Page 78 of Pumped

I right myself in the water and tug Ivy to me. She comes without resistance, wrapping her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist. Owen comes too, drifting in close enough to sandwich Ivy between us.

Owen pushes stray strands of Ivy’s hair out of her face. His touch is gentle, tender, and Ivy beams up at him.

I catch Owen’s gaze, smiling, and he smiles back at me. My heart swells with love and joy and a sense of rightness I didn’t know was possible to feel. This is good. This is mine. I don’t want to be anywhere else or with anyone else.

“When are you getting married?”

Both Owen and I startle at Ivy’s question. Owen recovers first. “Why would we get married, Ivy?”

“Because you’re boyfriends. Boyfriends get married.”

“Um, well, that’s…” I sputter, only realizing now that we didn’t actually sit Ivy down to tell her about us. But apparently, we didn’t need to.

“Boyfriends don’t always have to get married,” Owen explains. “I mean, they can. When two people love each other, they can get married, but they don’t have to.”

Ivy tilts her head as she thinks. “Do you love Uncle Ev?” she asks Owen.

Owen’s cheeks flush bright red, and omg, it’s adorable. He clears his throat and mumbles something that sounds like, “I do.”

“And do you love Uncle O?” Ivy asks me, like she’s some sort of officiant in our impromptu mid-pool ceremony.

“Yeah, Ives, I do.”

She nods like a decision’s been made. “Good. I approve.”

Owen and I are silent for a beat before we both burst out laughing. Of course Ivy would dole out her approval like some miniature tyrant. I wouldn’t want her any other way.

Life doesn’t get much better than this.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-EIGHT

OWEN

An afternoon in the pool leaves us shriveled up and chilly. We get Ivy inside, and after a quick shower to warm up, we tuck her into bed for a short nap.

I’ve got the goofiest grin on my face the whole time. It matches the one Everest is sporting.

A part of me is convinced this whole thing is a dream, a fantasy, and that I’ll wake up at any moment because it’s too good to be true.

It’s the same feeling I get before I step into the operating room, I realize. The spike of nervousness brought on by pressure and the unknown. Do I actually know what I’m doing? What if I make a mistake and lose a life?

But once I’ve got a scalpel in my hand and bright lights shining down from above, I know exactly what to do. I fall back onto my training, my experience, and more often than not, everything goes smoothly.

I had nothing to be worried about. But that doesn’t mean I won’t worry all the same.

The second Ivy slips into sleep, I grab Everest’s hand.

He gives me an amused look as I drag him downstairs to the bathroom in the basement.

“Not that I’m complaining, but what’s happening right now?” Everest asks with a laugh when I crank the water all the way hot and then reach for the drawstring of his swim trunks.

“What does it look like?” I ask, pushing his trunks down and dropping to my knees at the same time.

Everest gasps and sputters when I drag my tongue along the dip that runs from above his hip down to his groin. His hand flies to the back of my head and the other slaps against the wall to steady himself. I smile as I mouth his quickly hardening cock.

“Fuck, O, oh god.”

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