Page 13 of Secret Heart
“What, love bug?” I grasp her hand to keep her from smacking me again.
She points to where Brielle’s carefully cradling Naomi on her lap, readjusting the swaddle blanket now that she’s no longer nursing. Without a word, I ease my daughter on my lap, adjusting both of her pigtails while she’s distracted looking at her cousin. When she reaches for Naomi, I block her, waiting for Brielle to give the go ahead. Instead, Brielle carefully freezes.
“She’s sleeping,” I say, wrapping my arm around her waist and pulling her against me to give Brielle more room. “We needto let her sleep. Do you want another paper for your crayons? Or would you like one of your quilt books?”
Penny sighs and slides off my lap, grabbing her crayons and crossing to where the small basket of toys sits unobtrusively beside the reception desk. She dumps the crayons unceremoniously into the bin and then walks back over to me.
No crayons then.
Without another word, she crawls into my lap, resting her head against my chest and kicking her feet between my legs. After a minute, she starts singing-babbling, the melody mostly a song from one of the few shows Beau and I let her watch while making dinner in the evenings.
The bit of tension bleeding from both Brielle and Melissa fades even more. I blow out a heavy breath and then start assembling the first of the paper garlands, adjusting each of the flowers until I’m content with the way each paper petal lays, taping them along the back to hold them in place. Penny slowly relaxes against me, her babbles trailing off as her breathing lengthens.
Olivia shakes her head. “I can’t believe she can still just drop off like that. Jonas never stops moving.”
As if on cue, there’s a shriek across the large room followed almost immediately by a balloon popping.
Chapter Eight
EMILY
Brielle curses under her breath beside me, her hair hitting my arm as she twists toward the sudden noise. Her lavender scent bleeds from her, an acrid edge to the muted feel of it. In her lap, Naomi flinches, her eyebrows pulling together a heartbeat before her small cry adds to the low chatter in the room.
“Jonas, sweetheart, put the balloon down!” Olivia jumps up and crosses the room, quickly pulling the toddler away from the balloon arch Melissa and I spent most of the morning putting together. His bright green eyes narrow and his lips purse as Olivia repeats herself, signing the words, too. “Those aren’t for playing yet, okay? In another couple days, you can help Uncle Beau and Daddy pull them apart and play with them. Right now, we need to leave them so all the people coming can see them.”
Jonas frowns. Olivia quietly guides him back to the middle of the room where we’re all working. She glances at her phone perched between the piles of paper and then sighs.
“Daddy should be just about finished with the project at the Taylor house,” she says. She kisses Jonas’s temple even as hesquirms against her. “Hopefully it’s not so late that you miss your nap.” She looks at Brielle. “Is Faedra coming up this year?”
Brielle nods, tracing Naomi’s brow and nose as she sleeps. “They should be here as soon as the twins get out of school in a couple weeks. It’s earlier than typical, but their big hike this year is actually in Big Sur, so they wanted to make sure they didn’t feel rushed.”
Olivia lets Jonas squirm off her lap. Without pausing, he runs to the basket of toys, grabbing one of the quilt books Mom made while I was still pregnant with Penny.
“I don’t know how they manage those backpacking trips with all those girls,” Olivia admits, picking up one of the flowers and slowly assembling it. “Just Jonas puts me pretty much at my limit most days. Having to think about diapers and wipes and trash while deep in a wilderness area? She’s built different, I swear.”
Brielle smiles as I hum in agreement with Olivia.
“I imagine having three Alphas helps a ton,” Brielle murmurs. A breeze comes in from the open main doors, and I quickly set the tape dispenser on one of the piles of paper to keep them from fluttering too much. “Many hands make the work light, as they say.”
“Well, you have four more hands now,” Hudson says.
Jonas looks up and then squeals loud enough it hurts my own ears. Penny doesn’t even flinch in my lap, her breathing as steady as ever. The girl could sleep through a hurricane, I swear. Hudson chuckles, holding his arms open for his son as he goes rushing back across the room. Both of them are laughing hard by the time Hudson scoops Jonas into his arms and gives him a raspberry on his stomach.
Hudson and Caleb look almost identical despite Hudson being four years younger than his oldest brother. They both have the dirty blond hair kept long enough to wave onto theirforeheads and brush their ears along with the sharper, square jawline like their father. There’s no height difference, either, both of them broad and built like a linebacker, several inches over six feet. Caleb’s tattoos and Hudson’s red-blond beard are the only distinguishing factors most notice. From the back? Good luck.
Today, they’re dressed in similar medium wash bootcut jeans and plain t-shirts, their hair hidden under worn ball caps. Hudson’s is a black sun-stained to light brown with the Monroe Ranch logo on it, something he probably borrowed from Beau and didn’t give back. Caleb’s has a vintage airplane decoration, and the edges of the bill are frayed.
A sound catches in Brielle’s throat. Caleb frowns, his gaze going straight to her, and then he’s crossing the room, looping behind the couch to avoid our sprawling creations. He kneels beside her, palming her thigh as he runs his nose along her throat, kissing her skin every few seconds. Brielle relaxes in increments, her hand slowing wrapping around his arm rather than fisting the swaddle blanket.
“You good?” he murmurs after a full minute.
I do my best to tune them out, letting them have the intimate moment. It’s common for Omegas to need extra attention and comfort from their Alphas when in large, overstimulating environments. Is the lodge all that loud? No, not really. But between the paper and the wind and the kids? It’s enough to have her on edge. Add to it that Naomi’s only four weeks old, and I’m honestly impressed she’s managed to make it the couple hours we’ve been here without a bigger panic.
Hudson crouches beside Olivia, Jonas perched on his shoulders, his attention all for her.
“I’m fine,” she says with a small smile as he traces her jaw and cheek.
“Good,” he whispers. Then, to the rest of us, he says, “Beau says they’re ending a bit early today. Lynn and Scott are having a big cookout tonight and everyone’s invited.”
