Forbidden (The Soul Mates Book 4) by Victoria Johns (41)

“Why are you on the naughty step, Joel?”

I’d walked through our front door and my little mirror image was pouting with his chubby arms crossed as best he could on the bottom step.

“Mom’s mean. She told us off for taking cookies without permission.”

I dropped my work bag on the floor and went and sat next to him. “That doesn’t sound like Mom. Where’s your brother?”

“Jamie’s on the other steps.”

So, whatever had gone on, they were both in on it and both in trouble. Carly learned early on that the only decent punishment for these terrors was separation. At first it was necessary because the little hellcats would use the time productively, cooking up more mischief. But after a while they realized they hated being apart and that meant they pulled their shit together quicker, just like my own twin brother and me. So, when I said mirror image number one, I really meant my carbon fucking copy, in both looks and personality. The way they acted was just like Jake and I had, and that scared the shit out of me. I was going to need eyes in the back of my head soon. I was already sleeping with one eye open.

“Tell me what you boys did this time.”

“The cookies were cooling and they smelled deeelishhh.”

“And?”

“I kept Mom busy while Jamie climbed up and snagged the plate.”

I tried desperately not to laugh at the innocence of it all. “And how did you keep mom busy?” It was getting harder to keep my face straight because his face was so forlorn. But I had to remember that their acting skills were improving. God, I was so fucked.

“I made Pops cry.” His look changed from forlorn to fearful. Phoebe, Pops as the boys called her, was our two-year-old daughter. Pops was the spitting image of my insanely beautiful wife. Milky white skin, emerald eyes and hair the color of a setting sun.

I switched on my stern face, praying this wasn’t going to get much worse. “And how did you make Pops cry?”

“Well…” He leaned in. The shame and regret gone, now he had the chance to share the master plan that they were both no doubt proud of. “I put her under the table and blocked her in under the chairs. I thought that would make her cry, but it didn’t, so…. I pulled her hair to make Mom come running, just like Uncle Jake told me.”

Fucking hell, I was going to kill my brother.

He was a pain in the ass. I saw Livvy as my beautiful niece, a girl to love and cherish. He saw my boys as his subjects, underlings who needed teaching the ways of terrible twins. It was like he was some kind of criminal mastermind at the head of an operation.

“When Mom left the kitchen, Jaime took the plate. We met in the yard and ate as many as we could before she found us.” The little thief still had the evidence smeared across his mouth and cheeks. “That was when mom banged her head.”

“Uh oh,” I told him, over egging the dread.

“She banged her head trying to get out from the table with Pops who was still crying.”

“And is Mom okay? Did you say sorry?”

“We went to say sorry, but then she started counting, so we dumped the plate and ran. I think we broke the plate, too.”

“You boys had a busy afternoon, but you haven’t answered my question. Is mom okay and have you apologized?”

“Dad…” He leaned in, wide eyed. “She was counting.”

I tried not to laugh. Carly had this crazy way of counting through gritted teeth. It was freaky. You could hear the words, but how they came out through her angry, tight jaw was just nuts. They knew when they heard it to get moving and head for the naughty steps. Waiting for her to calm down was the safest option.

I hated that my boys were crazy ass clowns, but I was so fucking proud. The problem was that they knew Jake and I did this shit and they were starting to throw it around as an excuse. It made disciplining them a challenge. It also frustrated the shit out of my wife. She was feisty when she was frustrated and that made me hard. Her attitude always had. I should have been focusing on how I was going to make this right for the boys, but I couldn’t think past how she’d take it out on me in the bedroom. After all, that was how we’d ended up with Phoebe.

“Let’s go get your brother and apologize.”

I had no life plan after I left my tutoring job at the college, but I always knew everything that was happening felt right. It was like it was exactly how it was supposed to be. Carly falling pregnant, us getting married, all of it, like it was written in the stars somewhere and I was going to carry on riding what fate threw at me each and every time it came along.

I took the job at my father-in-law’s cab firm and spent four months at his beck and call, earning his respect and a wage. On one of the nights I was rostered to run the office, I became so bored that I started to poke around the company computer. Two weeks later, I was able to present him with a proposal. He was wasting money on rostering drivers, just in case someone needed one, and was also manning the office. It was costing him a fortune in overtime for very little return. In the end, Carly and I developed a management system whereby drivers were on call, people could book in on the internet and some clever code had the driver at your door at the quoted time for your quoted price.

Yeah, my wife smashed her college education. She could get any job, anywhere and instead chose to stay local and raise our family. So, what we offered instead of a cab app was a consultancy service where we could go in, do a study of existing operations, and develop it to make a profit and run more effectively.

