“Adam, be serious. We have five baby sons. Five!”
“Remember when we thought we wouldn’t have any? We showed them, didn’t we?”
“You’re not being serious.”
“You have to admit it’s kinda funny.”
“It’s not funny.”
“Yes, dear.”
“I mean it!”
“Look at what we did, sweetheart. Look at this family we get to raise and love. Look at how beautiful our boys are.” Two of them were blond, and the other two had darker hair. “Remember how rare it is to have two sets of identical twins. They’ve been remarkable from the start, and they’re only going to be more so as they grow up. How lucky are we that we get to watch that happen?”
“Very lucky,” she said as she gazed down at the babies.
“We’ve got this, Abs. We’ve already proven there’s nothing we can’t do if we do it together.”
“That may be true, but there’s one thing we won’t be doing together until that thing is shooting blanks. You got me?”
Laughing, he said, “Yes, dear.”
* * *
“They’re here!” Linda McCarthy said to her husband as she brought him coffee in bed at six in the morning. They were booked on the eight o’clock ferry to the mainland. “Murphy, Rory, Kane and Beckett Callahan McCarthy!”
Big Mac sat up to take the phone from her so he could see the photo of their new grandsons. “Will ya look at that?”
“Thank goodness it’s done and they’re all doing well.”
“So that means they can come home fairly soon, then, right?”
“I think so. They’ll want to keep them for a week or two to make sure they’re good to go, especially since they’re coming to an island.”
“We can pick up the car seats on the way out of town so we’re ready when they’re released.”
“Yes, Adam texted to remind me about that.”
Between Big Mac’s truck and Adam’s SUV, they could bring them all home. The kids would be in the market for a bigger vehicle that could accommodate five car seats before too much longer.
“Good Lord,” Linda said. “Adam has five sons!”
Big Mac laughed. “He’s always been an overachiever.”
“That’s for sure. I can’t imagine how overwhelmed they must feel to suddenly have four infants to care for.”
“Grammy and Pop are coming. Let’s get moving! We’ve got things to do today.”
They showered, got dressed and took coffee to go as they headed for Adam and Abby’s house to pick up the infant car seats and some other things Abby had asked them to bring. By seven thirty, they were in line for the eight o’clock boat off the island.
“Thank goodness the weather is with us today,” Big Mac said as he took in the gray skies and flat seas. December could be wildly unpredictable, which had worried him as they waited for the babies to arrive. Their friend Seamus had held a spot on the first boat of the day for the last two weeks in case the babies arrived, and the Irishman came to greet them when he saw them in the car line.
“I guess this means congratulations are in order,” he said with a smile.
“It is indeed.” Big Mac showed him the photo. “Say hello to Murphy, Rory, Kane and Beckett McCarthy.”
“Aw, look at them. Beautiful boys.”
