Page 63 of No Cap

Keene already had a large plate of it, happily crunching away on the raw leaves like it was normal.

For him, it probably was, to be truthful.

Keene ran a circus. Literally. He was the ringleader, too, and had to do all kinds of fun things like lift his sisters up over his head as if they weighed a half a pound.

Not saying that I couldn’t lift Ande up over my head or anything, but I certainly couldn’t do it with a rock solid, unshakeable stance like Keene.

Anyway, that all boiled down to him eating good, trying to be healthy, and not eating a shit ton of lasagna like I was about to do.

I was in great shape, to be honest. I worked out regularly, ran when I didn’t have time to get to the gym, and generally tried to eat as healthy as a guy on the go like me could.

But there were lines.

Like eating raw salads.

“Today’s my cheat day,” I lied. “No salad for me.”

“Liar,” Hollis coughed into her hand, eyes sparkling.

I reached under the table and pinched her ass, causing her to squeak and lean to the side.

Right into my brother, who chuckled and put his arm around her.

“All you had to do was say you want me, you know.” Atlas chuckled.

She laughed, and I threw Atlas’s arm off of her and said, “Find your own girl.”

Atlas winked at her and allowed her to pull away, back to her seat.

“Boys,” Mom said, eyeing Atlas who’d raised his hand to retaliate. “I swear to God. Y’all are grown-ass adults. Act like it.”

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Hollis said as she got her own salad. “Can you tell me how you managed to have all these multiples, and arrive sane at the other end?”

“Sane?” Dad said as he arrived with the lasagna and placed it in the middle of the table. “You think she’s sane?”

Mom rolled her eyes. “I’m sane… now.”

That was the truth.

Mom was a nut job when she’d been raising us. She was much nicer now that she wasn’t running us ragged and making us do what she wanted, when she wanted.

I moved out at the age of eighteen for a reason.

“Well, I was nineteen when I got pregnant with the triplets,” she said. “And it wasn’t too bad. My parents were still very young. And Germaine’s family moved down from Michigan to help. Auden and Atlas came a year later, totally out of the blue. I was on birth control and breastfeeding. Then it happened again another year later with Ande and Addison. We managed to actually plan out our fourth pregnancy, but again, we had multiples—Garrett and Gable. We’d always wanted a large family, but after realizing that multiples were just going to be my thing… we decided to stop. And we both got promoted, which meant more work, and from there we decided that nine kids were enough.”

“Nine.” Hollis shook her head. “Was enough? You are a superhero.”

“I’m just a mom who came from a family of fourteen siblings and thought… as long as I don’t have fourteen, I’m good.” She smiled.

“Did twins—or triplets—run in the family?” Hollis asked right before taking a bite.

“No,” Garrett answered for them. “Not a single twin or triplet birth in any of the sides of the family tree. Mom is just a mutant.”

“Hey,” Mom cried. “Be nice!”

“Yeah, be nice. Mutant spawn.” Auden threw a roll.

“Boys,” Mom pinched her nose. “I swear to God. All of you are over thirty yet act like you’re twelve when you get around each other.”