Breathe With Me (Playing For Keeps #5)

by Becka Mack

Oh, yeah, Jennie’s pregnant too. With the exact same due date as Lennon. You can imagine what the rest of us have been dealing with between Jaxon and Garrett and the competition they’ve turned their wives’ pregnancies into.

I stop at the edge of the living room, frowning at the stunning flowers sitting in a vase on the table, the pink and blue balloons floating next to them. “Did I get those?” I murmur to myself. “I must be losing my mind. Does anyone else need a dr—” I stop short as I twist around, finding my family gathered behind me. Waiting. Watching. Smiling. “What’s … what’s going on?” Abel tugs on Emmett’s hand. “Now, Daddy?”

“I painted this for you, Mommy.” “Thank you, baby. That’s so thoughtful.” I take the picture from his tiny hands, grinning down at the colorful painting, the rainbow splashed above us. “Is this our family?” Abel nods, pointing at the people. “This is you. And this is Daddy. And this is me.” I point at the small person next to Abel. “And who’s this?” “Oh, that’s easy.” He beams up at me, patting his chest proudly. “I’m gonna be a big brother. That’s my baby brother or sister.”

“You’re pregnant, Cara.” And all those Skittles and M&M’s that have been sitting like lead in my stomach since last night? They choose this moment to make their reappearance, painting the kitchen sink as I promptly empty the contents of my stomach into it. “Huh,” Carter murmurs from somewhere behind me. “That’s one way to taste the rainbow.”

Adam runs his hands down his tired face. “As delusional as he is pretty.” Carter grins. “So you admit it. You think I’m pretty.” “You were okay,” I mutter. “And then you started going gray.” Carter gasps, slapping my hand away when I poke at the silvery strands peppered into all the brown around his temples. “How dare you. Ollie loves my salt-and-pepper sprinkles. She says they make me look distinguished.”

“Slander!” Carter hollers, busying himself with his task again. “This is vicious slander!” “Slander is the act of makin’ false and damagin’ statements about a person,” a loud voice calls nonchalantly from across the backyard, and my six-year-old daughter shifts her heart-shaped sunglasses down her nose, sipping her pink drink. “Are they saying false things about you, Uncle Carter?” “Well, maybe not false, but definitely damaging.” “Then it’s not slander, Uncle Carter.” She would know; it was her word of the day two weeks ago. Carter chucks his tools to the ground, arms overhead again. “Lana! Help me out here!” “I’d love to, but I’m busy.” She shifts her sunglasses back up her nose, slurps loudly at her drink, and holy fucking shit, she is a carbon copy of her mother.

Abel walked into the hospital room an hour later with a stuffed dinosaur for his sister and a bouquet of flowers for his mom, and whispered I’m so lucky you’re my Lana as he laid his small hand over her belly. That one really wrecked my wife. All right, maybe we were both wrecked.

“Dad!” Abel stands below me, grinning up at me in a way that still makes my heart pound, even all these years later. He lifts up little Emmie, Garrett and Jennie’s daughter, and our group’s youngest. “Can we jump with you?” I scoop up Emmie, and Garrett reaches his hand out to his son, Theo, helping him up. Lily helps Iris up, and Ireland and Connor help Dylan—Jaxon and Lennon’s—daughter, up before they climb up too. Hunter and Brodie battle it, and Lana pushes her way between them, beating them up the bouncy castle. I pass Emmie to Garrett, and hold my hand out to my son.

“Do you think everybody finds this?” I ask quietly. Carter looks at me. “What’s that?” “This. What we have. What we found in each other.” The boys are quiet as they watch their wives and kids. As they look at each other. “No,” Carter finally answers, “I don’t. And that’s devastating.” “I don’t know what I’d do without you guys,” Adam admits. “Or where I’d be,” Garrett adds. “Or who I’d be.” Jaxon rests his elbows on his knees. “Don’t think I found myself until I found you guys.” “Yeah.” I look down, nodding. “This is the version of me that I love, this one I found with you guys by my side.”

Because the truth is, friends like these, this family we’ve found, built from the ground up, fought for every step of the way … they’ll save you every damn time. And that? That is something I will always cling to. I was unstoppable before them. With them, I’m indestructible. “I hope we find each other in every lifetime.”

“Urrrgh!” Lana stomps her foot, hands on her hips. “I can’t stand you, Hunter Beckett!” “Hunter Beckett!” Olivia hollers from across the yard. “Leave her alone!” Hunter flashes her a toothy smile, pulling in his dimples. “Yes, Mommy!” He turns that conniving grin back on my daughter. “Yeah, well, you better get used to me annoyin’ you. My daddy annoys my mommy every single day, and they’re married. You know what that means? It means I’m gonna marry you one day.” Lana rolls her eyes. “As if I would ever marry you.”

“You wanna bet?” Hunter crosses his arms over his chest. “Five bucks says you’ll lose, Lana Brodie.” Lana holds out her hand. “Double or nothin’, Hunter Beckett.” “Well, then,” I murmur as the two of them shake hands. “That escalated quickly,” Carter adds. He snickers. “Imagine? A Brodie and a Beckett?” “No fucking way,” the two of us mutter. “I’m gonna take all your money,” Lana taunts, getting right in his face as she sticks out her tongue at him. “That’s my girl!” Cara hollers. “Take him for all he’s got, baby!” Hunter just grins that signature Beckett grin, like he knows something the rest of us don’t. Then, he leans forward, and the little shit presses a loud smooch right on my daughter’s surprised mouth. Not as loud as the sound of her fist hitting his cheek, though, as she sends him ass first into the grass, Olivia screaming about consent as she rushes toward them, while Cara gives our daughter a standing ovation, complete with whistling and the kind of language she usually reserves for the arena.