Wilder’s head shot up. “You thinking of opening your own place?”
“I am. It would be nice to be able to work closer to the clients, and not have to answer to any partners. That is”—he turned to me—“if you don’t mind?”
“Why would I mind?” I asked, cocking my head to the side.
“You’re about to have a baby, and we’re going to be a very busy pack.”
Standing slowly, which was more of aget onto my hands and knees and wait for someone to help me, I waddled over to where he was sitting and collapsed next to him as everyone watched us, only half-heartedly working on the crib now.
“I think it’s a wonderful idea. Nolan, you read law books for fun. It's clear youadoreyour job, and I'm not going to stop you from doing it. I wholeheartedly support you starting your own practice.”
“Yeah, man, that would be amazing,” Preston agreed with a nod. “That's been your end goal since you started law school.”
“You should totally do it!” Wilder said, letting a part of the crib rest on his hip.
“You should swing by the firehouse after my shift tomorrow, and we can go look at a few offices,” Merrick offered.
“I'll come with you,” Preston added.
“Sweet. That means that the cutie and I can have a movie marathon with ice cream.” Wilder beamed at me, rubbing his hands together like a maniacal villain.
“I think that sounds like perfection. We’ll have to do a grocery store run for more ice cream, though.” I narrowed my eyes at Wilder. “Someone ate all my rocky road.”
Nolan's eyes widened. “Don't tell me you're out of ice cream already. I bought you twelve pints less than a week ago…”
“Ihaven’t actually finished all of it, but I'm going to need more for a movie marathon, and it's Baby's favorite snack, so we can't say no,” I pointed out.
Wilder cackled. “Don't worry, grumpy, I’ll also get some fresh fruit and veggies, and we’ll have healthy snacks in between the bowls of ice cream.”
Nolan opened his mouth to say something, but Merrick shook his head. “Dude, I think that's the best you're going to get.”
The pair looked at each other before Nolan sighed deeply. “At least eat something green.”
“Gummy bears are green!” I pointed out, descending into fits of laughter at Nolan's disappointed and slightly horrified expression.
“I’ll prep a veggie tray,” Merrick said, looking sternly at me. “I know you're not going to go too overboard with the ice cream because you know full well what vitamins and nutrients you need to help the baby grow.”
I pouted. “You, Merrick, are a spoilsport!”
“And yet, you still love me.” He smirked, wandering over and kissing the top of my head.
“I do,” I confirmed, beaming up at him.
Nolan wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me into his embrace. I melted into his side, taking a deep breath of that old paper smell that I had become so addicted to.
All of my alphas smelled like absolute crack to me, and I was obsessed. I was lucky, because I'd heard of some omegas suddenly hating their alphas scents while pregnant.
Scent and food aversions during pregnancy were no joke. Even though I had never cooked enough to be around it much, now the smell of meat in a frying pan was enough to make me gag.
Luckily, I had very sweet alphas who cooked for me while I was in a different part of the house.
“I think I’ve got this!” Wilder declared excitedly, looking at two of the crib parts.
The guys all converged on Wilder, trying to figure out what he was doing. I returned to sitting on the sidelines. At one point,Preston passed me a bottle of water as they continued to bicker over building the crib.
Even if the crib was never built and our baby had to sleep in a box, they would be the most loved baby in the world, I realized as I watched these four grown men, each with their own intense careers, wanting and doing everything in their power to make a crib for our child.
I was one lucky omega.