Reeve (The Phoenix Boys #3) (17 page)

“Spit it out, Doc. What the hell is going on?”

“Lucy, you need to push again for me, sweetie, ok? We seem to have missed something when we did your ultrasounds.”

“What do you mean missed something?” I brush Lucy’s forehead with the cloth again, knowing that she is going to suffer more pain.

“Rafe, it looks like Lucy was carrying twins and baby number two is ready to meet Mom and Dad.”

Fuck me, twins.

The nurse takes our baby girl off of Lucy’s chest and takes her over to the unit to check her out and clean her up. The nurse that ran out of the room earlier comes running back in with more supplies. Lucy starts screaming again and bears down. I can’t believe that we went from the two of us, to three of us and now onto four of us within a matter of minutes.

“That’s it Lucy, you are doing fan-freaking-tastic, honey,” the doctor encourages Lucy.

“You can do, Juicy. Push girl,” Leah says from the side of the bed. Letty is sliding the damp cloth over her face, trying to keep her cool. Me, well I am still frozen at the fact my Snowflake is giving me two freaking babies. Something hits me in the chest, bringing me back to now. I look down and see Lucy give me a tight smile.

“I said something felt off on the way in, didn’t I?” I nod and lean into kiss her. She pushes some more and again we hear the sound that every parent wants to hear when waiting for their baby to arrive. Our second child lets the world know that they are well and truly here.

“Another girl, Mom and Dad. How do you like that?” Holy shit. I now have three girls to protect. Shotgun anyone? The baby gets whisked away by the nurses to get check, because basically she wasn’t expected. 

“I” kiss “love” kiss “you” kiss “Snowflake. My Inside Noise, baby, my Inside Noise.”

“Ok, Mom and Dad. Are you ready to meet these two little pink bundles, properly?” One nurse hands me baby number one and baby number two goes to Lucy. I notice that both Letty and Leah are now standing over against the far wall, smiling at us. I smile down at my daughter, and then my other daughter in my girl’s arms.

“Thank you, Lucy. I couldn’t have asked for a better gift, or gifts.” The nurses laugh.

“No thank you, Rafe. You stood by my side through this all, through my ups and downs. I do believe that Shane is looking down on us, watching his baby sisters.” Fuck me, that does me in and a sob escapes me. I swear there isn’t a dry eye in the room.

“Names?” The doctor asks. I shake my head.

“We want to introduce them to our family together. Can they come in now?” She nods and Letty goes to bring everyone in. Everyone’s eyes go wide when they see the four of us in the bed.

“Um, you forgot to tell us something, bro?” Ryder asks, shock clearly covering his face.

“We didn’t know that Lucy was carrying twins…” One of the nurses cuts me off.

“Some people call them ‘mirror twins’, when one twin hides behind the other and they are never detected until the mom goes into labor.” She smiles and goes back to her paperwork.

“So more shopping,” Mom states. I smile and nod.

“Are you going to introduce them to their family?” the doctor asks.

“Everyone, I would like to meet Rowan Leah who was five pounds and fourteen ounces. Lucy is holding her. And I have Lyric Tru, who was six pounds and five ounces. Both are doing great, and as you can see, so is my Snowflake, she was a fucking trooper…”

“Language in front of the girls, Rafe,” Lucy scolds me. Oops, my bad.

“And it begins,” Ryder mutters.

“I can’t believe you have two girls to look out for. God help you, bro. If they turn out like Juicy then you are going to have your hands full. Good luck with that, brother.”

“So, what happens when you have kids, Reeve?” Leah asks him, everyone holding their breath and waiting for his response.

“Like hell, Lipsy. We are having all boys. I can teach them all I know,” he says proudly. Typical Reeve.

“We’ll see,” Leah says.

Everyone only stays for an hour after the introductions of the girls. Snowflake is dead tired and needs her rest.

I am sitting in the rocking chair, looking between Lucy, Rowan and Lyric. My three girls. Mine.

“Well Dad, how does it feel to have two more granddaughters? They would have loved you, like you love them. I hope that you are looking after my baby boy up there. And his Uncle Shane, they would have been thick as thieves. They are my Inside Noise, Pop. The Phoenix family is growing. Ren has a baby on the way and I believe that Ryder and Letty won’t be too far behind. Keep looking out for us, Pop. Love you.” Lucy is still sleeping and my two baby girls are sleeping in my arms.

This is right where I belong, with my very own Phoenix girls.

Chapter 18

Leah

I am knackered, so bloody tired. We have just left Lucy, Rafe and the twins. Oh my God, twins. I cannot believe that baby number two wasn’t seen, how crazy is that? Reeve is driving with a tired look on his face; he has been a little off since the comment about us having our own babies. When he commented about only having boys, my heart skipped a beat. It never occurred to me that Reeve would want children. Hell, not long ago he was shagging his way through LA and beyond, not he is claiming me as his girlfriend and telling me he loves me. I think now that he has had time to let things settle in, he is changing his mind. Again Rafe and Ryder have beaten him at something but I think that something never crossed his mind.

“You ok?” I ask, placing my hand on his thigh. He jumps a little from the contact, so I quickly draw my hand back.

