“I love it when you’re jealous.”
I looked out the window. “Shut up.”
“You know you have no need to be, though,” Damien continued. “This dick and heart are entirely yours.”
“Ye’ spend too much time with Alec,” I said, my lips twitching. “Ye’ sound more like ‘im every single day.”
“That’s not a bad thing.”
“We’ll see.”
Twenty more minutes in the gridlock nightmare, and I was irritated by everything.
“Damien!” I growled, feeling his eyes on me once again. “Stop lookin’ at me.”
“Can’t help it. I visually enjoy you. I love you.”
I knew he loved me, and I knew how much he wanted to spend his life with me. As I stared at Damien’s side profile, I thought back to my conversation with Bronagh from two days ago, and one thing repeated in my mind. I wanted a marriage and children with Damien, so once again, I had to ask myself … what the hell am I waiting for?
A bouncing baby boy.
After just three and a half hours of active labour, Alec and Keela were the proud parents of a beautiful baby boy who weighed seven pounds even and was twenty inches long. That was as much information as Branna had given me, Damien, and Ryder as we crowded around my phone to listen to the news in the garage. I screamed and jumped up and down with delight; Ryder and Damien hugged and patted the hell out of each other’s back. Ryder gave me a squeeze, then Damien got his hands on me and held me so tight I felt his happiness deep in my bones.
“You’re an uncle,” I beamed. “Again.”
“And you’re an aunt again.”
“Auntie,” I jokingly corrected. “Oh, I want to see ‘im so bad.”
“Me too,” he said and checked the clock on the wall. “It’s only four ten … How long do we have to wait for visiting hours?”
“Six, I think.” I groaned. “That’s gonna take forever.”
I looked down at my phone when it pinged, and I screamed when I saw the first picture of Alec, Keela, and their stunning son.
“He’s a redhead!” I gushed. “Look at all his hair! Slater babies do not come out of the womb bald!”
Ryder and Damien stared at the picture.
“Look at how happy he is,” Ryder commented softly. “I never thought I’d see him so complete.”
My heart warmed. “He has his family.”
Damien gave me a squeeze, and I knew he wanted what Alec had, what Ryder had, and what his other brothers had. A family. Children. A marriage. I wanted that too, and the longer this day carried on, Damien’s and my relationship being rushed didn’t seem as big of a problem as it did two days ago.
“He’s gorgeous,” I said, staring at the baby. “He looks so much like both of them … but that hair. It’s just like Keela’s.”
“Red hair is a colour we don’t have in our family,” Damien commented. “Mine and the twin’s hair are the only different ones out of all of us. Everyone else has dark brown hair.”
“Things are changing, little brother.” Ryder chuckled. “You aren’t the odd one out anymore.”
Damien snorted as he gazed at the picture of his nephew. “He looks like Jax.”
“He does,” I agreed. “And that means he looks like Locke because those two are the double of Kane, and Nixon and Jules look just like you, Ry. There are so many mini Slater lads.”
“Then there is Georgie who is a Murphy girl to the core.” Damien chuckled.
“She has Nico’s dimples, so she’s not entirely a Murphy. She has some Slater genes in ‘er. Don’t worry about that.”
After two more hours of waiting, the lads were finally ready to leave work, and we headed straight to the hospital. I practically sprinted ahead of them once I knew what floor and ward Keela and the baby were on.
“Are you crying’?” I called out to Alec, whose smile stretched from ear to ear as he came to greet us.
“No,” he called back, wiping under his eyes. “It’s liquid pride.”
I had to get a running start, but I surprised myself and possibly everyone else when I quite literally jumped into Alec’s arms. He laughed as I wrapped my legs around his waist and encircled my arms tightly around his neck. He returned my hug just as tight, and he vibrated with joyous laughter.
“You’re a daddy!” I squealed and pulled back to look at him.
I had said that exact thing to Ryder when the twins were born, and his smile was identical to Alec’s.
“I’m a daddy.” He smiled, and when I kissed his cheek and hugged him again, he laughed harder.
“How badly do you want to punch me, little brother?”
“Because your kid was just born, I’m going to go easy on you and stick with a solid six.”
“That’s a weak score, considering your girl is wrapped around me.”
“If you move your hands from her thighs to her ass,” Damien growled, “then you’ll die right here.”
“You mean if I move them to where I can feel everything … I’m joking!”
Alec quickly set me down to appease Damien, and he looked so happy that his smile was infectious.
“I think my baby brother is possessive of you, Lana.”
When an arm was slung over my shoulder, and I was tugged against a hard body, I snorted.
“That’s not news to me, daddy-o.”
“Okay,” Damien grunted. “That’s enough of you calling him that.”
“What?” I questioned as I looked up at him. “Daddy?”
“Yeah,” Damien replied. “The only person you call daddy is me.”
I felt my face flame, and when Damien laughed, so did his brothers.
“I don’t call ‘im that,” I said, glancing around. “I don’t.”
“You have called me it plenty—”
“You need to shut your bloody mouth,” I cut Damien off with a squeak.
He had a shit-eating grin on his face but did as asked.
“What did ye’ call the baby?”
Alec dimpled. “Go ask Keela.”
“I’ll do just that,” I chirped. “This kid is the sixth cousin, and the seventh is comin’ along soon if Bronagh has anythin’ to say about it. You baby-makin’ machines are goin’ to have me broke with birthdays and Christmas!”
I chose that moment to dart down the corridor, leaving the brothers chuckling behind me.
“Oh, Keela,” I whispered as I saw my first visual of her sitting in her hospital bed with a tiny bundle in her arms.
She looked up at me, and though she was clearly exhausted, I had never seen her look more beautiful.
“Come meet Enzo Brandon Slater.”
I squealed as I covered my mouth with my hands and inched closer. Enzo’s mop of bright red hair was the first thing to gain my full attention.
“He has so much hair like the twins when they were born,” I whispered. “I love ‘im already.”
When Keela carefully handed him to me, I sat down on the large chair next to her bed, and I stared down at Enzo in complete awe.
“Where did ye’ get his first name from?”
“Vampire Diaries,” Keela answered with a snort. “I loved the name when I heard it years ago; I’m still surprised Alec liked it. Brandon is after me uncle, of course. He’s pulled his fair share of shite when it came to me and Alec, but he’s always been there for me, no matter what. He’s been really good to Alec too since we’ve put the past behind us.”
I traced my fingertip over Enzo’s button nose. The action disturbed him, and he silently opened his eyes and stared up at me. I knew I was most likely a blurry picture to him, but I felt like he could see me.
“Hi, Enzo.” I smiled. “I’m your Auntie Alannah.”
He made a little coo sound, then yawned. The action was so small, so insignificant, yet I felt it all the way down to my soul. I wanted this. I wanted a baby. Damien’s baby.