The Langfield Brothers: Box Set

8. Beckett

“Hey Win, can you grab the beads?” I holler upstairs while walking into the kitchen carrying the six boxes of pizza Aiden ordered. “You know there are only ten of us eating, right? And at least five of them are girls who won’t eat more than a slice, if that.”

My brother is on the floor with his dog Goose, and Deogi is in a crouched position trying to tear a dog toy from Aiden’s hand. “I could house one of them myself, and I’ve seen Finn take down an entire pie as well.”

“I can confirm that’s true.” Gavin barely looks up from his phone to comment. He’s been staring at it all night as if he’ll actually miss a call from Millie if she goes into labor. I get it because I was just as much of a mess when my wife was pregnant with our twins, but she’s with all our wives, and they would make sure to take care of her and get a hold of us if anything happened.

“You’re taking home the leftovers,” I say to all of them. I hate leftovers.

With Taylor snug against his chest, Brooks walks into the kitchen and reaches for the first box right as I set it down. “I feel like I can’t get enough food ever since Taylor was born.”

I lean down and press a kiss to my niece’s blonde head. She looks more and more like Sara every day. I take a huge whiff of her; that baby scent will have to hold me off from trying to impregnate my wife again.

She said no more big moments; we have to focus on the day-to-day happy, but it’s hard to reconcile that the newborn phase is over for us, and we’ll never have it again. I loved when our girls were babies. Loved finding my wife in bed feeding one of them, looking all snuggly and gorgeous. All our kids would sneak in on Saturday mornings, and we’d watch TV while Liv fed each of the girls. To this day, we all still pile in for Saturday morning cartoons. Even Winnie. I think she enjoys it the most. Well, outside of me. There’s truly nothing I love more than time with those six people.

“Normally, it’s the mother who can’t eat enough when she’s breastfeeding,” I say knowingly.

Brooks snorts. “That’s what I’m saying. Sara eats everything in sight. There’s nothing left for me.”

Aiden cracks up as he walks into the kitchen. “I wish I’d recorded that. Sara would actually murder you for saying that about her.”

Brooks pouts. “I’m a growing boy, I need to eat.”

I grab the kids’ food first and get them settled at the table. It’s complete chaos, but Winnie settles between her twin sisters to make sure they eat, and Finn sits beside Vivi. Finn is Vivi’s favorite person. Not surprising since he spends many nights at Gavin’s house. As does Addie since she loves going to as many of the Bolts home games as she can. Somehow I ended up with two kids completely obsessed with hockey and I’m not sure how to feel about that. Maybe the twins will love baseball?

Gavin is good about making time for my kids even though he’s got his own family now. I hope that continues even after the twins are born. Finn is extra excited about that because, finally, he won’t be the only boy in the family since Gavin and Millie are having two of them.

I lean down and kiss Addie’s head before heading back to the living room where my brothers are all set up around the coffee table. SportsCenter is on in the background, but they’ve got it so low they can’t possibly be paying attention to it.

“So I’ve got news on the podcast,” I tell them as I settle in my chair.

Gavin groans. “For the love of god, Beckett, give it a rest.”

Aiden shrugs. “I’m always game to hear another one of Beckett’s plans. Hit me with it.”

Smugly, I smile in Gavin’s direction. “I figure if we can’t beat them, why not join them?”

Brooks does a double take. “Huh? You want to combine our podcasts?”

“ No .” I grab my drink and take a sip, building the suspense. “They’re going to interview us.”

“What? Why?” That’s from Gavin.

“I thought they only talk about dating and books.” Aiden.

I grin. “That they do. But after hearing all of our stories, they think our relationships would make for some great books.” I have to agree. I’d read the shit out of us if we were a series.

“We’d make terrible books,” Gavin grumbles. “Who would want to read about a man moving into a dump with seven kids and four women? Sounds like a nightmare.”

