‘Oh, no, little girl. The big wide world isn’t that bad. Come here and meet your dads and brothers.”
Ford and I sat in the middle of the nest, hugging and examining our babies. They all had Ford’s green eyes, and they matched with him, as they all had a small scale that remained on their arm which I’d noticed the day my mate arrived on my doorstep.
As dawn broke, Ford held all three who were fast asleep, and I dismantled the nest and rolled in the three cribs. After being cleaned, diapered, and dressed in onesies, I placed the babies in their cribs. My mate sat in the rocking chair, and I got in the armchair.
“We should probably sleep.” Ford yawned.
“Yeah.” But even though I was exhausted, I couldn’t close my eyes. We had three babies. Who needed shuteye when they’d just become a new dad?
You’ll regret it,my polar bear told me.
Oh yeah, are you going to sleep?
No way. I have to protect the babies.
EPILOGUE
FORD
“Sunny, Jade, Indy, Uncle Sampson is here!”
All three of our little ones ran to the door. They loved Sampson, and he loved them.
“I’m going to take the kids outside,” I called to my mate, who was hiding out in our room wrapping their birthday presents. I’d peeked my head in there a minute ago, and it looked like the tape was winning. No one was going to hire Zack for package wrapping.
It was hard to believe the triplets were already two. It felt like only yesterday they hatched. People said we shouldn’t blink or we’d miss them growing up. It wasn’t quite that bad, but it was close.
I opened the door and they ran out, stopping at the edge of the stoop, knowing they weren’t allowed down until the cars were stopped. All three were bouncing with excitement. They knew it was their birthday and people were coming over, but they didn’t realize how many. When I sent the invitations, I’d expected tohave about half say they were busy. Instead, everyone agreed and most offered to help by bringing something.
As soon as Sampson came around his truck, down all three went, running over to him and hugging his legs and ignoring the huge gifts he had in his arms. They would enjoy the presents later, but for now, all they cared about was seeing one of their favorite people.
When I’d originally told Sampson I wanted to stay, he made it happen. I’d have been fine without working. Zack and I had run the numbers. But I liked my job and was grateful he kept me on. I hadn’t expected him to offer to have me run the place when he retired. The trust he put in me meant more than the actual position.
“You spoil them,” I scolded.
“That’s as it should be.”
We'd had the discussion a lot their first year, and I used to try and change his mind. Since then, I'd given up. If the day came they acted entitled, we’d look at it again. But for now, Zack and I didn’t see the harm.
I led him to the back where we had the party set up. He put his gifts down and offered to help with any last-minute items. We were pretty much good to go, but I always appreciated the offer.
“You could help by entertaining these three little ones while people arrive?”
All four of them liked that idea.
When we first talked about how to celebrate their birthday, the den suggested we have one there, like we did for their first. That had been wonderful, but I wanted to invite the human side oftheir family as well—not that they were technically family, but in all real ways, they were. My kids were growing up with more than just their den. They had a bunch of people from town as well making up their community.
One by one, people arrived and came with enough food for a town festival.
Within half an hour, the place was packed, and thankfully, many of them thought to bring their own chairs. We had extra in case people forgot theirs, but hardly enough for this crowd.
The weather was cooperating, which was good because there was no way we were fitting this many people in the house. We’d have had to cancel, and while the kids were small enough to not really care, the cake Zack and I made wouldn’t last that long. Neither of us were cake decorators, and we’d had the great idea of making a cake for each of them in the shape of their favorite monsters from a book they loved. It took two days before we got them right, and I was not wanting to do that again.
The den and my co-workers were pretty good about being close to on time for the meal. My dart buddies? Not so much. It was predominantly pot luck, but I was glad they arrived when they could enjoy it.
Darts wasn’t something I expected to love as much as I did. Part of it was the friendships, but a lot of it was the adrenaline I got when scoring well. I still was not nearly as good as most of them, but my mate made sure that once a month on dart night, I went out and got together with them.
“Wow, you know a lot more people than I do,” said Liam.
