She didn’t have to tell me twice. Placing the boxes I was still holding on the nearest table, I offered the twins my hands. “Let’s go, cuties.”

Sensing the new tension in the air, they latched on to my fingers and practically dragged me out of the bar. As we left, I caught sight of Mom watching what was going on across the room, and I knew it was already turning ugly, even if I couldn’t hear what was going on. Despite Garret living on the other side of the country now, he still caused Mom so much stress, it was a wonder she even got any sleep from all the worrying she did for him.

“There you two are,” Mila grunted as she walk-waddled toward us, her swollen belly getting in her way from seeing more than the tops of her sons’ heads. “Have you two been good?”

“They’ve been perfect little angels,” I assured her, trying and failing to keep from touching where I could see one of her twin daughters kicking even through her shirt. “Which one is this?” I asked, in awe as I always was when a little foot pushed against my hand.

“That’s Israel,” she said lovingly, covering my hand and pressing it closer, always happy to share the experience with anyone who wanted to feel her little miracles wiggling around. “She’s always a bit more active than Ireland.”

“Not long now,” I murmured. “Are you excited?”

“Not nearly as much as Lyric is,” she said with a laugh. “He’s getting his girls. You should have heard him the other night on the phone with his parents. I honestly think his dad is even more excited than he is, and that kind of blows my mind. I adore his family.” She rubbed her hand over the other side of her belly, where the other twin was stretching. “Speaking of my delicious husband, he wants to run something by you. Why don’t you go talk to him before the party while I get these two cleaned up?” Shifting, she finally saw their faces. “Did you two have fun with Grandpa…? Why do you have tearstains on your faces, baby boys?”

While they told her what happened, I made my way over to where Lyric was standing with Max and Elias. Ciana and Delaney were now sitting in the back of the open SUV, and they waved as I passed them but quickly returned to their silent chat. From what little I saw of their conversation, Delaney was telling Ciana about her pregnancy and how well it was progressing.

A huge gift bag was hanging from one of Lyric’s hands. When the three men saw me coming, they stopped talking and grinned. “Hey, beautiful,” Lyric greeted, bending to kiss my cheek. “Happy birthday.”

I pretended to peek into the gift bag, but there was too much colorful tissue paper for me to get even a glimpse of what was inside. “What’s this?”

“Nope.” He laughed and shifted the bag to his other hand, putting it farther away from me. “Mila will kick my ass if I let you open this before it’s time. The boys helped her pick it out, and they will be disappointed if you see it before they can help you eviscerate all this paper.”