Page 95 of Merciless
"Mari?" Jandro began to sound genuinely worried. "If you don't answer me, I'm coming in. And you're not allowed to get mad."
"I'm okay!" I called back, finding my words finally. "You can come in."
He hesitated before opening the door slowly, poking his head in with a curious expression. "Not interrupting anything, am I?"
I laughed and felt the first rush of emotion as the reality hit me. "Come here, look at this."
Jandro looked concerned again, as I was on the verge of crying. "What's going on, babe?" He came up next to me at the counter, looking down at the three tests laid out on the surface. "Are those..."
"Yeah," I laughed, sniffing and wiping away tears.
He looked at me wide-eyed, which was all the confirmation I needed. "They're all..."
"Yeah," I confirmed, full-on laughing joyously now. "It's really happening."
"Holy...shit!" Without another word, Jandro snatched up the tests and ran out of the bathroom with them. "Hey guys! Yo, dickwads, stop what you're doing! Important announcement! Family meeting right now!"
I followed him out to the sound of Reaper's grumbling—it was already ten AM and he still hadn't broken out of his morning grumpy mode. "What the fuck requires so much excitement in the morning?" He was in his favorite armchair with coffee and a newspaper, bare feet scratching Hades stretched out on the floor in front of him.
"Hang on, Groucho, everybody needs to be here for this." Jandro stuck his head out of the sliding door to yell at Shadow in the backyard. "Get in here, big dude! We got something important to tell everyone."
"Where's Gun?" I spun around in the living room, noting my golden man's absence.
"He rode out to grab shit from the farmer's market, he'll be back any minute." Reaper set aside his paper and coffee and stretched with a groan in his chair, grinning at me. "Come here, sugar."
I happily obeyed, climbing into his lap to nestle against his chest. My lips rested near his throat and I kissed his warm skin there.
Reaper let out a small groan of satisfaction as his arms came around me. "What's the big news?"
"Not telling." I nipped the edge of his jaw. "Not 'til everyone's here."
"You won't make an exception for me?" he purred, lips grazing my cheekbone. "Your favorite husband?"
"Is that what you are?" I grinned and brought a hand up to his jaw, running the stone of my ring against his coarse stubble.
"I'm pretty sure I earned the title last night." His mouth trailed to the shell of my ear, nipping playfully.
I laughed, squirming in his hold. "Aren't you a confident one, Mr. President."
"I sure as fuck am when you call me that, Mrs. President."
The slider to the backyard opened then, Shadow's imposing figure filling up the space as he stepped inside. Freyja followed after him, headbutting his ankles at every opportunity.
Shadow wiped his face on a towel hanging over one shoulder, his bare upper body glossy with sweat and muscles taut from the exertion of his workout.
"What's the big news?" He bent over and picked up Freyja, flipped her upside down like a baby—A baby!—and cradled her against his chest.
"We're just waiting for Gunner to get home," I said, my heart pitter-pattering at the sight of his firm, supportive hold on the cat. "And then we'll stop keeping everyone in suspense."
We heard Gunner's bike roaring up the driveway a few minutes later and opened the garage door to see a bunch of grocery bags and produce boxes bungeed precariously to the back of his bike. On his handlebars, Horus chirped happily and preened his feathers.
"Jesus, Gun. Did you buy up the whole market?" Reaper asked.
"Nah, they just had a ton of good deals. I figured we could store any excess in the chest freezer. Baby girl, I got that goat cheese you like.” He nodded at Jandro. “And before you ask, yes, I got a whole box of cabbages for your girls,papi pollo."
"Gun, don't worry about that stuff right now." Jandro waved a hand at him. "Come inside and sit down. We've got something important to tell everyone."
Gunner's smile dissipated, his expression concerned as his eyes floated over all of us. "Is everything okay?"
