The Langfield Brothers: Box Set

24. Gavin

TWENTY-FOUR

GAVIN

“Is that a baby?” Aiden peers into the hall.

I can’t speak. I can’t look away from the little girl in my arms.

Brooks squeezes my shoulder. “Yeah, man,” he says to Aiden. “It’s a baby.”

“Her name is Viviane,” Sara adds. “She’s…she’s Gavin’s daughter.”

“She’s what ?” he shouts.

Vivi startles in my arms. Then her face scrunches up and turns red. For the span of two heartbeats, she doesn’t move, doesn’t breathe. And then she screams. The sound is ear-piercing and heartbreaking all at once.

Shit. Shit. “What do I do?” I look at Sara. “How do we make it stop?”

She shrugs and cringes a little. “Um, try a soothing voice. It’s okay, baby girl,” she coos, rubbing the baby’s arm.

I bounce her, bending at the knees. “Daddy’s got you. It’s okay.” I pull her to my chest, rocking her like I’ve seen Beckett do with the twins. “I’ve got you. Don’t worry, I’ll rip your uncle’s vocal cords out. I’ve been planning on it since he started singing Ariana Grande songs.” I continue talking to her even after her cries turn to little whimpers and fade off completely. “That’s my girl.”

Without stopping the motion, I eye Brooks. “Text Beckett. Tell him I’m on my way.”

“What do you want me to do about all the guys?” Aiden hitches a thumb over his shoulder. “Am I in charge?”

Already more overwhelmed than I was the day I took over as head coach, I snap, though I keep my tone low. “I have a kid, Aiden. An actual living child who belongs to me. You are no longer the kid in my life. So I’m going to need you to grow up and handle this. Can you do that for me?”

Aiden’s lips turn down in a frown. “I just asked if I was in charge.”

I sigh, and Brooks adds, “I told Beckett you’re on the way. Didn’t tell him what was up. Figured I’d let you handle that.”

“Like I have a ducking clue what the heck to tell him. I have a kid, guys. A kid.”

Sara steps up close and rubs Vivi’s back. “You want us to come with you?”

“No, just get everyone out of my apartment so when I come home, they don’t make her cry again.”

Aiden whines. “It was one time. It was a shock. You gotta give me that.”

“ You’re shocked?” I deadpan.

Aiden scratches his head. “I’m gonna head back to the dining room and take care of the guys.”

“You do that.” I stare down at the car seat and the note that her mother left when she abandoned her here. I can’t believe she did this. Just left her. Who does that?

“What do I do with this thing?” I ask Sara, tapping the seat with my toe.

She shakes her head. “Having a vagina does not automatically mean I know how that works.”

Brooks nudges her. “Crazy girl, no saying vagina in front of my brothers.”

Sara sighs and slumps dramatically. “No anal, no vagina. You take away all my fun.”

I snort, though the humor that usually comes so easy is absent. “You two are strange.”

“Hey, neither of us had a random baby dropped off at our door,” Sara defends.

Brooks nudges her again and shakes his head. “Too soon.”

“Yeah, too ducking soon.”

Aiden reappears, grinning far too wide for my liking. “Aw, he’s a dad now. Ducking. That’s too ducking great. Can I record you saying it and send it to Beckett?”

I glare at him. “You, get out of my sight. You”—I point at Brooks—“follow me down and help me figure this thing out.”

Brooks grabs the seat with one hand and tosses the diaper bag over his shoulder, and I head toward the elevator, clutching my daughter a little tighter.

My daughter. How the duck did this happen?

In the end, Brooks and I didn’t have a clue how to buckle the car seat in, so we wrapped the seat belt around it as many times as it would go while the Uber driver stared at us. Then I looped an arm through the handle and held on with all my strength, all while trying not to freak the fuck out over my reality.

I have a driver that probably could have helped with all this, but the thought didn’t cross my mind until after the fact because my brain isn’t working on all cylinders. I have a fucking child.

How do I have a fucking child?

By the time I reach Beckett’s house, my thoughts are spinning on overdrive and I’m running through a list of things she’ll need. In order to get into the best colleges, she probably needs to be put in a good day care. I know from Beckett’s musings that the lists for those are years long. I’ll get him to add Vivi to the lists he put the twins on. What’s one more kid? He can tell them they have triplets but he must have messed up the paperwork.

Yes, that should work.

When the Uber stops outside Beckett’s brownstone, I unbuckle the seat belt and sigh, feeling a modicum better now that I have a preschool plan.

Halfway up the steps, though, Vivi turns bright red in her seat, and when she lets out the loudest screech, all the dread returns. I don’t have the first fucking clue what caused the issue or how to fix it, and this time, I don’t have Sara to help.

I put the seat down on the steps and pick her up. “Holy duck, kid. You’ve got some pipes on you.” Holding her close again, I rub her back and bounce. She seemed to like that before.

There are a lot of things I’ve learned from my brother, but honestly, I’ve never been so happy that he’s done this before me. He’ll help me figure it out. We’ve got this.

