“You ready to see some goats, El?” I ask, peeking through the rearview mirror at our little angel. She won’t be thirteen eventually, right? We can just keep her four and adorable?
“Goats!” She screams. “Unca Stoney!”
Watson chuckles. “Yup, Uncle Stoney and his goats. There might be some chickens to chase too, plus your cousin Victor will be here.”
“Yay, yay, yay.” She bounces in her seat while we both laugh.
In spite of Livi’s insistence that goats are for babies, she’s out of the car in an instant and already halfway across the yard to the goat barn before we even finish getting Ellie out of her car seat.
OLLIE
“Not that you’re not rocking the absolute fuck out of that pink suit, but are you sure it was the best fashion choice for a goat party?” I ask delicately, glancing at my husband out of the corner of my eye as I turn down Stone and Dare’s long driveway.
Daniel grins andtsks. “Babe, if my designer suits managed to survive Victor’s spit-up stage, I don’t think a couple of goats are going to take them down.”
I shrug. I tried to warn him, and I’ve learned over the years that’s all I can do. Daniel is possibly the most opinionated, strong-willed man I’ve ever met, and I love him more every day for it.
He cranes his neck to check on our little man in the backseat, our four-year-old son who is pretty much just like Daniel: stubborn, free-spirited, knows exactly what he wants. He’s a handful, and we couldn’t possibly love him more.
“Are you excited to pet a goat?” Daniel asks him, and he screams with excitement.
I chuckle and park the car right behind my brother’s motorcycle in front of the house. West and Sawyer pull in right behind us, and all the rest of the guys are already milling around Stone’s yard. Livi and Ellie are already playing with the goats—who are wearing birthday hats by the way, because of course they are, this is Stone we’re talking about.
I let Victor out of his car seat, and he sprints off to join his cousins in harassing the goats while Daniel beelines right for West, who’s in the process of getting his own baby out of the car.
“Baby time,” Daniel insists with a smile, holding his arms out.
West laughs and places Timothy, their recently adopted little one into my husband’s arms. He coos at the little guy and then looks back up at me with that glint in his eyes I’ve been seeing for months now. I’ve been trying to hold him off since hejustofficially started his interior design business and things have been hectic for him, but I have to admit, another baby doesn’t sound like the worst idea in the world.
I smile and give a small nod. We can talk about it.
Daniel lifts Timothy up in the air and bounces him a bit. “You need a whole mess of cousins, don’t you?” he says in the silly, high-pitched baby talk voice no one can ever seem to resist. “Yes, you do.”
Timothy doesn’t seem to agree. His rebuttal comes in the form of an avalanche of baby puke right down the front of Daniel’s nice suit.
“See,” my husband says, handing the baby off to Sawyer. “Babies arealwaysmessier than goats.”
I suppose he’s not wrong.
Stone, who seems to have seen the whole exchange, hurries over with something clutched in his fist.
“Don’t worry. I have T-shirts.” He holds it out, and Daniel takes it, shaking it open to read the front.
“Perfect,” my husband says dryly, turning the shirt around so I can see the punny saying and the drawing of a goat on the front. “Just perfect.”
WEST
“Sorry.” I do my best to stifle my laughter as Daniel strips out of his suit jacket and button-up shirt, replacing it with the stupid shirt Stone provided.
“Don’t worry. I’m sure there are enough shirts for everyone,” Daniel says sweetly.
“There are,” Stone assures me, hurrying back over to the picnic table he has set up and returning with two shirts—one for me and one for Sawyer—as well as a onesie with the same goat pun as the T-shirts, for Timothy.
“Perfect, I forgot to pack a change of clothes.” Sawyer takes the onesie, hitching the diaper bag over his shoulder. “I think he needs to be changed too. I’ll be right back.”
He carries Timothy into the house, and I watch with a smile, my heart so full I’m surprised my chest is able to contain it. My husband was a little wary of the baby idea initially, but the second he laid eyes on Tim, everything changed. And fuck if it isn’t the sexiest thing in the world to see him fawning over that little guy.
We ended up getting married on that same beach in Hawaii where we had our first kiss, and the adoption of Timothy came through just a few months later. It just goes to show that the best things in life are more than worth waiting for.
