“It’s about all of us,” Grant said. “The whole damned family.”
“Yer derned right about that,” Ned said.
When the ferry cleared the South Harbor breakwater, Captain Seamus gave the horn four long blows to herald the arrival of the quadruplets.
Mac and Maddie ran up to the group just as the ferry backed up to the pier.
“Nice of you to join us, bro,” Grant said.
“We overslept,” Mac replied, using his thumb to point at Maddie. “She kept me up half the night.”
Maddie punched his arm. “Shut your mouth, or it’ll never happen again.”
The other guys lost it laughing.
“He never learns.” Ned shook his head as he grinned. “Yer daddy needs ta take ya out ta the woodshed.”
“I’m incorrigible,” Mac said with a grin for his wife.
Maddie rolled her eyes as she and Mac were mobbed by their children, who’d just noticed their arrival.
“Mommy, Thomas wouldn’t go to bed last night,” Hailey said.
“That’s not true!” Thomas said, sputtering. “I went to bed. Eventually.”
“Hailey, don’t be a tattletale.” Mac picked up his little girl while Maddie hugged Thomas and little Mac. “The other kids won’t appreciate that.”
“But it’s true. You told me not to lie.”
“That’s right, I did. But it’s not a lie to not tell us what Thomas didn’t do.”
Her cute little face twisted into a confused expression as she tried to make sense of that.
“How did our little ladies do overnight?” Maddie asked her parents.
They exchanged a guilty glance that said it all.
“If you tell me they slept through the night, I’m never coming home again.”
“No, Mommy!” Mac said. “Come home!”
“I will, honey. Mommy is just kidding.”
“We won’t tell ya they slept through the night, then,” Ned said.
“I don’t believe this,” Maddie said. “All I had to do was leave for the night?”
“Or we gots the magic touch,” Ned said, smiling as he cuddled the sleeping Emma.
Not even the loud horn from the ferry could wake those two girls when they were asleep. Mac had told Grant that it was because they’d been listening to noise since before they were born.
Adrian and Dylan weren’t at all happy about the horn, however.
“The new babies are coming home to the chaos they’ll grow up in,” Grant said as Big Mac drove his truck off the ferry, tooting the horn as he went.
Adam was right behind him, also on the horn.
The older kids were out of their minds with excitement as the two vehicles parked and were swarmed by family members and friends, straining for a look at the new arrivals.
