Erin Kern - Along Came Trouble

“He’s not leaving you, Kelly. It’s only natural for a boy to want to be with his father.” The pure, unadulterated joy pulsing inside of him made him want to do cartwheels across the ceiling. But Kelly was hurting, and Brody wouldn’t dare say or do anything to rub salt on the wound. He knew full well what it was like to have your child living somewhere else.

“That’s what Colin said. But it doesn’t make me feel any better.”

“And with a baby coming, it might be best to have a quiet house to yourselves.”

Kelly sniffed. “Colin said that too.” She pulled away from him and pinned him with a look. “Are you and Colin conspiring behind my back, or something?”

The question had him smiling. Cracking jokes was better than crying. “Not even a little, I promise. Most men think alike.”

She heaved a weary sigh. “Don’t I know it? I’m surrounded by too much logic. Would you be able to handle having him there all the time with your schedule?”

“I’ll work it out. I already told Tyler I was going to cut back on my hours.”

Kelly’s shoulders shook beneath his arm. She leaned forward and buried her face in her hands. A couple of sobs were muffled by her hands and a tattered tissue. “He’s my baby boy, Brody,” she complained in between sniffles. “And now he’s leaving me.”

This time Brody couldn’t help but chuckle.

Kelly lifted her head and gazed at him out of tear-filled eyes. “It’s very dangerous to laugh at a pregnant woman,” she warned him. He knew that all too well from when she was pregnant with Tyler.

He took the tissue out of her hands and blotted her eyes for her. “Sorry,” he said with a half smile.

“It’s okay. I swear I wasn’t like this when Tyler and I talked about it. My hormones are all over the place right now.”

“I’d say you get a free pass on that one.” He set the torn tissue aside and tucked a short strand of hair behind her ear. “Thank you.”

She leaned back against the couch cushions. “For what?”

Why had he waited so long to tell her this? “For being a good mom. For forgiving me for everything.” Because he certainly didn’t deserve it. Kelly had always been a stronger person than he was.

She touched his cheek with her soft hand. “We were too young to know what we were doing. You did the best you could with us. Tyler worships you. It’ll be good for him to spend more time with you. But do yourself a favor this time, and don’t let Elisa get away from you. I know you love her even if you’re too stubborn to admit it.”

Did she know him, or what? “You’re right, I do love her.”

When he didn’t elaborate she prompted him. “But?”

He leaned back next to her and stared at the ceiling. “I just really screwed things up. It seems I have a way of doing that.”

“You also have a way of making amends. Just use that Brody charm on her. It’s probably what sucked her in to begin with.”

Only he wasn’t sure his charm would be enough.

ONE MINUTE BRODY WAS HOLDING a babbling Mason, enjoying the toddler’s giggles, and the next minute he had turkey chunks on his forehead. The boy had distracted him with a slobbery grin, and Brody had fallen for it. Now he had toddler food sliding down his temple.

“Sorry.” Lacy tossed him a napkin. “That actually means he likes you.”

Brody gratefully accepted the napkin and swiped it across his forehead. “What does he do when he doesn’t like you?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to know.” A few strands of Lacy’s hair had slipped out of her already sloppy ponytail. Her face was makeup free, and she had a stained burp pad slung over her shoulder. “Don’t say anything” was how she’d greeted him thirty minutes ago. Personally, Brody thought she looked great, considering she’d just given birth to two babies less than two weeks ago. The baby, either Kevin or Jackson, Brody wasn’t sure, was swaddled in a blue and yellow striped receiving blanket. Lacy had finished nursing him, changed his diaper, then wrapped him back up. She’d been gently rocking him back and forth for the past several minutes until he’d finally fallen asleep.

Mason had been throwing a fit, as he often did. Lacy had looked around in a panic because she’d been on the couch with one baby and Chase had been bathing the other twin.

“He’s probably hungry,” she’d said to Brody.

Brody had kind of figured that out for himself when Mason stood in front of the pantry desperately trying to rip the child lock off the doors. “I got it,” he said, and grabbed the first package of one of those toddler meals his eyes came in contact with. That was how he ended up with orange vegetable on his face.

“I offer to feed you, and this is the thanks I get?”

One of Mason’s little chubby fingers pointed at Brody’s forehead. Then he jabbered something incomprehensible as though congratulating himself on a job well done. Brody grinned at his nephew, took him out of the high chair, and set him down on the kitchen floor.

“I don’t know how you do this all day long,” he muttered, while cleaning up the mess the nineteen-month-old had made. Mason was cute, but damn, he was a handful. The boy ran clumsily, tripping once, into the living room. A red and blue Nerf football lay next to a pile of toys. Mason picked the ball up and overhanded it, presumably trying to make it all the way across the room. He didn’t even come close.

“I don’t know how she does it either,” Chase announced as he came back into the room. He had the other twin cradled in one arm like one would hold a football. The baby’s eyes were open and staring unfocused around him. “I made her promise me no more kids for a while.”

Lacy adjusted the sleeping baby in her arms and tossed her husband a narrow-eyed look. “You act like I made these babies all by myself.”

“Just saying,” Chase said with a grin. “He’s hungry. Switch with me.”

“I swear these kids are going to suck me dry,” Brody’s sister-in-law complained while she and Chase passed the babies off to each other. “You’re dead meat if you wake him up. Will you take Mason outside to play? I think he’s bored.”

Chase obliged his wife by placing one of the twins—Brody still had no clue which one was which—in a nearby bassinette, then gathering Mason in his arms.

“Why don’t we go work on our spiral, dude?” he suggested to the tow-headed boy, who clapped his hands in delight. When the two of them disappeared in the backyard, Brody took a seat on the couch next to Lacy. She had one of those nursing aprons on that allowed her to breastfeed without flashing the world.

“I love my kids,” she said. “But I am so exhausted.”

“It’ll go by fast. Remind me again which baby you’re holding?”

She shot him an amused look. “This one is Jackson. And the only reason I know that is because Kevin has a tiny freckle on his left ear. I’ve been thinking about giving them name tags. Do you think that would make me a horrible parent?”

He tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear. “You couldn’t be a bad parent if you tried, Lace.”

She patted his knee. “You’re sweet.” Lacy leaned forward on the couch and adjusted Jackson beneath the cloth. “Have you been by to see Courtney? Chase says she’s not doing well.”

Everyone had been stunned when Courtney had pulled out of her coma a few days ago. Except for Lacy, they’d all rushed to her side to pepper her with questions. Did she remember who hit her? What had she been doing out so late? And, the one thing everyone wanted to know the most, who was the guy she was engaged to?

Unfortunately, Courtney didn’t remember anything, at least in regard to the events leading up to her accident.