“Chlo, Chlo, let’s try not to kill Uncle Doom, okay?” I warned.
My daughter currently had her arms around Doom’s neck like a vice grip. It couldn’t be helped. He was her absolute favorite person on the planet. Well, next to her daddy, of course.
“She’s fine, Liv,” Doom said, kissing Chloe’s neck. “Aren’t ya, baby girl?”
Chloe squealed and slapped his face. We were enjoying another family night at the barn and Doc was currently trying to get Phoenix down for the night. We’d found that if we tried to put them down at the same time, the twins felt it was a chance to catch up onalltheir conversations of the day. We’d caught one such conversation on their bedroom cam, and although it was the cutest fucking thing on the planet, because they seemed to understand each other’s gibberish perfectly, it didn’t work in terms of them getting on a normal sleep schedule.
They were still sharing a room, because Chloe wanted her big brother close, but she wouldn’t go down unless he was already asleep. So, after a few failed tests, we figured out Nix needed to go down first, or he’d wake Chloe to ‘chat.’
A very pregnant Lyric walked in, holding Sterling’s hand, but when he saw Doom was holding Chloe, the toddler pulled away and made a run for Doom’s leg.
Doom chuckled and picked Sterling up.
Sterling stroked Chloe’s cheek. “Pretty baby.”
“Well, shit,” I whispered. “Let’s not let Doc see that.”
Lyric settled her hands on her belly and giggled. “How cute would their babies be, though?”
“Illegally cute,” I said.
Doc walked in a few minutes later and cocked his head. “What?”
“Nothing,” I said, and he rolled his eyes.
“Are you two scheming?”
“Us?” Lyric asked in a sing-song voice. “We would never.”
“Hm-mmm.” Doc smiled. “Nix is down, but let’s give him a few before we put Chloe in.”
“Oh, she doesn’t care... she’s too busy giving Sterling googly eyes,” I said.
“Jesus,” he hissed, and made his way to Doom. “Come here, Rosie,” he said, reaching for our daughter.
She let out a squeal and buried her face in Sterling’s neck.
“Baby,” Sterling said, patting Chloe’s back.
“Chloe Rose,” Doc tried again. “Come to Daddy.”
Doom handed her off, but the second Doc had her in his arms, she threw her head and body back and screamed. Doc had to hold her with both arms to keep her from falling.
“Okay, so she’s fallen in love,” I deadpanned.
“Like hell she has,” Doc said. “No love until you’re fifty.”
“Do you want me to take her?” I asked.
“No, I got her. Have some wine, sweetness,” he said, leaning down to kiss me quickly, all the while, Chloe screaming and trying to get back to Sterling. “She’s just exhausted.”
“Yep, sure,” I said.
He chuckled and headed back up the stairs, and I finally heard Chloe stop crying.
“Crap, we’re in trouble,” I mused.
Lyric wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “We got your back. Now, go do what your man told you to do so I can live vicariously through you.”
