I smiled at the waitress as she set my food down in front in of me, waiting until she’d walked away before I continued talking to my guys. After that crazy appointment, we’d decided a family-style celebratory dinner was just the ticket.

"Twins. Wow. I can't even wrap my brain around that one." I spoke slowly, shaking my head as I dipped a fry into Larry's ever-present bowl of Ranch. He grinned and nudged it closer for me to help myself. One of these days I’d have to start asking for my own side of the dressing. I really was getting addicted to the shit—either that or it was a pregnancy thing. Hard to tell at this point.

"We need to start shopping for the nursery and get it put together, especially now that we have two babies coming. According to Google, twins can come early, and often do. In fact, it says right there tha—" Larry reached across the table with a grin and pushed a few fries into Ryan's mouth.

"Why don't we let our omega soak in the fact that he's got two buns in the oven before we start stressing him out." Larry spoke kindly, but his words had their effect as Ryan nodded. When he’d swallowed the mouthful of fries, Ryan stopped to take a drink of his bottled water before speaking again.

"I'm sorry, guys... Especially you, Ethan. The last thing that I’d ever want to do is stress you out, I just feel like there's only so many hours in the day that I'm around before I need to go home again, you know? And I don't want to miss a moment with you guys or our babies. Especially now that we know we're having twins."

Bella sat up and asked him curiously: "Why do you always have to leave anyway?" She looked at me then with her patented serious face. "I mean it, Daddy. Why does Mister Ryan always have to leave and sleep somewhere else? We should all live together now, since we're all having the babies together. We should be a family." She nodded with conviction as she said that last part, completely oblivious as to what she was saying.

I gulped as the two alphas regarded me with amusement. The only reason we weren't all living together already was because I hadn't known how to tell Bella I had two alphas now. Finding my voice, I asked gently, "Why do you say that, Bella-bear? Is that something that you’d want, or are you just worried for the babies’ sake?"

Bella rolled her eyes and pushed back her plate. Her eyes drifted over all three of us before settling on me. "I'm not a baby anymore, Daddy. Tell me the truth. Am I like Sam?"

Okay, now I was lost. "In what way? I'm not sure I understand what you mean, bear."

"Seriously?" She groaned and dramatically leaned her head back to look at the ceiling, as if she were just totally exasperated with me and needed to count to ten before answering. Ryan and Larry were biting back smiles at her antics, but I sat there immune to her charms.

"Bella. What do you mean?" I pressed, slowly realizing that she'd been referring to the three of us. Sitting here publicly inside of this Denny's was as safe a space as any to have this fun little chat.

"I mean, are Mister Larry and Mister Ryan gonna be my dads now, too? Like with the twins? Sam has her dads, is that how it will be for me? Am I gonna get to call them Papa Larry and Papa Ryan or something like that? Because I should get used to calling them that before my brother and sister get here. I need to set a good example for them, you know."

Bella said all this so matter-of-factly, punctuating that little bomb of a statement with a polite sip of Sprite before intently training her eyes back on me. "And shouldn't you guys all live in one house if you're all gonna be my dads?"

Larry grinned from ear to ear as he stretched his arm over the booth behind Bella and looked back across the table at me with a raised brow. I could feel Ryan oscillating between anxiety and excitement as his leg bounced up and down against mine under the table, while he fought to keep his expression neutral.

I bit my lip and nodded slowly, finally letting go of that one last barrier to allowing myself to commit one-hundred percent to this thing—to us. "You know what, Bella? You're right. You should be calling these guys something besides ‘Mister,’ and Ryan should just come live with us now, so we can start learning to be a family."

I held my breath then, waiting for one of them to respond. Bella was the first to speak. She nodded seriously and picked up her burger with both hands as she made one last throwaway little bomb. "Then you should probably be sleeping in Papa Larry's room from now on. That's what the daddies do when they're part of a family."

Larry and Ryan shared a heated a look before Larry looked back at me and waggled his brows as he stroked a calming hand over his beard. "Princess Bella makes a good point, Ethan. We'll just have to go ahead and get you all moved into my room when we get home, since that's what daddies do when they're a family. And Ryan, you should pack a bag and get your a—umm, butt over there, too."

