It was a typical Sunday in May, and Leo was kicking back with his buddies on the ranch porch, watching their wives playing some kind of humorous card game at a picnic table under the large oak. Big cow lying at Stone’s feet, her ears twitching every time the wind carried the women’s laughter up to them.
Leo could easily pick out Kaydee’s sweet tone. It never failed to trip his heart.
Neither did she.
“When we left active duty, did any of you ever think we’d be doing this?” Stone asked, looking out over the Texas landscape, beer in one hand while petting the cow with the other.
Brick glanced at his beer. “Drinking?”
“Shooting the shit?” Leo asked.
Cord raised a brow. “Sitting on the porch?”
Vince chuckled. “Petting your pet cow?”
“No, you assholes,” Stone groused.
“Watching our wives play cards?” Vince tried again with a grin.
“That, for one.” Stone pointed to Vince. “Who would’ve ever thought we’d all be married and settled someday?”
“Or that Leo and Stone would be dads soon.” Vince grinned before taking a pull of his beer.
“Leo? Sure,” Brick said. “But my brother? No way.” The goof shook his head, but Leo saw the mock surprise on his face.
Stone frowned. “Why wouldn’t you think I could be a dad?”
“Because you’re a mother hen, not a father hen.” Brick snickered, then laughed outright when his brother flipped him off.
Leo laughed along with his buddies, and his heart lifted as he watched Kaydee leave the game and approach with a hand on her back and the most adorable waddle. Jovy wasn’t far behind.
“Duty calls,” Stone said with a grin, then glanced at the cow. “That means you behave, Lula Belle.”
The cow mooed.
Unlike Kaydee, who was due any day, Jovy still had a few months. But Leo knew those backaches didn’t care how much time you had left. Or if it was the middle of night or day.
“Hey.” Kaydee gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “Need your magical hands.”
Brick grimaced. “TMI.”
Cord whacked the idiot so Leo didn’t have to.
“Sure.” He motioned for her to turn around, then he helped her sit on his lap and got to work applying pressure low on her spine, smiling at her moans and how uncomfortable it made Brick.
“Me, too, hun,” Jovy said to Stone, then death-glared the cow before settling on her husband’s lap for the same.
“How was the game?” Leo asked Kaydee.
She shrugged, too busy pressing into his hand and sighing. At that moment, he was pretty sure he was the luckiest bastard in the world. And it made him revisit Stone’s earlier question and revise it a little.
If someone had told Leo last year that this spring he’d be happily married, expecting a baby any day now, a Foxtrot supervisor, and part owner of At-Ease, he would’ve laughed in their face and asked what they were smoking.
Not necessarily in that order.
But here he was, sitting on the porch at the ranch, rubbing the back of his very beautiful, very pregnant wife while she sat on his leg…at least it looked like she sat on his leg. Hard to tell since he’d started to lose feeling a minute ago.
“So, you two heading home today or staying another night?” Stone asked, hand on Jovy’s spine, using the other to keep Lula Belle’s tail from hitting his wife.
