Page 20 of Daddy's Babies: Johnnie's Story

“You’re really going to upset your mama like this?” I question, leaning against the doorjamb of the storage room at the back of our house, staring down our five-year-old boys.

“It’s chocolate,” Ollie says around a huge bite, making it come out more likeith ho-lath.

“But was it yours to take?” I ask in return as his brother lowers his head, poking Ollie in the ribs making him grunt.

“No, Daddy,” Eddie says getting up, his eyes watering. They may both look like me, but Eddie definitely has more of his mama in him than Ollie does. He hates anyone being upset with him or mad at him. Usually when he gets upset, that gets to Ollie more than any punishment directed his way might.

“No, it wasn’t, and now, despite everything your mama does for me, for you boys, for your brother and sister, there’s nothing for her to enjoy on her special day,” I keep going, despite nearly caving anytime I see Eddie’s eyes full of tears, but that’s likely because the boys got their mama’s eyes a hundred percent. “Is that how you should show your mama you love her?”

“No,” Ollie says sulking as he looks at the chocolate cake one last time before handing it over to me.

I shake my head with a sigh, thankful that at least only half of it is a mess, and then point the boys towards the kitchen, knowing we only have a couple hours before Carly will be home. Jasmine helped me with her surprise, got her out of the house to go get a manicure and pedicure so I could try to give my wife one birthday where she wasn’t throwing up from being pregnant, wasn’t exhausted with a newborn, or covered in spit up, because that’s honestly her life most days.

I know she loves it, every insane minute of it, but I try to make sure that she takes some time for herself even if she says she doesn’t need it. I know she does though and rope in one of our sisters or Mom to get her out of the house for a bit. Out of everyone in the family besides Mom who is a god send helping all of us with the grandkids whenever needed, Carly and Jasmine are the closest, followed easily by Carly and Jackie or Carly and Maddie, so it’s not shocking that one of them would call her up to do something for a birthday treat.

I check on our little girl Ruthie who’s now three, still passed out in the playard we have in the huge kitchen of the house we built, because her mama loves to cook for us. It makes her happy to do it, and I don’t complain when I come home to some new concoction and a messy kitchen.

Hell no, I love seeing the joy in Carly’s eyes when she finds something new that we all love.

Our littlest man is chilling in his highchair, munching on Cheerios, showing off his new tooth. He’s fourteen months now, and weaning himself, which Carly isn’t ready for. Ruthie was still nursing when Bobbie was born, so Bobbie doing it early is getting to her, and another reason I wanted to do something special for her birthday.

Our sixth anniversary is coming up in November and hopefully, she’ll let me convince her to have another baby, work on it that weekend—or start a couple weeks earlier than that on the anniversary of the day I brought her home. Our simple courthouse wedding was quickly overruled by Mom, and instead, we got married on Friday evening. Exactly two weeks after I first made Carly mine. One day before her early home pregnancy test gave us a positive.

Since then, we haven’t spent a night apart. Even if we simply sleep in the same bed, she’s in my arms, and that’s one thing I certainly am not about to change. She’s the best thing that ever happened to me, hands down, the best, especially with our kids in the mix.

I know she’s safe if I’m working in the office, which I only do two days a week now. The other three I’m working from home in my office here, so I’m close by if Carly needs an extra hand. Jesse, Julie, and Jude don’t have any issues with it, and with Jesse’s brood growing, he’s taken to doing the same as well, and Jude…well, Jude’s got his own reasons for working from home.

There’s no way I’m giving this mess to Carly for her birthday though, and I take out a knife, cutting the part that the boys demolished off, then toss the rest into a mixing bowl, frosting and all. I let it go until it’s easy to scoop out and roll it into bite size pieces, before melting some white chocolate to cover them, while the boys watch.

Thanks to their mama, I’ve gotten better in the kitchen, and while the cake pops are setting up, I quickly mix up a new cake, this time going with vanilla, adding a strawberry filling between the two layers, that I know Carly will love. The boys can have a cake pop to join us but that’s all they’re getting after their little theft.

As I finish frosting it, I get a text from Jasmine telling me they’re on their way home, and I get Ruthie out of the playard where she and Bobbie have been napping. Bobbie’s still out and likely will be for at least another thirty minutes. Ruthie is a little sleep queen, and god forbid you wake her from a nap early, because grumpy Ruthie is a total terror.

I give her kisses as we move back to the kitchen, my eyes falling on the boys but they’re still sitting at the breakfast table, playing a game on their tablet. None of the cake pops have been touched and I breathe out a sigh of relief that for once, I can give my girl a good birthday.

“Mama,” Ruthie shouts beside my ear when Carly comes in, a smile on her lips as she looks at the food spread out on the island behind me.

“Johnnie,” she says with a grin, taking Ruthie from my arms, giving me a hug resting her head on my chest and lets out a soft sigh. I’ve learnt the differences in her sighs over the years and this one is one I love to hear.

This one I know is of happiness, and I hug her tighter to me, dropping a kiss onto the top of her head until she lifts her face, and I can taste her delicious lips. My brows knit together at the minty taste of them, and I can’t stop the questions that race through my mind. “You and Jasmine decide to go get some drinks to celebrate your big day?”

“Umm…no,” she says, and I take Ruthie from her, putting her down on the floor and give her a little push towards the boys. They grumble when she climbs up between them, wanting to play the game with them, but they don’t argue it, especially when I shoot them a warning glare, reminding them what they did.

That leaves my arms free, and I lift my girl until her legs wrap around my waist, and hold onto her, waiting for her to tell me whatever she’s not telling me.

“Come on baby girl, you don’t want the bad kind of birthday spankings from daddy, do you?” I ask, putting a gorgeous tinge of red in her cheeks.

“No, I don’t, daddy,” she agrees, her eyes meeting mine, and I can see a bit of worry in them and fuck, after everything we went through at the beginning, that’s the last thing I ever want to see in her eyes.

Brent Ellis is lucky he was killed in prison three years ago and Paul McKay only last two years longer. Carly’s father cut a deal, handing over everything he had on Ellis and McKay to avoid jail time. He attempted to contact her, push himself back into my girl’s life, and while I’d have preferred to beat the man senseless, my little bird found her strength while pregnant with the twins and told the asshole that he wasn’t welcome and if he ever came near her, us, or our babies, she’d let me handle him the way I’d wanted. Which would result in him either in the ground or in a wheelchair for the rest of his miserable life.

“What’s wrong, baby girl? You know you don’t keep secrets from daddy,” I tell her, tugging on a stray strand of hair that slipped from her ‘mom bun’ as she calls it.

“I…we haven’t talked about it in a while and I didn’t expect it to happen like this,” she says, making my brows furl again. “Last month, I don’t know what happened, I guess between dealing with the preschool wanting to test the boys for ADHD and that crap, then Ruthie coming down with the stomach bug, then Bobbie getting it right after her…”

“What?” I ask when she stops, biting her bottom lip the way Eddie does when he’s really worried about something.

“I must have missed my pill because well…I’m…”

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