Lullabye (Rockstar #6) by Anne Mercier

now-sleeping Kierah into a crib. Wait—a crib?
    I get up, following him, mouth hanging open. “Is that a crib? ”
    “Well, yeah. Where else are the babies going to sleep when they come visit Uncle Xan?” he asks, as if it’s the stupidest question in the world.
    My mouth opens and closes more than once and I back up slowly, feeling behind me for the sofa, sitting on it when I get there.
    “Well then,” I mutter.
    “What’s the big deal, Luce? I just want to help take care of the kids.” He says it so matter-of-factly that it sounds like it’s just a normal everyday occurrence.
    “I get that. I do. But you keep sneaking them away.”
    “I don’t sneak ,” he defends.
    “You sneak. The last three days there’s been a baby missing.”
    “Trying to help,” he defends.
    I bite my bottom lip. “Xander. I can’t give you one of the babies.”
    He pouts playfully. “You can let me borrow them. Take care of them. I mean, with four of them, aren’t you going to be grateful to get rid of one for a short period of time?”
    “If I say ‘yes’ I’m a bad mother. If I say ‘no’ I’m an idiot.”
    “What’s going on in here?” Jesse asks from where he’s leaning against the doorjamb. He looks like he’s been there awhile.
    “Uh, Xan wants to help with the babies.”
    “And what did you say?” he asks.
    “I didn’t know what to say. Jesse, he’s got a crib set up. He’s got diapers. He burped Kierah better than I do!” I tell him, not hiding the surprise.
    “What the fuck, man? Where’d you get a crib?” Jesse asks.
    “First, you owe the swear jar. Baby present. Second, the baby store. There are so many baby stores you just don’t know where to begin. And when you get inside? All the stuff they have?” He walks over to a closet door and opens it, where it’s loaded with—stuff. Bottles, burp rags, diapers, clothes, rattles.
    “What the…” I trail off.
    Kennedy strolls in, following as Jesse walks over.
    “They’re not just your babies,” Xander explains. “They’re all of ours, you know?”
    Jesse just stares.
    “He’s right,” Kennedy agrees.
    “What?” I ask.
    “He’s right. They may biologically be your kids, but we’re all going to look at them as if they’re ours too. How can we not, man?” he asks Jesse.
    “Well, hell,” Jesse mutters.
    I blow out a breath. Oh boy. “We’re going to have to set some rules.” All three men look at me. “They aren’t so important now, but they will be when they get older. I mean, imagine if we woke up and one or more of the kids weren’t in their crib. They could have crawled out of it and we would think they were with you.”
    Xan nods. “I can get on board with that.”
    “Are you going to keep taking my baby girl?” I ask.
    “Maybe,” is all he says. “When she gets older she needs to know someone’s there—besides her parents—to protect her from her bully brothers. You know they’re going to be bullies. They’re freaking Kingstons!” Xan declares.
    I lean back on the sofa. “And here I was worried I’d have too many babies and not enough hands.”
    “What are you going to tell the chicks you bring back here to bang?” Kennedy asks.
    “Dude. I won’t be bringing them here,” Xander says with disgust.
    “Dude,” Kennedy replies.
    Xan shakes his head. “No way am I exposing our kids to that.”
    “So, what?” Jesse asks. “You’re just never going to get laid again?”
    “Dude, watch what you say around the babies,” Xan scolds and I snicker. “And hell yeah I will. Just not here .”
    “New York’s a long way for a bootie call,” I say softly.
    “Then it’s a real good thing it’s a whole hell of a lot more than that.”

“D ID YOU HEAR anything?” Sera asks again. She asks every day and every day I have to tell her no.
    I shake my head. “Nothing.”
    “This is weighing so heavily on Jesse and Ben—and you.”
    It is. Very heavily. This shouldn’t have happened. She was supposed to