Page 136 of Love Complicated

“Who are you buying the flower for?” Grady asks Cash when he places a rose on the counter at the gift shop. “Is it forArrow?”

“No!” Cash shouts, our endless teasing about the girl he “doesn’t like” getting the better of him.

I have to physically separate them at the counter from knocking over the rack of cards next to them. “Pull yourselves together,” I tell them, grabbing them by the backs of their shirts, laughing. It’s not like they’re being bad, their just boys.

We pay for our gifts and are heading toward the elevators when Cash looks up at me. “How’d you put the baby in my mom?”

Shit. You know, I knew this was coming eventually. They’d kind of danced around the subject of how babies were made lately, but they hadn’t come out and asked yet. I guess seeing their baby sister made it real and their curiosity got the better of them.

“I think you’re too young to know that.”

Cash never falls for that line. Ever. “I think I need to know.”

He’s not going to give up, so I ask, “How do you think she got in there?”

“You rub your penis on the girl and then she pees on a stick, and she’s pregnant,” he tells me and the older gentleman in the elevator with us.

The man looks at me, then Cash, and back to me. Aly’s going to kill me. “You’re not completely wrong.” I hit the button for the maternity floor. “But there’s more to it than that.”

“If water hits my penis in the shower it tickles,” Grady announces, conversationally to the entire elevator. There are now three other people on it with us and I’m pretty sure I might go to hell for what I say next, but when have you ever known me to not be brutally honest with kids?

“Wait until you’re a teenager. Showers are a lot more fun.”

“Why?” Cash asks, smelling the rose in his hands that’s not for Arrow.

“They just are.” I lean my head back against the elevator door, feeling the burn of judgmental eyes scowling at me. “What do you want me to do, lie to them?” I ask, waiting for someone to tell me how to parent boys.

Nobody says a goddamn thing.

Back in the room, everything is back to normal. The boys give their gifts to their mom and then leave to have dinner with Henry and Tori. That’s when I’m in the bed with Aly, who’s feeding Renly.

Wrapping my arm around her, I pull her close. The moment’s intimate and precious, watching her give nourishment to our daughter.

It’s then, while she’s talking about wanting to take her home now and I’m trying to convince her maybe staying the night is better, that a nurse walks in. She does her thing, checking Aly’s vitals and then baby.

And then she starts to tell a story of a man in the elevator giving his sons a lesson in baby making. Sound familiar?

Uh-huh.

Aly’s face grows more and more entertained with each word the nurse that needs to keep her fucking mouth shut says. I’m glaring. Aly’s laughing, and by the time the nurse is finished, she finally realizes it’s me.

“Oh, uh. . . you’re that dad. . . .”

What an idiot.

Aly smiles at me when the nurse leaves. “Are you going to set them straight when they’re older?”

I shrug and take Renly from her. “You have to admit, Cash was kinda right.”

She laughs, resting her head against my shoulder. “You’re the best dad.” Her lips press to my shoulder, blinking slowly. “I can’t believe we have a daughter now.”

I let out a shaky breath, but laugh and press my lips to her temple. “She’s beautiful. Thank you.”

“Are you scared?”

“Me? Fuck, yeah, I’m scared. I’m scared of a lot of things.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Like what?”

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