Page 20 of Chelsea’s Knight

I can’t stop giggling as I sit with the other old ladies, helping with the babies as we all marvel at CeeCee and her insane capacity to eat cake. I keep vigil, watching to see if her head’s gonna spin and a demonic voice is going to speak through her. If left to her own devices, she’d probably eat an entire sheet of cake. It’s ludicrous, yet at the same time, it’s hypnotic.

“How on earth can you eatanotherslice?” Patsy asks with wide eyes and a shake of her head while feeding Talia at the same time. “I swear, I’m telling Momma you’ve become a cake piggy.”

“You wouldn’t dare!” CeeCee shrieks, her maternity top covered in crumbs which she quickly brushes away.

“I certainly would,” Patsy snarks, her face scrunched with disbelief. None of us understand where she puts it all, she’s like a bottomless pit, but only when it comes to her sweets. “You’re officially out of control. Do you know how hard it’s going to be to wean yourself off of the cake when you have the baby?”

“I don’t care. Loki loves me just the way I am, cake booty and all.”

“Cake booty? What the hell is that?” Lilli questions, waddling her way up to our group with her ever-present cup of ice water in hand.

“What our sweet sister has developed since she insists on eating at least half of her daily caloric intake in the form ofcake,” Patsy hisses. “And before anyone gets pissy and thinks I’m body shaming her, I could care less that she likes her cake. She’s always loved sweets, but that’s part of the issue since her mother was a non-compliant, uncontrolled, diabetic. She didn’t share with everyone else, but she’s been borderline diabetic this whole fucking pregnancy. Studies show women who develop gestational diabetes have a higher likelihood of developing full-blown diabetes further down the line. I want my best friend to live forever.”

Patsy’s now sobbing, which has her service dog, Ridley, leaning against her leg and whining quietly. CeeCee, looking absolutely crushed at what Patsy just said, manages to rock herself out of her chair and toddle over to Patsy. Leaning down, she throws her arms around her best friend in order to comfort her and like a domino effect they’re both noisily weeping, which as a result upsets Talia, who is somewhat cocooned between the two blubbering women. Toss in an infant’s shrill cry and Ridley lets out a sharp bark in Atlas’ direction, a direct order from a dog to his master to do something, to fix it, to make the women stop.

I watch as not only he, but also Koba, spring into action, both of them reaching Patsy within seconds while Loki brings up the rear for CeeCee.

“Okay, babe, you’re done for tonight,” Atlas sternly pronounces once he’s got Talia out of her mother’s arms, and she is now firmly secured in his grasp. “Koba, Ridley, and I have our girl, you need some uninterrupted sleep.”

“But how will I nurse? My boobs are gonna leak if I don’t feed her,” Patsy protests while allowing him to assist her in an upright position, once Loki manages to pry CeeCee off of her, they finally separate the two.

“Patsy, you’ve pumped enough milk, marked the date on them so we can identify which is the freshest, and stored enough in the freezer to cover it,” he soothes, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. I love how he has Talia tucked securely on one side and his woman on the other, with their respective therapy dogs shadowing them. “We were staying in our room here, remember? So, it’ll be fine, I promise.”

“I am tired,” she admits with a sigh as they slowly start walking away from our group. “Good night, girls. See y’all in the morning.”

A chorus of good nights follows the trio before we all turn and stare at CeeCee who has been having her own breakdown in Loki’s arms.

“Are you feeling okay, Cee?” Lilli asks when she notices a pained look cross CeeCee’s face.

“I’m okay, I think it was that last piece of cake,” she mumbles. “Loki, are we staying here tonight too?”

“Planned on it, since I’ve been drinking most of the day to help Glacier and Shark celebrate patching in,” he replies. “Now, say good night, sweetheart, I want to get you off your feet.”

At his words, I peer down at her legs and notice both are swollen to an alarming degree. Looking at Lilli, I make big eyes then nod over toward CeeCee.

“Holy shit, CeeCee,” Lilli whispers. “I don’t think that’s normal. Should we take you to the hospital?”

“I think we should,” I interject. “I mean, I’ve never been pregnant, but I don’t remember Gia ever being that swollen.”

The question of the hour is, who the hell is sober enough to drive?

Mary and Shamus left earlier, taking all the older littles with them, so the guys could cut loose a little bit. Only the three newborns and their mommas, along with the remaining two pregnant ladies are sober. Well, I am, but right now, I’m not cleared by the DMV to drive. The majority of the brothers have had enough beer they wouldn’t willingly drive and there’s no way the two newly-patched brothers will be behind the wheel of a motor vehicle for several days based on all they’ve ingested.

Lilli takes command and stands, saying, “Let’s ride, ladies. Loki, take her out to my SUV, I’m driving. I just need to grab Jesse.”

CHAPTERSIX

Chelsea

“Okay, so if anyone asks, Lilli drove the whole way to the hospital,” I hiss out as Canyon and I hop out of the vehicle and rush inside the emergency wing of the hospital to get two wheelchairs while Poseidon and Loki stay with their laboring women.

Yes, women…plural.

CeeCee’s pains got worse in a short period of time which had me glad we were going to get her checked out in the first place, even though it kind of felt a bit excessive that so many of us had to ride along in a carpool but I’ve grown used to this group doing many things together.

What affects one, affects them all.

The six of us had piled into the SUV with Lilli behind the wheel. We were planning for her to drive when her water decided to suddenly break, making her the new star of the show. Since the three men were in no shape to drive without running the risk of a DUI, I was the logical choice even though right now, my license is not valid.

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