Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
brIELLE
I ris stands just next to me, her grip tight around the small vase full of wildflowers her and Rose had spent all afternoon picking around the guest house today. Rose giggles as she rushes past us and right off the patio. A moment later, and Jude rushes out of the house behind her, chasing her down and scooping her up into his arms. She squeals as he gives a raspberry against her belly.
“Papa, stop! Stop! It tickles!” she screams.
He laughs and sets her down. Her lips quirk, and then she’s off again, running around the side of the house. Jude laughs and follows after her.
I turn my focus back to the table, smoothing out the table cloth and folding back the first corner. Faedra steps onto the patio, a roll of heavy duty tape in her hands.
“Found it,” she says.
She tears off two strips of the tape and hands them to me, holding down the fabric as a gust of wind rips through the yard. I tape down the corners as fast as I can manage. Just as I’m taping the last one, someone calls through the house.
“Knock, knock.” It’s Melissa’s soft voice.
Faedra and I look up just as she rounds the side of the house. She has two large platters in her hands, balanced carefully, one atop the other. Logan rushes to her and takes them.
“Here, I can take those,” he says.
Melissa smiles and digs something out of her purse. “Here, I made labels for them, too. One is vegetarian. Olivia doesn’t eat meat.”
Logan takes both small cards from her without jostling the trays. As he turns toward us, Melissa focuses on me. She crosses the yard and hugs me before saying a quick greeting to both Faedra and Iris.
“Everyone should be here soon,” she says. “Emily is just leaving the ranch. She had to get the horses squared away for the night after Ethan finished with them.”
“That should be perfect timing. Carter planned on starting grilling right around six.” Faedra smiles and smooths down the table cloth one more time. She adjusts the tape on one of the corners before turning to her daughter. “All right, Iris. Let’s get that one situated and grab the other one.”
Iris skips off into the house once she sets the first vase on the table. As soon as she’s out of sight, Faedra leans in and lowers her voice.
“Did you get the bloodwork done?” she asks.
I shake my head and mess with the flowers in the vase. It’s either that or tear apart my finger nails, and I don’t really want to be dealing with cuts on my hands while we’re camping and relying on hand sanitizer.
Faedra frowns. “You don’t want to know?”
“Oh, he already did it,” Melissa chimes in. “But that’s pretty secret still.”
Surprise lights Faedra’s face. “He did?”
My stomach twists as I realize they’re talking about different men.
“Oh, yeah. Caleb got it done, like, a week ago,” Melissa says.
Faedra cocks an eyebrow, but I shake my head as subtly as I can. Please don’t bring up Ethan right now. Please . Faedra frowns and casts a quick look toward Melissa. I shake my head in answer to her unspoken question.
“Oh,” Faedra says. She takes a deep breath and then changes the subject. “Jude’s going to try and have us out the door by eight tomorrow. We’ll see how Dahlia does. But we should be at the campsite by ten at the latest to get everything marked off and prepped.”
I smile and tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. “Perfect. Melissa and I can plan to be there by then, too.”
Another couple voices carry to the backyard. I twist in time to see Hudson, Beau, and Olivia round the house, more food in their arms, too. Faedra squeezes my hand in silent support. I wave to the group as we close the distance with them.
“Hey guys. Have you gotten a chance to meet Faedra yet?” I ask, keeping my voice from betraying my nerves.
CALEB
By the time I make it back to Creek Falls, the evening air is crisp and the sun is only an hour or so away from dropping below the mountains. There’s an entire hoard of cars blocking the driveway of the address Melissa gave me, so I pull up to the curb about half a block down. The house is one of the known rentals in the heart of town, only a block off of Main. I grab the grocery bag from where I had tossed it onto the passenger seat and slide out of the truck, taking a minute to stretch my neck and shake out my legs.
My phone vibrates, and I check it as I lock the truck and start down the street. It doesn’t surprise me to find a text from Melissa.
Hey, are you still coming tonight?
Brielle is talking about heading out early. I’ll keep her here if you want, though.
Just pulling up now. Don’t make her stay if she doesn’t want to.
Maybe I should have told Brielle I managed to finagle a way to get the weekend off so I could go camping with her. But I wanted to actually see her face when she found out. The downside of trying to surprise your scent match? It might not actually work. At least I am here and trying. Even if it’s just a single hug as she’s leaving, it’ll be enough tonight. I just need to see her, feel her, kiss her.
The gate leading to the backyard is open. I slip through it, following the sounds of kids laughing. There’s a large fire pit centered in the backyard, red-brown cobblestones laid in a circular pattern stretching at least twenty feet wide. There’s a grill tucked near the house and a large table set up beside it, covered in a black tablecloth and mostly empty dishes of food.
Melissa notices me first where she leans against the table and crosses the space, grabbing the bag from me with a smile.
“Brielle’s inside. She should be back out in a minute,” she says. Then, louder, she calls out, “S’mores made it! Do you guys still have your sticks ready?”
There’s a chorus of cheers from the two girls I saw on Monday as well as Camden. They grab a set of roasting sticks from a pile on the ground and rush Melissa, giggling and jumping. Everyone else looks up as I close the distance and step onto the patio. Olivia waves, and Hudson cocks an eyebrow before kissing her temple and coming toward me.
“You want something to drink?” he asks.
I shake my head. “I’m fine.”
The back door opens, and Brielle and Faedra walk onto the patio.
My heart jumps.
Brielle holds her friend’s baby, running her hand over the baby’s fine hair. The movement feels absent, like she doesn’t realize she’s even doing it. My mind flashes back to when Camden was that little—younger, actually. Kayla never got to see him turn a year old.
