Justin was sprawled on top of Jaxi, contented baby snores rising from him.
And Blake and Jaxi were teetering on opposite edges of the mattress.
She was smiling, though. “Are you sure you don’t want a king-size bed?”
Blake kept his chuckle soft to avoid waking anyone. “We had any more room in here, we’d be able to fit a couple of the dogs and a small horse.”
She snapped a finger to her lips. “Shh. Do not suggest that, or the twins will try to sneak them in for a test run.”
“The dogs? Or the horse?”
“Both. Either. All of them,” Jaxi said, lips curling with amusement. Her gaze drifted over the family between them then back to Blake’s eyes. “You need to take an extra-long lunch break.”
He was lost for a moment before comprehension drifted in. While adult entertainment was out of the question this morning, it appeared there might be hope for later. “If you can find a bit of spare time in your day.”
Her gaze grew heated. “Ashley and I are doing baby swaps this week. And it doesn’t need to be a bit. Unless a bit means a couple of hours.”
Reaching across the mass of children between them meant risking waking one or two. Blake satisfied himself with his best attempt at a smolder. “I’ll be home by noon. We’ll see what we can cook up together.”
The delight on his woman’s face was as sweet as the family that lay between them and as heated as the plans that lay before them.
They stared at each other in silence, smiles on their faces, love pooling around them for another hour until it was time to head into the day.
The chaos of breakfast followed. Then backpacks and getting three little girls off to the school bus, all of them bundled up in their snow suits.
Jaxi kissed Blake sweetly before grabbing PJ’s hand. Justin peeked out of the backpack contraption she wore. “We’re headed over to Ashley’s. I promised I’d watch the kids this morning so she can paint.”
Blake shook his head in amazement. Ashley, Cassidy, and Travis already had three kids—the youngest born only three months ago. “Five kids under the age of four. You’re a glutton for punishment.”
“She’ll have them this afternoon, starting at lunch,” Jaxi reminded him, eyes brightening. “Besides. It’s nice to hold a teeny baby again.”
Her idea of a good time was far too exhausting for him. “See you at noon,” he promised.
They were well enough set up these days at the Six Pack ranch. By sharing land and sharing responsibilities between all the Coleman clans, the sense of urgency they’d all faced years before had lessened. The struggle to provide for all the family had been dealt with. While there were still moments of uncertainty, because nothing about ranching could be predicted to go smoothly, having the holdings back together had begun to create some wonderful opportunities.
Everyone’s expertise got used where it was most valuable. It meant no longer juggling to find enough grazing land or seed land or feed.
Although he did miss having his cousin Karen from the Whiskey Creek side of the family around, with the way she had with horses. She and her sisters had settled about a three-hour drive to the south of Rocky, which always struck Blake as odd.
He couldn’t think of any reason family would want to leave. Still, she seemed happy enough. Maybe when she came to visit this weekend for their early Christmas gathering, he could bend her ear for a while. Get some ideas of where she thought the Colemans should go with their horse-breeding plans.
He’d barely finished his morning paperwork when Jesse stuck his head in the door of the office. “This is where you’re hiding.”
Blake pushed the chair in then joined his brothers in the main barn. He nodded at Travis before turning back to Jesse. “Wasn’t hiding, but getting up to date. Looks as if you need to hit the books for a bit. Took a peek at your project and it doesn’t look as if you’re done.”
Jesse made a face. “One more push should do it. The last time I tried to finish up, we had that power outage, and I lost about three hours of data entry.”
He was using a state-of-the-art genetics program to help amalgamate the Coleman ranch more fully, but old wiring in creaky barns was hell on modern technology.
Blake shook his head. “Shit. Didn’t know that.”
Jesse shrugged. “Pain in the ass, but it happens. Sorry I’m a little slow. If you need the information right away, I can stay late tonight. I don’t mind if it takes longer to get it done.”
Well.
Blake eyed him sideways. That was just so not Jesse that both Blake and Travis caught it.
His little brother was no longer a lazy butt or the type to try to wiggle out of work. He also had a wife he was head over heels about and a kid he adored, plus his twin brother and family lived right next door. Jesse and Joel were as tight as anything once again.
Jesse deliberately volunteering to be late getting home?
Nope.
Travis obviously had gone through the same thought process. He raised a brow. “Dare kick you out?”
“No,” Jesse snapped, but then he looked just about as guilty as Rae had the day before when she’d been caught with her fingers in the cookie jar right before supper. “Not really. Sort of.”
“Ha.” Travis was grinning way too hard. “And if you want to work late, that means you’re also in shit with Joel, because otherwise you’d go hang out with him until Dare wants to see your ugly mug again.”
A heavy sigh escaped Jesse. “They’re all pissed at me.”
Joel, his wife, Vicki, and Dare? “That’s quite the accomplishment.” Somehow Blake kept his expression from twisting into a smile. “You deserve it?”
“Probably.” Jesse flashed a grin. “It’ll be okay. I’ll let Dare cuss me out a few times, and then I’ll work all the kinks out between us with some makeup sex.”
“You can get out of the doghouse that fast?” Travis shook his head. “You need to fight a little harder. I mean, makeup sex is good and all, but they need to be really lit on fire for it to be extra fun.”
“The man who has two spouses to get mad at him at the same time thinks fighting is fun?” Blake shook his head. “There’s a name for people like you.”
Travis actually sputtered for a second before grinning broadly.
Jesse rolled his eyes dramatically then confessed the truth.
“Because that conversation is going places I don’t want to talk about, it was just a misunderstanding. And yeah, Dare was right—I stuck my nose in where it didn’t belong.” Jesse leaned back on the wall behind him, folding his arms over his chest. “I walked in on Vicki and Joel having what I thought was a full-out, drag-down fight. I waded into the middle because I knew they’d be upset if they actually tossed bullshit at each other that hard. But it turns out they were reciting some damn movie, and Dare was there, and so all three of them gave me hell.”
Travis snorted. “A movie? For fucks sake, can’t you guys even fight about something that’s not comical?”
“Screw you, asshole.”
“Diva.”
“Loser.”
“Jerk.”
“Ahhh, brotherly love.” Blake slapped a hand at the side of Travis’s head, dodging out of the way before his brother’s instant roundhouse could connect. “Stop your jawing, and let’s get to work.”