“Yeah, fine,” he says, but not taking his eyes off the road. I nod to myself and stare out the window. We ride to Rafe and Lucy’s apartment in silence, not even the radio is on, and the quiet is killing me. I know he is going to pull away and I know that I won’t be able to get through that. I can’t take another rejection. I take a deep breath and climb out of the car, Reeve turning the engine off and following me up to the door. As I unlock and open the door, I feel Reeve touch my elbow. I really don’t want to see his face, but I pull up my big girl knickers and turn to face the man I love, with the feeling of being hurt.

“I won’t come in, Leah. I know that we are both dog tired and need sleep. I will come back in the morning, ok?” I sigh.

“Don’t pull away, Reeve. We can just go to sleep; I want you to hold me.” I know I’m begging but I do not want to lose him. He shakes his head no and I know that he has already made up his mind.  “Fine, I will see you tomorrow. Night, Reeve.” Ok, I no longer sound like I am begging but I sound like a bitch. I step through the door when he speaks.

“Don’t be like this, Lipsy, please. I said we both need sleep, nothing more.”

“Ok, so why can’t you sleep here?” He looks to the floor. “Don’t bother, Reeve. Go home and get some sleep. I will text Letty in the morning and ask her if I can catch a ride with her and Ryder. Night, Reeve.” This time I close the door. My heart sinks and my body feels heavy, leaning against the closed door, tears fill my eyes.

And the shoe drops. I am not good enough. Words mean fuck all these days.

I walk into my bedroom and pick out a tank top and shorts to wear to bed, and then I pick up my toiletries and towel and hit the shower. Letting the hot water run over my body, I hope it will help clear my head but no such luck. He will always be on my mind. A sob breaks through and I slide down the tiled wall and sit on the floor of the shower and let the water wash away the sinking feeling.

I don’t know how long I sit there but the cold water brings me out of my head. Climbing out of the shower, I dry myself off and get into my bed clothes. I run the brush through my hair but don’t dry it, too tired to. I drag my body over to the bed and slide under the covers. How can today start with such excitement and then turn to pure joy at finally meeting Rowan and Lyric but end in heartache? Seeing Juicy and Rafe get their little family made my heart swell, they deserve this. Everyone deserve their happily ever after, just apparently not me. Not good enough.

Bang, bang, bang.

Banging on the door wakes me from my sleep; my heart is pounding knowing that I am in the apartment alone. Rafe stayed at the hospital with Juicy and the girls. I lift my phone from the nightstand and check the time. It’s quarter to one in the bloody morning. The knocking continues and I make my way to the door, snatching up Rafe’s baseball bat on the way. I get close to the door and go up on my toes to see through the peephole. What the hell.

“What the fuck, Reeve? What the bloody hell are you doing here?” I ask when I fling the door open and see a much disheveled looking Reeve Phoenix. He sways as he steps towards me. Great just bloody great, he is drunk.

“I need you, baby. All those other women mean nothing to me,” he slurs. Other women? Oh my God, did he cheat on me?

“What other women?” I ask through gritted teeth. My anger is growing.

“The ones at da bar.” He flicks his wrist in all directions.

“So you didn’t sleep here with me, so you could go out and shag some other girl? Well fuck you very much for proving me right all a-fucking-long. Go home, Reeve we are fucking done.”  I hear someone running down the small hallway, so I look around Reeve and see Skeet running towards us.

“Hey asshole, didn’t I tell you not to come here? Fucknut.” Skeet goes to help Reeve into the apartment but I raise my hand to stop him.

“Stop! He is not coming in here, take him home. I am done, Skeet. I thought I meant something to him but words mean fuck all to him. Take his cheating arse away from me.”

Skeet looks at me with confusion all over his face. He lifts Reeve up a bit more and pushes past me. He flops him down on the couch and turns to me.

“Reeve did not cheat on you, Beautiful. He met me and the boys at the bar and we had a few drinks. He needed to talk and we decided to have a little celebration for the twins. Girls were all over him, Leah, but he turned them all down, every single one of them. I swear on my own life that he did not touch any of them, he wouldn’t do that to you.”  The weight on my chest lifts. I do believe him. I know that they are like true brother minus the DNA but Skeet wouldn’t lie to me.

“Ok, Skeet I believe you. You can leave him there. I will go fetch a blanket for him.” I leave them in the living room and go and get a blanket from the closet for Reeve. I hold the knitted blanket to my chest and let out a big breath. For that brief second I truly thought that he had cheated on me. What does that say about our relationship? Can I truly trust him? I don’t at this moment, which sits like lead in my stomach. Walking back into the living room, Skeet is leaning against the wall, watching his best friend sleep. I love the whole non-blood brother bond that they have; they would do anything for each other just like Rafe and Ryder. Kind of makes me miss Ryan and Jade back home.

“Hey,” Skeet says when he notices me.

“Hi, so how was the celebrating? You know that Rafe is going to be pissed that you went and wet the baby’s heads without him.” I smirk at him.

“Yep,” He says popping the ‘p’ “But what you are forgetting my dear, Lipsy, is that we get to do it all over again with Rafe. Win win, baby.” He pushes off the wall and comes to stand in front of me. He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear and kisses my forehead.

“Leah, get some sleep. He is going to a bear with a very sore head in the morning. So be warned.” He kisses me again and leaves the apartment laughing. Bastard.

I walk over to where Reeve is sleeping on the couch, snoring lightly, his perfect lips parted slightly. I remove his boots and cover him with the blanket. I kiss his forehead and walk to my room. Sliding back into bed, I stare out the window and think about everything that has happened since I came here. So much has changed. I am not quite sure whether it’s a good change or a bad change.