I grinned as he caught himself mid-curse, and turned my attention to Ryan. It was time to get the spotlight off me. "He's right, Ryan. Let's get you living with us, too. Are you month-to-month over there, or are you on a lease?"

"I'm actually part owner of the complex, but I don't advertise it. It's all done through a leasing office, and my buddy oversees that stuff. I think you probably remember him? We play soccer together... you know, my friend Julian? I'd just have to tell him to put it up for rent, unless one of you know someone who needs a place?"

"Ooh, is that your cute Brit friend?" I asked with a teasing grin, knowing full well how jealous Larry had been of the friendly soccer player. It had been obvious to me right away that Ryan and Julian were just good friends, but Larry had mumbled the whole time with obvious jealousy about fake accents and overdone lingo. It had been adorable.

Larry reached over and playfully pulled his Ranch back out of my reach at my teasing, which only made me grin harder while Ryan answered, completely oblivious to Larry's and my subtext teasing about Julian.

"Yeah, Julian is the British one that you met. Great guy. I should get you guys together with him sometime for dinner or something. He's been a really good friend to me over the years. But anyway, if you both want me to move in, then I'll see what I can do about making that happen."

"You know," I said, as something occurred to me. "My friend Diana and I were talking about rental opportunities in the area just yesterday. Her brother, Scott, just got out of the military, and is looking for something around here. I could see if he's found a place yet? That would be a quick, easy solution that works all the way around, and you would be able to move in with us that much sooner."

"Mmm. Military, huh? Maybe Ryan's little friend would be interested in meeting him," Larry all but grumbled. "That's probably a good solution anyway."

"Actually," I said as I pulled up my text history to share the conversation with them. "Di says that he's here to try and get custody of his little boy. He has a son about Bella's age. I don't know the details, because I don't really know Scott. We've only met once or twice in passing. He was some sort of special forces operative, I think. But anyway... his omega passed away while he was overseas, and the child's grandparents were granted partial custody until Scott finished his tour of duty. There was something off with the omega..."

I glanced at Bella, but she was absorbed with coloring her menu now that her food was gone. I lowered my voice and confided in them. "The omega died from substance abuse, according to Di. The son was just an infant at the time, but he was born with signs that his father had been using while he was pregnant. That's how the parent's got custody, especially since Scott wasn't in a position to fight it. But he's out now, and wants to get full custody back and be a dad now."

"That's rough," Larry said sadly. "I couldn't begin to imagine dealing with all that. Poor guy. So, he's coming off full duty to try and build a relationship with a half-grown kid? That won't be fun."

Ryan put a hand on my thigh and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Text your friend and get his contact information. I'll put Julian in touch with him. I'm sure we can get him set up in an apartment. But probably one a little larger than mine, so he'll have a room for his son."

I quickly fired a text off to Diane and then turned my attention back to Ryan. "So, does this mean that we're both going to cramp Larry's style and move in together? I mean, I'm willing to give us a shot at going all in, if you are."

Ryan pulled out his phone with a big cheesy grin and began firing off a text while Larry pushed the Ranch back at me. I quirked a brow at it, and Larry just shrugged.

"I figure you're forgiven since you're making my dreams come true."

Ryan looked between Larry and me curiously. "What is Ethan being forgiven for? I feel like I missed something there."

I bit back a fit of giggles while Larry ignored me and nodded at Ryan's phone. "Did you text that Brit and tell him your apartment is about to be vacant?"

"Yep. I told him my apartment will be vacant by Sunday evening, so he can schedule a cleaning crew. I also told him to find me a two bedroom for a military vet who needs a place." Ryan looked over at me. "He does still need a place, right?"

I picked up my phone to find a stream of texts from Diane that had piled in over the past few minutes. I really needed to remember to turn my volume on every once in awhile, I mused as I read over her messages.

"Yes. He's not actually arriving in town for another week. He's being discharged right now, and apparently there's a lot more to it than just collecting a final check and cleaning out his locker. I had no clue. But she's forwarded all of his contact information and I'm sending that to you now."

"Perfect," Ryan nodded as he picked up his phone to watch for my message. "I'll just pass it all on to Julian, and he can take it from there. He's got a soft spot for vets, so he'll be all over this one."