11 Dates (Eleven Book 3) by Octavia Jensen

Author:Octavia Jensen [Jensen, Octavia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CeliKetch Publishing
Published: 2022-09-07T16:00:00+00:00

The Cut-Off Date

“Blaire! Stop messing with your brother. He doesn’t want to wrestle.” My toddler stomped her foot in a way that would have gotten me spanked as a child, but luckily for her, I was trying hard not to carry on my parents’ bad habits. “Don’t get an attitude, girl. Arlo doesn’t like playing like that, he never has.”

“He never wants to play what I want to play!” she argued, making our second daughter wake up in my arms. Having three children under five was not how I imagined my life would go, but I wouldn’t change it for the world... even when I wanted to rip out my hair. Piper screamed, making my nipples burn with an unwanted letdown, and as I attempted to get her latched on, Blaire tugged Arlo’s hair and made him cry out. “Blaire!”

Arlo shoved her off of him and ran over to me, trying to climb into my lap with his seven-week-old sister. “Blaire is mean. I don’t want Piper to be mean, too.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, but when all three of them started crying, I was five seconds away from joining them. Luckily for me, my savior entered the house just in time, rushing over to scoop Blaire up like she was the victim. “Harrison, she’s just mad because Arlo is mad at the fact that she pulled his hair. Don’t let her play you.”

“Noted, but I’m also very likely going to ignore you. This sassy little spitfire is so much like you that I’m afraid she’ll never do anything wrong,” he said fondly, but then wagged his finger in Blaire’s face with a stern expression that had her pouting and hiding her face in his neck. “Arlo, come with me, too. I’ll fix you both a snack while your mom feeds your sister... unless you two have suddenly decided you don’t like snacks anymore?”

“No!” Blaire yelped, straightening up with a horrified expression. “I love snacks.”

“Of course you love snacks, I made you. Go on, Arlo. Go with daddy for a snack.”

He clung to me for a moment longer before he walked over to take Harrison’s hand, and I smiled fondly at my strong, sensitive boy. No amount of books could have prepared me for Arlo’s needy, loving personality, but I loved him exactly the way he was.

Once I had a moment to breathe, I realized how perfect our little family was. Sure, we didn’t always get along, but all families were like that, and as long as I continued to raise them close... I believed that bond would last a lifetime.

Or at least I hoped.

A little while later I went to join them with a sleeping, milk-drunk baby in my arms, finding them in a scene I wanted a picture of. Harrison was sitting on the floor with his back against the counter and one kid sleeping on each thigh, his expression soft, but almost as exhausted as mine. “Did Piper get her fill?” he asked softly. “I think they’re all ready for bed.

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