Assholes. If they had ever given me the chance I’d repeatedly asked for, I’d be better. It was entirely their fault that I wasn’t. I elbowed my way past the Judgey McJudgersons, then raced to the house. My anger and disappointment shifted to concern the closer I got to Anna. As if it were yesterday, I remembered how much pain she’d been in with Gibson. I’d never seen someone in so much agony. I could only compare it to getting my junk pierced. That…had sucked.

“Anna! Anna, where are you?” I spun in circles in the living room, wondering which way to go first. Where the hell was my wife?

“In here, Griffin!” Anna’s voice sounded from the kitchen, so I headed that way. When I got there, I saw a sight that I didn’t quite understand. Anna was calmly making Gibson, Ryder, and the twins a snack. Ryder had a big grin on his face as he sat in his high chair, digging into a container of applesauce with a tiny plastic spoon.

“Anna?” I asked, confused. “I thought you were going into labor?”

Nodding, Anna glanced at the time on the microwave. “I am. Every five to ten minutes. Gibson said she was hungry, so I thought I would make the kids something to eat before we headed out.”

Grabbing her hand, I stopped her from slicing pieces off the block of cheese. “Kiera can handle that. In fact, we should probably leave Gibson here with her. Dawn and Della too. But we need to go. It’s a long drive, and you don’t want to give birth in the Hummer, do you?”

Anna’s eyes widened as she thought about that possibility. “No…definitely no. Okay, let’s go.”

“Okay then.” Looking around, I tossed my hands in the air. “Where the hell is everyone?” Kiera had come back into the house with Mom, Dad, Chelsey, and Liam, but Anna was in here all alone. That didn’t sit right with me.

Anna let out an annoyed huff, then straightened and rubbed her back with both hands. “Your mom and dad are starting the car, and Kiera and Liam went to go get the buggy, so I don’t have to walk down the steps.” She raised an eyebrow. “Like I can’t walk down steps or something.”

Closing her eyes, she inhaled a deep breath, then let it out slowly. She was having a contraction right now. I glanced at the clock, making note of the time. I had no idea what she meant about a buggy, but I didn’t care. Anna needed to get out of here. “Come on,” I said, walking to her side. “We need to get you to a hospital in a city where the doctors don’t work on animals in their spare time.”

“I don’t think that happens here…” She stopped talking, then shook her head. “We have to wait for Chelsey to come back. She can watch the kids…”

I was just about to ask where she was when Chelsey dashed into the room holding a skinny, rectangular pillow covered in little purple flowers. “I looked where Kiera said, but this was all I could find. It smells right though,” she said, sniffing it.

I had no clue what they were talking about, but Anna nodded and pointed to the microwave. “It will do. Heat it up.”

When Chelsey put it inside and turned it on for five minutes, I finally understood what it was—a hot pack. Waiting the five minutes for it to heat up felt like we were waiting for five years. Kiera came back just as the timer dinged. “Your ride awaits,” she said in a bright voice.

Anna’s contraction was over by now, so she gave Kiera a scornful look. “I can walk down stairs. I’m not an invalid.”

Kiera sighed. “Just get in the buggy, Anna. Don’t be difficult.” Her features were so similar to Anna’s that it was distracting at times—high cheekbones, wide eyes, full lips. At the moment, they were more irritating than appealing though. I just wanted to scoop up my wife and leave already.

“Let’s just go. Chelsey, can you hang here with the kids?” I asked. My sister frowned, like she wanted to go with us, but then she nodded.

Giving Gibson a quick kiss, I told her, “Daddy will be back soon for you. You be good for Aunt Chelsey, okay?” Her blue eyes were wide with concern as I scuffed her blond hair; she wasn’t sure about this, but she liked my sister well enough to not be too upset. “That’s my girl. As soon as your new brother or sister arrives, I’ll come get you so you can meet ’em.” Her pale lips turned down into an adorable pout. She definitely wasn’t sure about the idea of sharing us with somebody, even a new potential playmate.

Kellan, Evan, and Matt entered the kitchen right as we were leaving out the dining room door. “Meet you there,” I tossed out. I heard them say something along the lines of “okay,” and then we were outside and I was staring at the treasure Kellan and Kiera had apparently been hiding from me.

“You have a fucking dune buggy!” I exclaimed. “How in the hell did I not know about this?”

Kiera pursed her lips then shrugged. “Never came up, I guess.”

“You just made my shit list, Mrs. Kyle,” I deadpanned.

Kiera laughed while Anna groaned and held the lavender-scented hot pack pillow to her back. Her contractions were starting again. “Can we go,” she whispered. “I’m not really feeling so hot.”

As I helped Anna into the buggy, I noticed that Liam was waiting in the driver’s seat with the engine idling, ready to go. “Hell, no,” I told him. “I’m driving.”

Scoffing at me, he gripped the wheel a bit tighter. “Not a chance,” he stated.

I was about to rip his head off, but Anna clenched my arm. “Don’t fight, just get me out of here.”

With a sigh and a vow to kick his ass later, I sat with her in the backseat. Kiera hopped in the front with Liam, and he immediately took off; Kiera clenched the side so hard her entire hands turned bone white. I looked over at Anna as the buggy bounced along. She looked more uncomfortable than scared. The jarring jolt as the tires met the earth wasn’t helping the pain any.

When Anna sucked in a tight breath, I screeched at my brother to slow down. He was flying down the steep hill beside the house, nearly hitting small trees and boulders that would surely flip us over. Over the noise of the engine, Liam tossed out, “Just trying to get you there fast, bro.”

“I’m more concerned about getting there in one piece!” I shouted back. Kiera turned to look at me with wide eyes. She seemed shocked that I would say something like that. I wanted to assure her that it was just Anna’s safety I was concerned about, but the words wouldn’t come out.

When we got to the driveway at the bottom of the hill, Liam spun out a bit on the rocks, and I saw a couple large pieces hit the side of my Hummer. “If you dinged the paint, fucker, I’m taking it out of your hide.”

Liam rolled his eyes as he shut the buggy off. Ignoring Kiera’s comments that that was the scariest ride she’d ever taken and she should have just walked down, I unstrapped Anna and helped her climb out of the contraption. It took some finagling; dune buggies weren’t exactly pregnancy friendly.

Once Anna was on solid ground, I hurried her over to the Hummer; it was running, along with Mom and Dad’s minivan. “My bag,” she murmured as she stepped up to her open car door. “My stuff.”

I let out an annoyed grunt. We weren’t the prepared type, so we didn’t have a hospital bag packed and ready to go in the car. “I’ll get everything later, after I get Gibson.”

She nodded, then settled herself into the car. She didn’t seem to be in as much pain, so her contraction must be over. Hell if I knew for sure though. A chick’s body was a mystery to me. Well, the inside at least, the outside, I was an expert at, which is how Anna had wound up this way in the first place.

We’d considered waiting between kids, but me and my siblings were close together, and I loved that. It made us tight. Kind of. If Liam wasn’t such a selfish asshole, we’d be closer. Chelsey and me were tight though. Man, I hoped she did all right with Gibson.

Peeling out of the driveway, I hauled ass to the hospital. Kellan better already have the gate open, or I was going to plow right through it. I had no idea who was following me, and I didn’t much care. Gibson was accounted for and Anna was with me. That was my world right now.