“Don’t be a braggart,” Isabel said, sitting up from where she was lying on a towel next to Romero’s chair.
“You still feeling nauseous, Izzy?”
Alex glanced at Isabel. She nodded miserably. Her face was as pale as he remembered Valerie’s getting when she was pregnant with the twins.
“Try sucking on a lemon, Isabel.” Valerie suggested. “That always used to help me.”
Romero put his pole down. “Don’t get up, babe. I got it. One lemon coming up.”
Alex chuckled. Isabel’s pale face also reminded him of when she gave Romero the news she was pregnant two months ago. Since both she and Valerie found out they were pregnant almost at the same time they decided to plan a night out with all the couples and announce it together. Alex thought Romero was going to pass out.
“How did Grace hear about this place anyway?” Romero asked, slicing a lemon on the picnic table. “Elephant butt—what the hell’s that about anyway?”
Alex shrugged, concentrating again on untangling the damn line on his pole. “Sal said her dad used to bring her here when she was a kid. I think it’s cool.” Alex glanced up at Valerie who balanced Savannah on her hip. “You sure you should be carrying her?”
“Alex she’s not even two. She weighs nothing.” She turned toward the shore where Sienna ran past baby Sal who was still taking wobbly steps nearly causing him to tip over, but Grace was there, arms out ready to catch him if he did. “Sienna, honey be gentle with your cousin. He just learned to walk.”
Sal grabbed Sienna as she tried to run past him and she squealed when he spun her around.
Alex eyed Sarah and Angel who sat on beach chairs in the water. They were supposed to be on twin patrol but Angel held a Corona, and Sarah held a red cup, no doubt sipping on wine. Sarah lifted her cup to them and smiled.
“You’re supposed to be watching my girls. Not drinking.”
Sarah put her hand to her ear pretending not to hear. “What was that?” Then took a sip of her cup with a smile.
“That brat,” Valerie said. “She knows I’m dying to have a glass of wine.”
Alex shook his head. “Not happening.”
“I know.” Valerie said, putting Savannah down then walking after her as she ran toward Sal and Grace.
He watched as she reached Grace. Alex was surprised Sal agreed to make the trip since Grace was five months pregnant. This family—he shook his head. Next year they’d need an RV; their SUVs weren’t going to cut it much longer. The only ones left were Sofie and Angel.
Sofie and Eric were newlyweds and she said they were going to wait, but Sarah and Angel had been trying for over a year now so it was just a matter of time before those two started popping them out.
Romero opened the ice chest, pulling out a beer. “You want one man?”
“Yeah, I’ll take one.”
Romero handed it to him before sitting down. He took a long cold sip, glancing around at his fast growing family and smiled. Life was good.
Sofia
They were so far away from the shore they could barely make out who was who from where they stood in the lake. Sofia smiled wickedly at Eric whose heart was still pounding against her chest as she kissed him one last time.
“I can’t believe we just did that, Sof.”
She giggled. “Why? We did this in Hawaii.”
“Yeah, but your brothers weren’t sitting just couple hundred yards away on the shore.”
She laughed even more at his exasperated expression. “We’re far enough there’s no way they can see what you just did to their little sister.”
Eric smirked and glanced back toward the shore. “Not funny. This was your idea as usual.”
Sofia wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms round his neck again. “Tell me you didn’t enjoy it.”
That finally made him smile and he groaned, kissing her. When he was done he pulled back. “So did you decide?”
Sofia rested her cheek on his shoulder. “I don’t know. Maybe we should wait until we get back home. I’d hate to ruin the trip for Sarah and Angel.”
“You really think it would ruin it?”
She lifted her head up to face him. “When Valerie and Isabel announced they were pregnant at that dinner, they seemed happy enough for them but I’m sure it had to be hard, especially since Grace got pregnant again so quickly after having the baby.” Sofia thought about how devastated they’d felt after finally getting pregnant only to have Sarah miscarry. “They’ve been trying for over a year now. Here we’ve only been married three months and already I’m knocked up.” She shook her head. “No I don’t think we should say anything until we get back.”
“It’s your call, Sof.”
She nodded, a little saddened that she knew it was just a matter of time before Sarah and Angel knew even if it wasn’t until they got back but she was certain it would touch a nerve. She remembered the last time Sarah thought she might be then when it turned out to be a false alarm she’d cried when she told Sofia but made her promise not to tell Angel. She didn’t want him to know how heartbreaking each month that went by and she wasn’t was for her.
They made their way back to the shoreline. Sal and Alex were already working on getting one of the tents up. Sofia walked up behind baby Sal who was tugging on one of the corners of the tents and squeezed him kissing his fat little cheek. “Hey little man. You helping daddy?”