Tommy went ballistic at first that I was poking around his business files. I even got fired. Then we calmed him down, and told him our findings before saving him a shit load of money. It was very popular with his drivers because no one had to work the phone line in the office at night and the drivers could base themselves from home. It also meant old Tara’s hours were reduced and that was a big winner for Tommy. She’d been like a mom to him and helping her slow down was the right sort of payback she deserved.

It was Carly’s idea to start marketing it. She was still working at the dance studio and while she enjoyed it, we both knew that her just doing that and me just driving a cab wasn’t going to bring in the money to give our family the good life.

We cut Tommy into the plan for a bit of start-up cash and used his firm as a reference client. It grew from there, more than we’d ever anticipated.

Carly still helped to manage the studio. It worked well for us as a family. It meant that all our kids were covered for child care and we had enough free time to spend together as a family.

I moved into managing the rollout of the cab method and before long, we had to set up a full-blown consultancy office. Now I sat at a desk next to Oli Hart, Carly’s kind of grandfather, who was looking for someone to work on his business ventures with his son, when he was ready.

We stayed in the cabin until she was seven months pregnant. In truth, we were happy there, but we knew needed something more permanent to settle the twins into. My parents loaned me a deposit for a small family home, sitting on a big ass chunk of land not far from the edge of town. I knew it was perfect for us the minute I saw it. I had visions of how I was going to make it the best family home possible, with lots of play equipment and a lawned area heading off into the trees.

Carly and I planned to renew our vows. We’d always said we would, but never got around to it. We kept finding reasons not to—the kids were too young, the business was taking off, and then she fell pregnant again. We talked about it one night and both realized that we’d had the wedding we’d wanted and were happy with it. No one seemed to pressure us about doing the family thing, so we left it. I did buy her some diamonds, though. I slipped that sparkly beauty on her finger the minute she popped my kids out. They were the greatest gift ever and it was all down to her. But, as warned by the pyscho from our first appointment, I steered clear of the business end.

“The boys have something to say to you, don’t you?”

Carly was bent forward picking up toys off the floor. I could see my baby princess flat out on the couch, her chest rising and falling as she slept. She was so pretty. Her fist was knuckle gripped around her favorite teddy and the thumb of her other hand was in her mouth. Her chubby cheeks were perfect and all you could see was the fluttering of her incredibly long eye lashes as she dreamed of castles and unicorns or some other girlie shit.

My wife didn’t turn around immediately. She was making my boys suffer. All of her boys. Watching her ass in the air was torture and she knew it. The little minx. I loved her in that position.

I stood and waited between my mini clones, holding a hand each before squeezing them to prompt their apologies.

“We’re sorry, Mom.”

“Yeah, Mom. Sorry you bumped your head and we smashed your plate.”

Carly turned around slowly, and the glare in her eyes would have turned us all to stone if she’d been Medusa, but I could tell she was trying to hide her grin. “You will apologize to your sister, too, when she wakes up.”

“She won’t understand,” Joel grumbled, kicking the floor with the toe of his shoe.

Fire flashed in my wife’s eyes. Joel, just like me, had no clue when to shut up and take it on the chin like a man. Carly threw her hands on her hips. “That little girl needs her big brothers to look out for her, not make her cry. You will say you’re sorry, and you’ve lost your Wii for the rest of the weekend.” Both of them tipped their heads up to me, looking at me to intervene and make her change her mind. “Shall we make it longer?” she finished.

On another hand squeeze from me, they zipped their lips tight. “Go pack your toy bags, boys. You’re sleeping over at Grandpa Tommy’s tonight and you know how he loves it when you take everything you can fit in your bag,” I challenged.

They ran off and I headed to my wife. For the first time since I’d laid eyes on her tonight, I was able to touch and kiss my sexy woman.

“Those boys,” she murmured around my tongue.

“They’re just kids. They’re gonna push your buttons and get up to mischief.”

“I know. Just wait until that one starts.” She nodded at the sleeping beauty on the couch.

“My little princess will be a dream and love her daddy forever,” I mused.

“Until she goes to college and falls in love,” Carly muttered.

“Now you’re pushing my buttons, baby. After waving that ass in my face just then, you were already on a promise. No need to up the ante.”

“Ooh, a promise? What would I get if I did up the ante?” Carly kissed me again and my dick started to feel constricted in my pants.

“How long till your dad gets here?”

“Well… I’ve got a whole hour to up the ante, my dear husband, and I’m really looking forward to it.”

My boys left, but not before I passed them some mischief making ideas of my own. I couldn’t have Tommy getting away without experiencing the full potential of grandkids, could I? My little girl went to sleep after I bathed her and made up a ridiculous bed time story. And then I got to spend time with my big girl.

What had started out as something forbidden all those years ago was now the very best part of my life. She was the best part of me, and I knew without her, my life wouldn’t be worth living. I’d just be existing and where was the fun in that?