“Really?” I asked. “Wow, he can afford to do that?”
“He’s independently wealthy, so yeah. From what he’s told me, he’s just always been somewhat of a workaholic—at least before Jackson came into his life. Since then, he’s been cutting down on hours until it seemed kind of pointless to work at all.”
“I can understand that,” Angus said, kissing first Ben’s bare shoulder and then mine. I wondered if I was blushing as hard as Ben was.
“I also got the feeling he wants to devote more time to working for the SOS,” Maddox added.
“Jackson works there a lot, too,” David said, and Ben nodded.
We sat enjoying the view of the sunset, and then David said, “Sorry, guys, but we’d better go. Ollie will want to eat. Soon, I’m going to introduce him to solid foods. That will be nice.”
“It’s fine. The animals need to eat, too,” Ben said.
We began to pack up. Now that the sun had dropped, it was getting chilly. Having dried completely while we ate, the five of us eagerly put on our clothes. As we headed back to the ranch, the last rays of the sun cast reds, oranges, and yellows over the vast landscape as the rugged mountains receded into shadow.
Chapter twenty-four
Ben
While Maddox and Colt drove to the airport to pick up Laura’s colleagues and the seven omegas, Angus, David, and I waited for them at the Borders’ ranch. I was excited, but my anxiety over Colt’s absence soon overtook anything else I was feeling. If Angus so much as left my sight for a second, I’d have to go looking for him. Since our mating, I’d figured out that if one of my mates was gone, it was bearable as long as the other stayed close. I also believed that pregnancy exacerbated my clinginess to my mates, even when they were both with me. David, Jackson, and Trey had all told me they’d felt the same way when they were expecting. But I couldn’t help but wonder, if I felt this bad this early in my pregnancy, what was I going to be like later?
When it got close to the time that we figured Colt and Maddox would be returning, the three of us went outside to wait. I could tell David was getting a little antsy now that a couple of hours had passed with Maddox gone, but I felt downright awful. If I could crawl under Angus’s skin, I would—I was that freaked out. He was good to me, though, holding my hand much of the timeand only disappearing from view when he momentarily forgot what it did to me.
“You okay?” Angus asked, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. I’d been following him so closely on our way outside, I’d bumped into him when he’d suddenly stopped on the front porch.
I nodded, and Angus gave me the look that said he didn’t believe me and to use words.
“I feel…odd…without Colt here, and it’s getting worse the longer it takes,” I told him, feeling silly.
Rather than tease me, Angus just asked, “What can I do to help?”
I thought about it. “Hold me?”
“I can do that,” Angus said, smiling as he opened his arms to me. I stepped in and he pulled me as close to him as two people could be without actually being fused together.
“This help?” he asked.
I nodded into his shoulder.
We stood there like that while David distracted himself by petting one of the new horses at the fence line.
“What if something happened to him?” I asked, my voice muffled against Angus’ chest.
“Nothing has happened to him.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Ben, you need to take a deep breath and let it out. Your heart’s beating like a rabbit’s.”
I did as he said, and it helped a little.
“They’re here!” David called, and I turned in Angus’ arms to see Laura’s new Honda Pilot SUV coming up the dusty drive. Maddox was driving it, and Colt was driving his Outback. While they parked, Angus called, “They’re here!” to Laura, Nova, and Eric inside, and we started down the steps.
A slender man wearing jeans and a graphic t-shirt climbed out of the passenger seat of Colt’s car, but I hardly looked at him as I waited for Colt. As soon as he stood beside the car, I ran to him, almost knocking him off his feet in my rush to embrace him and get my nose in the crook of his neck. The scent of him calmed me, as did the feeling of his arms wrapping around me and holding me close.
“Somebody missed you,” I heard Angus say.
“Aw, you romantic,” Colt teased.