I ring the doorbell, and a second later, Vivi isn’t the only one screaming. “That would be your cousins,” I tell her, doubling down on my bouncing. “Apparently, you have a lot in common.”

She doesn’t laugh at my one-liner like people normally do, and that only fills me with another wave of panic. What if she doesn’t think I’m funny? What if?—

“What part of don’t ring the doorbell do you not understand?” my brother says as he swings open the door. He’s bouncing a screaming baby just like I am.

When he and Liv were first married and she lived with her mom friends, Beckett called the twins in the house the Shining Twins. Then he went and had a set himself. And they do a lot of crying. I’d give him shit about it, but seeing as how we both have a screaming kid in our arms, I’m not gonna lead with that.

“Shh, it’s okay, Maggie Mae. Your idiot uncle is going to take all the other kids for the night, and we’ll have a quiet house so you can sleep.” Jaw locked tight, he looks up from his daughter, glare already in place. When he spots the screaming child in my arms, his eyes go wide and he takes a step back. “No. Nope. Not going to happen. No more babies. Liv!” he shouts over his shoulder. “What did you do? No. We have enough kids here. Liv!”

My brother is full-on ready to go into a crying fit over what he apparently believes to be another child that Liv what, preordered? I’d laugh if it wasn’t actually my kid.

“Not your kid. Calm down.” I push past him. Finn is standing just outside the entryway, decked out in denim and watching us, so I wave a hand at the open door. “Can you grab Vivi’s car seat for me, bud?”

While he darts outside, I walk in circles around the foyer, bouncing as I go, silently begging Vivi to stop screaming. “It’s okay, Vivi girl. We got this. We just need Liv to tell us what to do.”

“Why are you holding a baby?” Beckett, the lucky bastard, has silenced his baby, and now he’s guiding Finn back into the house by his shoulder.

“How’d you do that?” I ask, jutting my chin at his now silent daughter.

“Whose baby is that?”

“Answer me first,” I demand over Vivi’s cries.

“You have to take that thing off her head,” Liv says as she appears in the foyer with the other twin in her arms.This twin is the quieter one, I think.

“What thing?”

Liv pushes June into Beckett’s other arm, and he balances both of his girls easily while scrutinizing me.

“Here,” she says, tilting Vivi back and pulling at a strap under her chin I haven’t noticed. When Liv releases it and pulls the hat from her head, I can see the deep indentation beneath her chin.

I pull her close again, rubbing her back, and finally, her cries level out. As she hiccups against me, rubbing at her eyes and her flushed cheeks, I see red.

What the hell kind of person leaves a baby with a death trap of a hat on her head?

“Whose baby is that?” Beckett grinds out again.

I readjust my daughter and rub at her dark hair. “Mine.”

Liv coughs out a laugh. “Excuse me?”

“No fucking way,” Beckett hisses.

“Thousand dollars, Bossman!” Finn hollers far too loudly in this small space.

Liv breathes in deep, lets it out again, and points down the hall. “Go watch TV in the other room. We’re having an adult conversation.”

“But he cursed, Mommy.” Finn plants his hands on his denim-covered hips. “He needs to pay up.”

Beckett sighs. “I’ll put it in your college fund. Go watch TV.” Then he heads to the living room. “Let’s talk in here. I have a feeling this is going to be a very adult conversation.”

I follow my brother and settle in one of the chairs while he and Liv take a seat on the couch, each with a twin in their arms.

“Does Ford know?” Beckett asks.

Beside him, Liv gasps, and her eyes go wide.

“What? Why would Ford know?”

“It’s safe to assume Millie’s the mom, right?”

“Wait, you slept with Millie Hall?” Liv asks, leaning forward. Then she whips her head to the side and glares at her husband. “And you knew and didn’t tell me?”

Beckett shrugs. “The fewer people who knew, the better.”

Liv smiles. “Proud of you, Bossman. Normally you can’t keep anything to yourself.”

“You know that’s not true. I kept this house a surprise for months. As well as my plans to make all your friends fall in love. Let’s not forget how I kept my feelings for you to myself for twelve years.”

She snorts. “Actually, when you put it that way?—”

“Can we focus?” I grind out. “This is not Millie’s kid.”

“Whose is it, then?” Beckett asks.

I clench my jaw and push back on the anger bubbling up in me. “I don’t know.”

“Where did she come from?” Liv tilts her head, frowning.

“She was left at my front door.”

“What?” Beckett shouts, going ramrod straight.

That sets Vivi off again. The kid is definitely not big on loud noises. Bouncing her in my lap, I press my cheek to her head. “Shh. Can you stop making my kid cry?”

“Hang on.” Liv hops up and disappears. When she returns a moment later, she’s holding a binky like the ones the twins take. This one has a cow clipped to the end of it. “It’s brand new,” she says, holding it out to me. “I just washed a bunch. See if she likes it.”

Blowing out a breath, I take it. I’ll try anything. The second I hold it in front of her, Vivi reaches for it and pulls it to her mouth, quieting almost immediately.

