Lachie made a sweet gurgling noise, then followed it up with a noisy belch.
The men grinned at each other as Valentin took a seat at the table, transferring the baby to the crook of his arm.
“Do you want me to take him?” Calder asked.
“I’m good.”
Lachie stuck his tiny fingers in his mouth and drifted off to sleep. Valentin gazed down at him.
“I’m sorry I was so weird about this little guy. But now that I have my head firmly dislodged from my backside, I’m going to be asking to hold him a lot more. I already warned Zinn that you’re going to get sick of me.”
“I doubt that.”
“He’s so beautiful. He already looks like his daddy and his brothers. Especially Ryde.” Gently, Valentin touched his fingertip to the mole on Lachie’s cheek.
Calder wondered if holding the baby reminded him of how much of Ryde’s life he’d missed.
He inhaled. “Valentin, I can’t regret the sequence of events that brought Lachie into our lives, but I don’t think I’ve ever told you directly how sorry I am for all the terrible injustices that happened to you. You know that, right?”
Valentin eyed him. “You have nothing to apologize for.”
Calder bit his lip. “Sometimes I feel like I took something from you.”
“No.” Valentin’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “You’re not the bad guy here. And I’ve never thought of our situation as you taking something from me. I’m grateful you were there for Zinn. Just like I’m glad I found Assa and Wes at the end of my own dark tunnel. It’s no one’s fault. It’s just how the story unfolded.”
“I suppose.”
“Truthfully, looking at Lachie, it’s impossible for me to regret anything. I wouldn’t want him to be different than he is.” Valentin placed a tender kiss on the baby’s forehead before handing him to Calder. “I can’t help feeling connected to him.”
Calder smiled. “Of course you’re connected to him. He’s your son’s brother. You and your partners are his de-des.”
“Yes.”
“And most importantly, you’ve loved his daddy for a long time.”
Valentin’s cheeks flushed, but he met Calder’s eyes head-on. “I don’t regret that either. Any more than I regret loving Assa and Wes.”
“Nor should you… Zinn loves you too.”
“I know.”
Calder admired Valentin’s directness. He felt compelled to match it. “I realize it was hard for you to hear this when I said it last week, but the future isn’t set in stone.”
Nodding slowly, Valentin murmured, “It’s difficult to trust that I can influence my fate.”
He placed a hand on Valentin’s wrist. “You were brave to love Keyes and Deveron Parkenson’s son all those years ago, and brave again by not pushing away Assa and Wes.”
Calder thought of his dream, side-by-side with this alpha, being with the omega and the betas they loved.
“I think you have more brave choices in you,” he said.
“I don’t know.” Valentin withdrew his arm and rose abruptly, gripping the chair.
“It’s okay not to know,” Calder said. “It’s okay.”
“Being near Zinn is interesting,” Valentin said quietly. “I still see all the incredible qualities that were always there. But the thing that drew me to him in the first place, his brightness, has changed. It’s not gone, but everything he’s been through has reshaped it.”
Lachie fussed lightly. Calder stood and began pacing. “When I first met Zinn, he was extremely closed off,” he said. “More cautious than bright. Over time, I came to recognize his underlying goodness and creativity, the way therealZinn would peek out. That resilience is what I fell in love with. It took a lot of courage for him to let down those walls.”