Grief twists my stomach in a way it hasn’t the last month, and it takes all my strength to keep it off my face. There’s no pancakes to make tonight to tune out the thoughts. Shit, maybe I should get something to drink. It’ll keep me busy, at least. Grief waves are fucking hard .
Brielle glances away from Faedra in that moment, her eyes lighting on me. Her cheeks flush a dark red even as a smile lights her face. Faedra looks over too, and she smirks before saying something into Brielle’s ear, twisting away so I can’t see her lips.
Hudson grunts. “You going to tell me what’s up between you two? Because it’s clearly not just casual sex like what’s been floating around the gossip mills.”
I tear my gaze away from Brielle to look at my brother with a frown. I hadn’t heard that the consensus was she was just a hookup. Had that started after I left Monday?
“I already tried to get the story from Olivia, and she won’t tell me anything. Claims it’s girl business. And Mom said she was sworn to secrecy.”
He gives me a flat look.
“Not tonight,” I hedge.
“My money’s on you guys being scent matches. Ethan’s acting like it’s pretty damn serious.” He sighs and throws back the rest of the beer in his hand. “And you haven’t risked anything more than a quick hookup since Kayla. It’d take a damn lot for you to hard launch something, not even factoring in that she’s Melissa’s best friend.”
“I’m not hard launching shit,” I grouse.
He laughs and claps me on the shoulder. “Yeah, sure. Brielle giving you ‘fuck me’ eyes from across the bonfire is definitely not you hard launching.”
I shove an elbow into his side, and he laughs harder, letting his head drop back.
“Ethan’s brought it up with you?” I can’t help but ask. Ethan hasn’t said much more to me than passing greetings since I brought Brielle home with me Friday night.
Hudson shakes his head.
“Nope. But he’s got that look he had when you guys were first matched with Kayla.” He shrugs and crushes the beer can against his leg. “He’s also acting like his world is on fire, though, so not sure how much weight to put on any of it.”
When I sigh, Hudson claps my back in that way guys always do to convey sympathy. My gaze drifts back to Brielle. Her cheeks are still flushed. And I can’t even argue with Hudson’s assessment of her gaze. It’s certainly making me want to find a quiet corner and coax an orgasm from her. Cinnamon surrounds me, and Hudson chuckles.
Camden squeals, running toward me, a marshmallow barely hanging on to the end of the roasting stick.
“Papa!” he says as he runs into my legs, wrapping his arms around me.
The roasting stick stabs into my side, and I grunt. I ease it out of his hand before it can work its way through my shirt. The marshmallow, miraculously, is still holding on.
“Papa, are you going camping, too?” he asks, his eyes wide.
When I nod, he squeals again and dances in place, his arms tightening around me.
“Cam, you ready to roast your marshmallow?” Melissa asks.
Camden’s excitement over having me home falls away just as quickly as it came as he rushes back to where Melissa stands with the girls near the fire. Hudson nudges me, and I glance up. Brielle stands just to the side of me, the baby still in her arms.
“Who is this?” I ask. I shove my hands into my pockets to keep from reaching for her.
She smiles. “This is Dahlia. She turns one at the beginning of August.”
The baby whines in her sleep, and Brielle traces her spine, adjusting her hold as the baby relaxes further into her chest. The picture they make has me thinking all kinds of things that aren’t safe right now. Like what she’d look like holding my baby—her eyes but my hair and the same chubby rolls I had.
Shit, it’s a good thing she has an IUD. And isn’t anywhere near her heat.
She isn’t near her heat, right? Fuck, I should probably figure out a way to ask her if it’s something I need to be prepping Sam about. You don’t just ask an Omega about that sort of thing, though. It’s like asking a person if they’re pregnant.
If you’re dumb enough to ask, you deserve the punch that inevitably follows.
“You okay?” Brielle’s soft question rips me out of my spiraling thoughts.
I clear my throat and nod, not trusting myself to say anything near appropriate right now.
A man stands from one of the chairs lining an edge of the patio and walks toward us. One of the girls looks up and smiles as he passes, and he runs his hand through her hair.
“She asleep?” he asks. When Brielle nods, he holds out his hands. “I can take her inside. Faedra mentioned you were thinking about heading out before she latched onto you.”
Brielle offers the baby over, her movements cautious. Once the baby’s situated against the man’s chest instead, he focuses on me and holds out his hand.
“You must be Caleb,” he says. “I’m Carter, one of Faedra’s Alphas.”
I take his hand. “Nice to meet you.”
He turns back to Brielle. “If I don’t see you before you leave, drive safe. I’ll text you when we’re on our way tomorrow morning.”
Brielle smiles, and then the man disappears into the house, kissing Faedra’s temple as he passes by her. The move’s so graceful, it’s like it’s second nature.
Damn, I miss having that.
The ache is enough that I grab Brielle’s hand and pull her into my side. She glances up at me, her eyebrows furrowed but her shoulders relaxed.
“Yeah, sure you’re not hard launching,” Hudson mutters beside me.
I roll my eyes. “Fuck off, Hudson. Your little brother complex is showing.”
Brielle giggles. I press a kiss to her lips, and she melts into me.
“Damn it,” Emily groans. “Now I owe Mel ten bucks.”
Several people chuckle. I ignore them and kiss Brielle again. This time, she lets her weight fall against my side and a bare hint of her scent reaches me.
“I’m glad you made it,” she whispers.
Yep, definitely worth whatever Ethan will rain down on me for hard launching Brielle and me.