My shoulders sag in relief, and so does my heart.

“Now start at the beginning. Where did you find her?” Liv asks.

“I hosted team dinner tonight, so most of the guys were over.”

Beckett nods. He and I talked about this earlier. Taking over mid-season as head coach hasn’t been easy, but I want the guys to trust that I know what I’m doing. That starts with making sure they trust me , and hosting team dinners will hopefully nurture that trust.

“The doorbell rang. I assumed it was another one of the ridiculous packages that Sara set up to be shipped to Seb—” I shake my head. If I never see another pink dildo or flavored underwear, it will be too soon. “Anyway, it wasn’t. It was her.”

Vivi tilts her head back, spits her binky out, and gives me a gummy smile that hits me right in the heart. I can’t help the way my lips tip up in response to her. I’m not sure if a single smile has come to me this easily since I last held Millie. If memory serves me, the last time a smile came to me unbidden, it was as Millie launched herself into my arms at the airport when I picked her up on her last trip home. The trip that ended everything.

“So there was a baby sitting at your door, and you just assumed she’s yours? The fuck is wrong with you?” My brother scowls.

“Nothing is ducking wrong with me,” I correct him, rubbing Vivi’s silky head, soothing her in case Beckett’s tone sets her off again. “She’s mine. There was a note explaining everything.”

Liv eyes me. “What did the note say?”

“That her mother couldn’t do it and that she’s mine. That’s basically it.”

“So if Millie isn’t her mother, then who is?” Beckett asks.

I look down at my daughter as if she could tell us who brought her into this world. “No ducking clue.”

“I don’t get it.” Beckett grits out. “Give me a list of women you’ve slept with. I’ll find the mother.”

“What does it matter? She’s here. She’s mine. I wouldn’t let whoever the woman is near my child again anyway. Not after the way she left her at my freaking door.” Dread swirls in my gut at the what-ifs. “What if I hadn’t been there? Who knows how long she would have sat there alone.”

“Gavin,” Liv says softly. “We need to find her mother.”

“No.”

Liv and my brother share a look, but I’m not interested in their opinions on the matter. Honestly, I haven’t put much thought into who her mother could be. While Millie was in my life, she was all I cared about. And before her? Fuck, I couldn’t tell you the last time I had a one-night stand.

That first night, the connection between us was so strong. I was certain it was the start of something real, and then I found out she was Ford’s daughter and she moved to Paris. For over a year, I did my best to forget her.

Then she came back into my life in June, and she was all that mattered. Until she broke me.

Until I told her I wanted a family, and she told me she wanted to continue hiding our relationship from everyone we knew. At that moment, I thought I’d never have a child. That I was destined to be the fun uncle and nothing more. And now I have Vivi.

I honestly don’t have the answers Beckett and Liv think are so crucial, and I’m not going to concern myself with finding them either. Like me, Vivi was all alone in this world, and now we have each other. As far as I’m concerned, we’re better off without her mother.

“How old is she?” Beckett asks.

I tilt to one side, studying her, then I lift her foot. “I don’t know. Is there, like, a marking that would tell us that?”

Liv chokes out a laugh. “Gavin, she’s not a tree. We can’t count rings or wrinkles.”

I shrug. “Can’t a doctor tell? She needs a birthday. Is there a registry somewhere?”

“Oh my god. He can’t be serious,” she mutters.

I frown at my brother, who is looking back at me, equally thoughtful. “He’s got a point. The vet could determine how old Deogi was, and we didn’t have any paperwork for him.”

“Oh my god. I’m dealing with Dumb and Dumber. Beckett, no. Gavin, think. Who was the last woman you slept with before Millie?” She shakes her head. “I can’t believe I’m even saying those words. If Ford finds out you slept with his daughter?—”

“Focus, Liv,” Beckett says. “Ford won’t find out. But seriously, Gav. You have no idea?”

I sigh. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It does if we want to know how old she is.” Liv slaps her knee with a huff. “I can’t do this alone. I’m calling Dylan.” She pops up, deposits June in Beckett’s lap beside her sister, and with a disgusted look at both of us, she strides out of the room.

“So you have a kid,” Beckett says slowly, like he’s really absorbing the fact.

I smile. It’s another real one. “She’s cute, right?”

“Of course she’s cute. She’s a Langfield.” He grins. “Mom is going to lose it, though.”

I sigh. “Everyone is going to lose it.”

“And Millie?”

My heart aches like it does every time I hear her name. “Why do you keep asking about her? And why did you mention her in front of Liv?”

Beckett grunts. “Because last I checked, you were in love with her, so it was easy to assume this was her kid.”

“Millie would never leave her kid on my doorstep. Even if she wasn’t ready.” I know in my bones that Millie would be an excellent mother. But she’s twenty-three. I understand her reasoning now, even if it hurt to hear it at the time. “Things worked out as they should have. Millie’s off living her life, and I’m here, with Vivi.”