“You look so good,” I told Jackson as we walked.
“So do you. You look different, but I can’t put my finger on it.”
David was waiting inside and hugged Jackson fiercely when he walked in.
“It’s taken you way too long to come visit!” he admonished.
“Sorry. I hadn’t expected to get pregnant again so fast. Where did Carter go with the girls?” Jackson looked around.
“Maddox is showing him the house and the new renovations.”
Jackson approached the baby swing gently rocking side to side with Ollie in it gurgling happily.
“Is this Oliver?”
“Yep. Cute, isn’t he?” David asked proudly.
“He’s adorable! Hi, little man!” Jackson bent and touched Ollie’s blond hair with two fingers.
Carter, Maddox, Colt, and Angus appeared from out of Angus’ wing—our wing—and David and I rushed over to see Alisanne and Serena.
Alisanne, who was eighteen months old, had a shock of dark hair and big blue eyes like Carter’s. Carter set her and Serena on the floor, and Alisanne toddled into the living room, curious about everything she saw.
“No, Alisanne,” Jackson called, rushing over to stop her from poking Ollie in the face. David plucked him out of the swing.
Serena’s hair was also dark and curly like Jackson’s, but she favored Carter. Although her eyes were the same dark gray as Jackson’s, they were shaped like Carter’s, and she had the exact same serious expression he habitually wore. Carter had put her on her bottom when he’d set her on the floor, but she’d quickly shifted to her hands and knees and speed-crawled a few feet before maneuvering to sit on her bottom again. Carter handed her a rattle, which she promptly began to pound on the hardwood floor. Luckily, it had a fabric top, or we wouldn’t have been able to hear anything over the noise.
“Laura’s back,” Maddox announced, looking out the window. Laura had taken the older truck used for odd jobs early that morning for a medical emergency. When she walked into the house, she looked exhausted. David must have thought so, too, because he handed Oliver to Maddox and walked over to her where she was greeting Carter and Jackson.
“Laura, are you okay?” he asked when she turned to him.
Smiling wanly, she said, “Yes. Just a little tired, thanks.”
“Where was the emergency?” Angus asked from where he was sitting on the sofa holding Serena.
“At the Borders’. Nova called me at 4:30 this morning and said Jeremiah had a high fever. She and Eric were worried. They don’t know any doctors around here.”
“Oh, no!” David said. “Is he okay?”
“We got his fever down a little and he’s sleeping. Can you give me the number of your pediatrician so I can send it to her?”
Turning to Maddox, who was putting Ollie back in his swing, David said, “Maddox, will you send Laura Dr. Humbard’s number?”
“Sure.” Maddox pulled his cellphone out of his pocket.
“I hope Ollie doesn’t get sick. He was over there yesterday,” David said.
“He didn’t go near Jeremiah, though,” I reminded him.
“Yeah, but now I wish I hadn’t put him in their bedroom.”
“If you hadn’t, you would have had him with you at lunch with Jeremiah right there,” I reasoned.
David let out a breath. “You’re right. That would have been worse.”
Colt had gone to his cabin after we woke up that morning, and I missed him. It was kind of embarrassing how the absence of either of my alphas made me so ill at ease. I wanted to talk to Jackson and David about it when we got some time alone.
I sat down next to Angus on the couch and listened as everyone caught up. Every so often, Angus would rest his hand on my thigh, and the action would center me when I hadn’t even realized I needed it.