I glare at him. “Duckhole. I’d be everyone’s favorite book boyfriend. Just think about it: I’m the broody billionaire CEO with three annoying brothers, clearly the best looking one of the bunch, and I pined for Livy for over ten years. It doesn’t get better than that.”

“Wait a second, if anyone is taking the best book boyfriend trophy, it’s absolutely me,” Aiden argues.

Brooks laughs. “You would say that.”

“Seriously. I planned an entire wedding just so I could get my ex-girlfriend to fall in love with me again. I’d definitely win a book boyfriend contest.”

“Brooks cut his hair,” Gavin grumbles. “I hear about it all the time on ESPN when they do throwbacks of the NHL teams without hair.”

I’ve got to give it to Brooks, that was some epic shit.

“Well, I guess someone should point out that a story about a guy seducing his best friend’s younger daughter is probably not anything anyone would want to read,” I say, smirking at a miserable Gavin.

“Sounds like a bestseller to me,” Aiden says with a laugh.

“She seduced me,” Gavin grumbles.

“You willing to say that again in front of your wife? Or her father?” I taunt.

“How about I tell your wife how you’re signing up for another project when she told you it was time to stop saying yes to things? She’s going to kill you, you know?”

I take another sip of my whiskey.

“Actually, she’s going to be too busy to kill me.”

“Oh yeah? Why’s that?” Brooks asks. And that’s when I fill my brothers in on the best plan I’ve had in a while.

“Okay, yeah, I agree. That’s a perfect plan.” From Gavin, that’s the highest praise of all.

Later that night, I settle down in bed to read the book my wife is reading this week for her book club with the girls—let’s be honest, Aiden’s idea of reading along with Lennox isn’t a bad one, and I’m always happy to take advice or ideas from my brothers when they have it; I just wish they’d do the same for me.

The sound of laughter travels in from outside, and I hear Liv yell good night. There’s something so special about the fact that my brothers now all live on this street, as do my wife’s best friends. After five years of scheming and planning, I finally have my own compound with all my favorite people, but even more than that, my kids are surrounded by a village of people who will drop everything to help them. On any given night, an extra mouth or two appears at the dinner table, and if there’s a kids sporting event or an art show, we all show up. It’s the idea that my wife and her three best friends came up with all those years ago when they moved onto this street in that falling-down brownstone. The idea that you make your own family. That the people you let into your day-to-day life don’t have to be blood, and sometimes, if you’re really lucky, the brothers you grew up with turn out to be your best friends too. I know I’m the luckiest bastard to ever live. If you’d told me five years ago when my driver almost killed that dog that somehow that grumpy guy would want to be surrounded by this many people, that I’d willingly take the risk of losing people just for the chance to love them, I’d have told you that you were crazy.

And that would have been one of the very few times in my life that I’d be wrong.

Because this life is special, and I don’t take it for granted for even one day. My wife is right. We’re in the happy right now. We don’t need big moments like weddings or pregnancies or even World Series or Stanley Cups to push us forward. We’ve had all of that, and fortunately, we’ve gotten to experience it all together. Now, I’m excited to just slow down and enjoy the Little League games and the ballet rehearsals. I’m excited for more Friday night date nights and Saturday mornings in bed. Sunday family dinners will look a bit different year after year as my brothers welcome more kids, but there will always be another spot at the table, because in this house, no one gets turned away. And out of everything I’ve learned from my wife and her friends, that’s the greatest one of them all.

And it’s because of this little village we’ve created that I know my wife is ready for this next adventure I’m going to throw at her. She deserves it. And when it gets to be too much, our family and our friends will be there to pick up the pieces. Because that’s what families do.

As the door opens and my wife appears, I put down the book and give her my full attention. Her cheeks are flushed from what I’m guessing is a few cocktails, and she looks genuinely relaxed. “Hey, Beckett. How were the kids tonight?”

“Perfect like always.”

