“You haven’t eaten in like three days, Layla. You can have whatever the fuck you want.” I lifted my phone and hit Emmie’s name on my contact list.

“Everything okay?” Emmie asked as soon as we were connected.

“Layla wants her favorite from Angelo’s,” I told her and Layla’s eyes snapped open. “She’s hungry.”

Emmie laughed, but I thought I heard a sob in her voice. She was just as torn up over all of this as I was. Layla was her best friend and it would have killed her if we had lost Layla or the twins. “Well, that’s got to be a good sign. Give me an hour.” There was a pause and I heard her say something before a deep voice I only vaguely recognized muttered something back to her. The head of the security team was always at Emmie’s beck and call. They were the team we used on tour and somehow Emmie had wrapped that hard-ass man around her finger like she seemed to do every other man she came across. “I have to go, Jesse. Love you… Tell Layla I love her, too.”

“Drive safe, Em,” I told her. “Love you.”

Tossing the phone on the little table beside the hospital bed I leaned forward and kissed Layla’s lips carefully. “Can you wait an hour?”

Chocolate eyes narrowed on me. “You’re going to be twice as bad now, aren’t you? I’ve married an ape.” I winked, not denying her accusations and she grinned at me. “I love you.”

My heart clenched. “Oh, baby. You have no idea how much I love you back.” I kissed her again, because I couldn’t stop myself. I was a man starved for the taste of her. Fuck, it was going to be weeks, months, before I was going to be able to have her the way I so desperately wanted her. Kisses were all I was going to get for a long while and I was going to take all that she would give me. I could live without the sex, but her kisses were my salvation.

“Knock, knock.”

Reluctantly I lifted my head to find a nurse standing in the doorway. It was the charge nurse who took care of the NICU and she was pushing one large incubator in front of her. I stood to help her inside the room then turned to look down at my sons. They had moved them into the same incubator the night before during my last visit. The boys seemed distressed without each other, their breathing more labored. When they placed them side by side in the incubator their heart rate had become normal and their oxygen levels had evened out.

They had placed blue T-shirts on them, labeling them Baby 1 and Baby 2 because they were completely identical. Baby 1 was curled up beside Baby 2 who had his arms around his brother, his head snuggled against his chest. I breathed a sigh of relief to see the oxygen gone. “How did it go last night?” I asked Tracy, the nurse.

“Stubborn,” Tracy told me with a small laugh. “We kept moving them apart, but they always ended up like this. They shouldn’t be able to move around like that yet.”

“Jesse..?” Layla’s hesitant voice made me turn to look at her.

Her eyes were glued to the incubator beside me, tears brimming in them. “Ready to meet our boys?” I asked softly and a tear fell down her cheek before she nodded.

I glanced at Tracy. “Will they be in the nursery today?”

“Yes, sir. I thought I would let them come in and say hi to their mommy before I took them in. But because of the sleep apnea we are going to be keeping them in the nursery for a while. They have to have three nights in a row of no alarms going off before you can take them home.”

“Can I hold them?” Layla asked quietly and I lifted Baby 1 into my arms carefully.

He weighed next to nothing. Both babies had lost a few ounces since their birth, but the doctor assured me that at the rate they were eating it would all be gained back before long. I wrapped his blanket tighter around him and took the few steps to Layla’s bed. All traces of tiredness were gone as her eyes devoured the sight of our child in my arms.

“Jesse, you’re killing me,” she said with a laugh, using her fingers to wipe her tears away. “Please, just give him to me.”

Chuckling, I transferred him into her arms and brushed a kiss over the baby’s head before dropping one on hers. “All yours, baby.”

“Gods, he’s so beautiful,” she whispered, stroking a finger over his cheek. The baby sighed contentedly but didn’t open his eyes as he sometimes did. But a tiny smile lifted one corner of his mouth. “Hello, Luca. Have you been taking care of your brother?”

“He’s been taking very good care of him, ma’am,” Tracy assured her quietly.

“That’s my good boy.” She kissed his nose. “He looks just like you, Jesse.”

“Because he’s bald and angry looking?” I grinned when she shot me a mock glare. “He’s too beautiful to look like me, Layla. They look like you.” She blushed with pleasure, but I could see the argument in her eyes. I shook my head and turned to lift Baby 2 into my arms. “Okay, buddy. If that’s Luca, then that can only mean your name is Lyric. Aunt Emmie says she’s not calling you that, though. So you’re going to be Ric to her.”

“I told you. We should just call him Ric anyway.” Layla raised her head from Luca as I stepped forward to place Lyric in her other arm. “But you had to give him a name that starts with L.”

“It’s a cooler name, baby. The guys love it.” I wasn’t going to back down on it. L was a lucky letter for us and I had inked it into my chest just a few weeks ago.

“You’re rockers, Jesse. Of course they like the name.” She sighed, giving in as she smiled down at Lyric. “Hello, Ric. It feels like I’ve waited a lifetime to finally meet you, sweet baby boy. Your brother’s going to take good care of you, but don’t let him do all the work. Take care of him as much as he takes care of you.”

She kissed his nose and Lyric sighed, just as content to be with his mother as his brother was.

Tracy gave her five more minutes before she took them to the nursery. “I’ll bring them back in a few hours, Mrs. Thornton. You need your rest.”

Tears were streaming down Layla’s face as she clung to my hand and we watched the nurse wheel our babies out of the room. “I don’t want them to go,” she whispered, her voice breaking on a sob.

I sat down on the bed beside her and pulled her into my arms. “It’s okay, baby. You’ll see them in a little while.” She sobbed harder and I let a few tears of my own fall. “Don’t cry, baby. Please, don’t cry.” It tore me apart to hear her crying. “We’ll all be together soon.”