Colt helped Laura off with her coat.
“Who are those two big guys outside?” he asked.
I looked out the window. A pair of burly men dressed in black stood beside Laura’s car, looking toward the road.
“Oh, they’re part of the security team the hospital hired. I wasn’t too worried about the boys with all the snow, but from now on, they aren’t going anywhere without security detail. Particularly now, after what you told me, Angus.”
She often referred to the seven omegas in her charge as “the boys” even though they were technically men. It made sense when you thought about it; they’d been kids when she’d started working with them.
In the living room, Maddox greeted Laura.
“Hi, Laura, come sit by the fire. It’s cold out there, isn’t it? You, Nova, and Eric get through the blizzard okay?”
“What makes you think we were together? I have my own cabin,” Laura snapped, then immediately looked contrite. “I’m sorry, Maddox. It’s your grandfather and his teasing I’m irritated at, not you.”
Belatedly, I rethought the wisdom of alienating the person who was taking care of my pregnant omega.
Wiping all humor from my face, I said sincerely, “I’m sorry. If you say that there is absolutely nothing romantic going on with you and our new neighbors, I believe you. I won’t tease you about it again.”
Laura sat stiffly on the chair near the fire, staring into it.
I was taking a seat on the couch, hoping she accepted my apology, when Laura suddenly blurted out, “Oh, fuck it! We’re together, all right? We mated a few days ago.”
Crossing her arms over her chest, she glared at me like she was daring me to sayI told you so.
“Congratulations!” David, who had heard her announcement as he was bringing in a tray of tea, said excitedly. “I bet Kate and Jeremiah are thrilled. They love you!”
Laura’s face softened, and she smiled. “I love them, too.”
After we congratulated Laura and told her how happy we were for her, we drank our tea.
“I got in touch with the president of the SOS. He told me his secretary would book him a flight, and he’d let me know when to expect him and his spouse-mate, who is the CEO,” Laura told us.
“That’s great. Thank you,” I said.
Placing her cup on a coaster, Laura said, “I need to get the boys back to the ranch. There are loads of chores to be done. Where are they?”
“They’ve been helping me pin together old scraps for a quilt. I’ll get them.” He headed for the hall and the room he used as a sewing room that Maddox had added on to during the renovation. If he hadn’t, there would be no way seven people would fit in it at the same time.
Colt said, “Laura, will you examine Ben? He’s in the bedroom napping. I think you’ll be surprised at how big he is now.”
“Really? In only a little more than a week?” She looked to me for confirmation.
I nodded, glad Colt had thought to ask her. “He’s got to be carrying more than one baby. Maybe you just couldn’t hear the other heartbeat before.”
“All right. I’ll take a look at him now,” Laura said.
“I’ll tell the group you’ll be a few minutes,” Maddox told her.
Chapter twenty-nine
Colt
Ben lay undressed on our bed, a blanket covering his lower half as Laura examined his vital signs and palpated the large mound of his abdomen.
“Vital signs normal. Abdomen nearly double the size expected at twenty weeks.” She spoke for the benefit of the small tape recorder on the nightstand.
Glancing at me, she said to Ben, “I need to look inside you. I’ll be quick.”