, I told you I could handle it. I didn’t say I’d handle it alone.”
She leans against my chest and I breathe her in. Her sweet scent still gets me hard in an instant.
I kiss her soundly on her perfectly puffy lips. “Go. Rest. We’ll be fine.”
Pops comes into the clearing and coughs. “Why don’t you both go up to the house. Nan and Delores will be up here any minute with a picnic.”
Lou glares at me. “You.”
“I did not lie. As far as I knew, it was just him coming to help me, right, Pops?”
He shrugs and plops Daniel into the baby swing hanging from the branch above. “Just get up to the house. We’re good here.”
I have to drag Lou away, but she moves a little easier when Delores’s voice can be heard laughing along with Maggie’s giggles.
Inside, we shed our clothes and climb into bed.
She rolls to me, propping her head on one hand. “I’m glad we decided to build here.”
I brush the curl from her eyes. “Yeah?”
She gives me a one-shoulder shrug. “Hollywood isn’t too far away when we can fly, and being here is better for raising our children. They need their family—our family.”
I lean to her, sucking in her bottom lip and slipping my tongue in for just a taste. “Let’s not waste our naptime. C’mere, I wanna practice making babies again.”
My hand slides between her legs.
Lou’s smile widens and she snuggles closer, her fingers tiptoeing over my chest. “Let me break this down for you. We don’t need any more practice.”
Pregnant? Again? I catch my breath. “Really? Wow. We weren’t even trying yet.”
She winks at me. “Well, I guess we’re just so damn good at this that it doesn’t take much effort.”
I pull her closer, laying a kiss on her collarbone. “We are pretty good at this.”
She bites the corner of her lip. “Yeah. Maybe too good.”
She swallows hard enough that I can hear her. Her nipple beads beneath my tongue as I slip my finger into her already damp slit, it distracts me for the moment.
Her words find their way to my brain. I pull away from her sweet chocolate kiss shaped nipple. “Too good? How can we be too good?”
Lou presses her tits to my chest and throws her leg over my hip. “Twins—again.”