Page 32 of Love and Chaos

And many grapes needing to be cleaned out of the carpet and the grooves of the tiles around the apartment.

For three months, they’d banned grapes in the house.

Along with cherries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and even bananas. Until they could explain that fruit was never stomped in the house.

But even now, any mention of grapes led to Qiao stomping his way through the rooms while singing about grapes.

Alexei needed to die.

Or maybe it was Ming Tao.

He’d narrowed it down to those potential culprits. One of them needed to pay for this grape-related mess.

West jumped to his feet, scooped up his son, and tossed him over his shoulder, earning squeals of laughter. “We’re going to find your shirt and then jiejie’s⁠5 missing shoe. And then Yeye will be here, so we can all leave for vacation.”

“Vacation!” Qiao shouted with a mouthful of giggles.

They had been planning this trip over most of the past year. They were going to head up to the Jin family mountain villa with the emperor for a week for some “relaxing” family time. Thankfully, they were taking the nanny along for help during this stretch of the trip.

Afterward, they were heading over to Izzie and Kairo’s vineyard mansion. All the uncles were supposed to be present for a long visit. The nanny was getting a much-deserved week off from some royal chaos. The idea was that all the uncles could help keep an eye on the children, but West worried about the bad habits they were going to pick up if grape stomping was only the first glimpse of what was ahead.

But the kids had seen each of his old teammates and their partners on various occasions over the years. This was just the first time they were all getting together since all the kids had been born. The entire team spent part of the year on Gaoxing now, but thanks to West’s royal duties and the kids, it was hard to sneak away for long visits. Besides, Max was busy with his teaching and dragging Ed on his expeditions. Will was working more in hospitals while West had talked Charlie into doing some consulting work to help strengthen Gaoxing’s defenses against international spies.

West backtracked to the dining room, where Qiao-er’s shirt was tossed over the arm of a chair. He grabbed it and started for the hall leading to the bedrooms. But he didn’t get more than a few steps when he was met by the love of his life.

The warm look in Jin’s black eyes and the smile on his lips still made West’s heart skip.

“How’s it going?” Jin asked, amusement dancing in his tone. He had to know. The children were excited and shouting everything that crossed their minds.

West held up their son’s T-shirt. “I nearly have this one redressed and we’re still searching for jiejie’s missing shoe.”

“Ah-die!⁠6 Ah-die! Vacation, Ah-die! I’m going to catch a bird!” Qiao shouted from where he remained draped over West’s shoulder.

Jin’s eyes widened, one eyebrow lifting in confused question. West shrugged. This was news to him, but there was no keeping up with the things that filled the minds of their children. Since Ming Xia was born, he’d learned to roll with it.

Twisting so that Qiao’s kicking feet were well away from Jin, West leaned in and pressed a kiss to the tiny head resting on Jin’s shoulder. Sweet little Mei Xing was only six months old, but she seemed to be calmly watching the surrounding chaos with wide, curious eyes. So far, she was turning out to be the most relaxed of the three children, but he knew her older siblings would soon teach her their ways of chaos and mayhem.

“How is it you got the easy one?” West teased as he snagged Jin’s lips in a swift, chaste kiss.

“Because you left me with all three of them while you took a shower,” Jin pointed out.

West snorted. “One was sleeping and the other two were quietly coloring. I was in the bathroom for less than ten minutes.”

Jin sighed. “Yes, and now we have new artwork on the wall in the playroom.”

West narrowed his eyes at his husband. “You don’t mean on paper, do you?”

“No.”

West pressed his lips together to swallow a defeated chuckle. “Later. We’ll deal with it…”

“When we get home from vacation,” he and Jin finished in unison.

“Here. I’ll trade you. Give Meimei⁠7 some after-lunch cuddles, and I’ll find the missing shoe. I have better luck with that than you,” Jin offered.

West wasn’t going to argue. For some bizarre reason, his husband was much better at locating missing articles of clothing and important stuffies prior to bedtime. West set Qiao on his feet and pulled the T-shirt back on the boy. At least he was setting Jin off with one child fully dressed.

As West accepted their youngest daughter, Jin placed a spit-up blanket over West’s shoulder, so he didn’t have to worry about getting another change of clothes before they got out the door.