Somehow, Cub kept one hand on Wilder and his other hand on the top of the ladder, but you could tell the poor fucker was terrified of falling.
Atlas let out a loud roar of laughter before calling up, “Ya soft twat! He’s a five-year-old boy! Get it together, Cub.”
My arm slid across Rosie’s shoulders just as Atlas cracked up laughing again.
Breaker wandered over with Kennedy under his arm. “Is he giving you shit again?” he asked his brother, grinning as he watched the farce of Cub trying to rescue Wilder. “Want me to get my boy up there to help? Wilder listens to him.”
“Yeah, please, brother,” Cash replied, jerking his head toward the entire shit show. “Cub’s useless.”
Kennedy rolled her eyes and turned toward the stream where the teens were sunbathing and fucking around. “I’ll go get Kai.”
“Wanna know a secret?” Rosie asked.
I pulled her tight against my body. “Yeah.”
“Cara’s pregnant,” she told me, eyes shining with laughter. “She’s announcing it today.”
My eyes rounded comically. “How the fuck did that happen? I thought she refused to give Cash another kid in case she got another Wilder?”
“They already know she’s having a girl,” Rosie told me quietly. “Remember back when she had that cold and got that nasty ear infection? She took antibiotics that made her birth control pill inactive. Cash obviously got to thinking and all of a sudden, wouldn’t leave her alone. That was when he knocked her up.”
My lips twitched. “He’s one sneaky fuck.”
“Yeah,” Ro agreed. “But he’s not the only one who’s sneaky. Do you think Cara wasn’t clued into what he was doing? Babe, Cara’s sister-in-law is a doctor, and every single one of us warned her that antibiotics could make her contraceptive pill ineffective. She decided that if she was going to have another baby, it had to be soon, so she went for it. Now he’s spoiling her rotten because he feels guilty for what he did, and she’s milking it for all it’s worth. He just bought her a pair of Dior knee-high goatskin boots and a matching black satchel bag just because she’s pregnant, and take note: between them, they cost over five thousand dollars. Now she’s laying down hints on a Tiffany diamond ring she likes the look of, and he’s asking Kennedy to help him pick out the right one, just so she’s not disappointed. He’s calling it a push gift.”
I threw my head back and laughed.
“It’s crazy, right?” Rosie giggled. “Like Cash thinks he could ever get one over on Cara. Can you believe him? When is that asshole going to learn she’s always a step ahead?”
Still chuckling, I watched as Kai and DJ finally got Wilder down the ladder. “Cash and Cara are a fucking trip. They’ve always been the same; it’s no wonder their boy turned out to be a fucking lunatic.” My gaze followed Wilder as he approached Gabby, who was sitting on the grass making daisy chains with Sunny, Willow, and Imogen.
My girl looked up at him and beamed before yelling, “Wawa.”
Wilder sat his ass down beside her and took her hands in his, grinning as she hoisted herself up onto her feet, gripping his fingers as she toddled for a few steps before plonking back down onto her ass.
My heart stopped. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
“Yep,” Rosie confirmed. “She’s an early walker, and her speech is advanced for her age too. She’s a smart one as well as devastatingly pretty.”
My chest puffed out of its own accord with the knowledge that my baby girl was doing this shit early for her age. She’d been pulling herself up and holding onto the couch for a while, but I’d mostly left her to it. She’d do what she needed to do in her own time, and I wasn’t one of those dads who played kiddie Olympics like some of the moms at the parenting group I took Imogen to.
Imogen crawled over to Wilder and began to climb over him. I heard his laughter and shouts of mirth from where I stood, along with Immie’s cute little-girl giggles.
He reached for her and carefully helped her to her feet again while lifting himself and knee walking with her as she toddled around with a huge smile on her face.
“Good girl, Imogen,” I heard him say. “I can take you climbing trees soon, and we can go down the creek, and I’ll teach you how to skip stones. I’m the world champion at it, andmy dad says he’ll get me a slingshot for my birthday, and I can shoot a stone at anyone who pisses me off. I’ll shoot anyone who makes you mad, too.”
“Wawa!” Imogen replied excitedly before leaning forward and resting her head on Wilder’s little shoulder. “Lavva.”
My chest tightened as a weird feeling gripped me, and my neck twisted toward Rosie. “Are they fucking flirting?”
Her cheeks flushed, and she smiled. “Looks that way to me. I think Wilder likes her and she likes him back.”
“She’s too young!” I protested.
“Well, of course she is, and so’s he, but it’s all very innocent. It’s not the kind of ‘like’ we’ve got. It’s just kiddie type ‘like’. I think it’s sweet.”
“He just told her he’d shoot a stone at anyone who makes her pissed.”