Liv shakes her head and laughs. “Yeah, only for you boys. When they’re home with me, I feel like there's a food fight or screaming more often than not.” She leans against the wall to take off her heels, and I’m struck again with just how much I love these moments. Her checking in after a night out. The easy banter. God, I love my wife.

“Well, Vivi did get gum in Finn’s hair.”

Liv’s entire face lights up. “Yes!”

Laughing, I pat the bed. “You’re that happy that we lost control for a bit?”

My wife beams. “Yup. It’s good to know you don’t have it all together all the time.”

I lean up and give my wife a kiss when she sits beside me.

“Anything else I should know about?” she says with a gleam in her eye.

“Well, I banged the boss today.”

Liv’s eyes narrow. “What are you talking about?”

“The new COO of the Boston Revs. I banged her on my desk today. After I spent twenty minutes between her perfect thighs.”

My wife looks cautious and confused. “ Beckett.”

With my thumb, I smooth circles across her thigh. “Just hear me out, Livy.”

She gives me a small nod.

“You’re the best person for this job. No one knows the ins and outs of the Revs like you do, and I wouldn’t trust the team in anyone’s hands but yours.”

Liv’s expression hasn’t changed. She still seems to find the entire thing unbelievable. “I’m sure one of your brothers will want the position eventually.”

“Livy, I spoke with all of my brothers tonight, as well as my father earlier this evening, and everyone agrees: The team would be in the best hands with you at the helm.”

A small smile begins to form on my wife’s pretty lips. “You won’t get to spend as much time with Cortney,” she says softly.

“You think I’m going to leave you alone with Man Bun? I’m going to be just as involved, but now I have an excuse to do it with you by my side.”

She groans. “Beckett, are you just trying to find a way around my ultimatum by giving me this position? I’m not going to run it like you. There will be business hours and family hours. Cortney is more than capable of traveling with the team.”

I nod. “I know. You were right. I was doing too much. I forgot what mattered, and I’m certainly not going to put you in this position knowing that you’ll be away from me. I want you to do the job because you’ll do it better than me. You’ll balance it. All of it, beautifully, like you do everything else.”

She snorts. “I’m a hot mess express half the time, Beckett, you know that.”

I lean forward and press a kiss to her lips. “My hot mess.” With both hands set firmly on her hips, I pull her closer. “And for the record, I’m not giving you anything, Livy. You earned it. So, what do you say? Will you be our COO?”

She bites her lip. “Does it come with a raise?”

“Name your price, wife. You know whatever it is, I’ll give it to you.”

“We should probably have the board decide on that. You’re biased.”

“Very. But I don’t care. What’s mine is yours.”

Liv leans forward and maneuvers her body to straddle me. Then she places her hands on my chest. “I’m going to become very busy. What will you do with yourself?”

“Oh, I’m sure I can find someone’s love life to meddle in.”

“Don’t you dare.”

I place my hands over my wife’s on my chest and hold them there. I’m not letting her go.

“Sienna—”

“Beckett, leave your sister alone.”

I frown.

“Beckett, I’m serious. Your sister needs to lick her wounds. She doesn’t need your type of meddling.”

My lips curve. “My type of meddling? I’ll have you know I’m the reason everyone we know is so happy.”

My wife is having none of it. “Promise me. Promise me you’ll let your sister figure this all out herself.”

“When you say all, are we just referring to her love life?”

“Everything. Work. Her living situation. Dating.” My wife gives me that knowing look. “You know, the normal way you meddle, causing chaos in everyone’s lives so they have no choice but to grab on to the person you’ve put in their way.”

My mouth falls open. “I don’t?—”

“This isn’t up for debate. Promise me.”

I can’t lie to my wife. “Unfortunately, the plan has already been set in motion.”

“Call it off, Beckett. Whatever you had planned—” She stares me down and then repeats herself slowly. “Call. It. Off.”

Ducking hell. It might already be too late.

You thought we were done with the Langfields?

Good News! Sienna’s story is coming Fall 2025.