Page 24 of It Must Be Fate

“This isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever eaten,” I say around the mouthful, grabbing another and shoving it into my mouth before I finish swallowing the first.

“I’m sorry, can you repeat that? I’d like to get it on tape,” he says, holding his phone up to my face.

I shove him back. “Fuck off.”

Before he can answer, the sound of a crash of rhinos tumbling down the stairs comes from behind me.

I turn to find that it’s only Rhys making more noise than I thought was humanly possible for one man to make as he erupts into the room, fists held proudly up to the sky in celebration as he exclaims, “Congratulate me assholes, I’m going to be a father. My wife is pregnant!”

“You don’t have a wife,” Phoenix counters.

“Fuck you, Phoenix. Semantics. She’s going to be my wife in a few months.”

“But she isn’t yet.”

Rhys seems impervious to Phoenix’s attempts to goad him. The large smile on his face remains as his arms spread wider.

“She may not be my wife yet, but she is pregnant. My child is growing in her belly as we speak, something you absolutely do not have yet.”

“Thayer’s pregnant?” I question.

He beams. “Yup. Three months and a day. We waited until we’d cleared that milestone to let you know.”

“Congrats, mate,” Tristan says, stepping up to him and clapping him on the back.

God, he’s going to be insufferable. Not just because all he’s going to talk about for the next six months is the fact that Thayer is pregnant, but because he’ll have been the first of us to do so.

“The last thing the world needs is more of you,” I point out.

“Why? I’m hot, funny, smart, loyal, and supremely talented. There’s some emotional damage there, but my fiancée has mostly fixed me. Really, when you think about it, I’m perfect.”

“Humble too,” Phoenix points out dryly.

“World class athletes shouldn’t be humble. It’s unattractive and off brand.”

A smile curves Phoenix’s lips before he gives him a congratulatory handshake.

As intolerable as Rhys is going to be, he deserves this. He lost his parents suddenly and unexpectedly in a car crash when we were teenagers. That event ripped the world out from underneath him, taking the only family he had in one fell swoop. If anyone deserves to build their own family and to know happiness in that way, it’s him.

I fold his hand in mine and our eyes meet.

“They’d be proud of you,” I mutter, loud enough so that only he hears me. “I wish they were here to see this.”

The line of his lips falters for a second before he composes himself. And then he’s pulling me into a hug, one that’s many years in the making.

“Thanks, brother.”

After a moment, I pull away and clear my throat. “Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?”

“Dunno. Don’t care. That baby ties Silver to me for life, the sex doesn’t matter to me.”

“Want to check in on the two of them?” I offer.

“How?” Phoenix responds, taking an interested step forward.

I take my phone out and pull up the surveillance app with ease. The different camera angles come up on screen and I tap the one for the kitchen. It goes full screen, revealing the girls spread out across the space. Nera and Bellamy are sitting at the counter, Six is digging around the fridge, and Thayer is leaning against the sink.

Tristan gives an impressed whistle over my shoulder.

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