Chapter 10
TEN
“You did what?”
Owen almost wrecked the truck into a ditch as he fought through the freshly fallen snow and slammed a look toward Angela. Technically, she was his boss’s wife, so he had to be careful how he responded.
“I invited Grace up for Christmas Dinner,” she said calmly, facing forward.
Yeah, that’s what he thought she’d said. “Why?”
Angela gave him a look. “Because I really like her and I can tell you do too.”
He stewed on that for a few minutes. “She has no idea what she’s walking into.”
“No, but she has to start somewhere.”
Owen gritted his teeth. This could go really bad. “The men may not appreciate it, either.”
He felt Angela turn to look at him. “I’m going to let you in on a secret, Owen. Some of the men up here are hungry for interaction. I’ve realized that this week because I’ve felt like we’ve been under a microscope. I realize a large part of that is Fallon, but they’re hungry for outside input.”
Yeah, he did realize that, but he didn’t realize it was so obvious.
“You’ve been interacting with her for months, correct?”
“Yes.”
“And has she given you any indication that she’s a flake or untrustworthy?”
“No,” he admitted.
Angela sat back in her seat and let the silence speak for itself.
It was just such a huge risk, though. If it was just him, he would maybe be more likely to jump in with both feet, but he felt responsible for all twenty-two men up here. They weren’t children, obviously, but he was responsible for their mental and social well-being as well as their physical. Angela wasn’t criticizing him, exactly, but he took her words to heart.
“Fine,” he said eventually, “but some men may not be happy.”
“Then maybe you should warn them ahead of time. It is Christmas time. We should be welcoming to everyone.”
Yeah, maybe. He would have to warn a couple specifically, because they really didn’t like to be seen by anyone other than the people they already knew. They had too many scars and other deformities to be comfortable with new people.
But then, maybe they would surprise him.
Aiden chuckled as he listened to Angela relate their afternoon. “You actually saw him kiss her?”
“I did,” she grinned, setting a pan in the dish drainer, “and when they were done, they both looked shell-shocked. And he actually smiled. After talking to her, I feel like Grace is already half in love with him.”
Aiden made a face at that. Owen Black was a decent guy, but more than a little closed off. And that was saying a lot, because he was the king of closed off. “Well, this is going to be interesting, then.”
Angela turned to him, wiping her hands dry on a dishcloth. “I want you to talk to the guys over the next couple of days. See if you can smooth the way for Owen. I think if he senses any resistance, he’ll use it as an excuse to distance himself from her.”
“I can talk to some of them, anyway,” he agreed. “And we have dinner tonight and tomorrow night to talk to them. You can work on them too.”
Angela nodded. “Already planned on it.”
Yeah, she was smart that way.
As the new couple on the mountain, it was a bit of a challenge to fit into the dynamic. They alternated work times, so that one of them was always with Fallon. Angela was settling into working with Yates in IT, and he was still doing remote planning for the OMEGA team. He could do that from the cabin, here, if he wanted to, but he’d kind of adopted one of the desks in the main building. It was nice to get out of the cabin and actually feel like he was going to work.
There was a rotating schedule of outdoor and indoor chores, but everyone already had their groove. And the outside stuff had gotten easier since they had ready power. Owen said they’d gone through truckloads of firewood in the beginning, but they didn’t need to do that as much now. Dominic Dart and Fontana kept them powered. Shade ran security for the Foxhole. Duck took care of the animals and the outside equipment. Evan took care of the greenhouse. Grunt took care of the stockroom and kitchen. Over the past year, they’d all found their places, and now it was Aiden and Angela’s turn.
Aiden looked forward to the work.
“What do you think he’ll tell her?” Angela wondered, narrowing her eyes.
Aiden shrugged. “I’m not sure. I appreciate his overall caution. I mean, with the way this place is set up, and the security they have on us, I’m actually more relaxed than I’ve been in a long time.”
Angela crossed to him and ran her hand over his shoulder, giving him that smile that made him think that anything was possible. “I know. He has to walk the line, though, and take a little risk when he tells her about everything. She’s going to be shocked, but maybe, if she sees the men as men before he tells her anything big, she’ll be more accepting.”
Aiden nodded, wrapping his arm around her waist as he pulled her close. “That’s what I’m hoping. I would love for him to have this,” he motioned with his head between them. “I never even imagined I would find this kind of relationship, and if I don’t tell you enough, I am so thankful for you.”
Angela leaned closed, resting her cheek on his. “And I’m so thankful for you, as well.”
The baby monitor let out a squawk and Angela pulled back, grinning. “The princess is awake and probably jealous that she’s not between us. Let’s let her open a present!”
Aiden quirked a brow at her excitement. “It’s not Christmas,” he said, but he gave in. He was excited, too, for Fallon to have her first experience with presents.
When they presented Fallon with the wrapped package, they had to show her how to rip the paper. But only the first time. Babies didn’t normally have a lot of dexterity, but she managed to unwrap the big box in a very respectable time. Angela snapped pictures with her phone and took a video. Fallon was so incredibly cute as she cooed over the new, brightly colored toy, learning what the buttons did.
Once Fallon was playing happily in her little toy nook, Aiden reached for the package he’d wrapped and tucked into the couch cushions earlier. The little box had been with him in Alexandria, and he’d had it for a good while. When he handed it to Angela, her eyes filled with tears.
“I thought we agreed no gifts for each other? This year was just for Fallon. And it’s not Christmas.”
Aiden made a face. “It’s close enough. It’s Christmas Eve eve. I remember you suggesting that, but I don’t specifically remember agreeing.”
Angela took the package and very carefully unwrapped it. She gasped when she opened the blue velvet jeweler’s box. “Oh, Aiden… It’s stunning.”
It was a gold chain with a dangling purplish blue alexandrite stone for Fallon’s birth month.
“Well, you’ll notice that there’s plenty of room on the chain for more stones, too,” he murmured.
Angela blinked at him, and he realized he’d shocked her. It was a big step for him, even thinking about having another baby. He’d gone through so much guilt worrying about Angela when she was pregnant, and whether they should even have created a child. They didn’t know what the Spartan drug and the genetic modifications it had set into effect would do to the baby in the long term, but he couldn’t imagine being without her now. If he could maybe have a little boy with Angela’s blue eyes, their little family could be complete.
“Not right this minute,” he said, quickly, “but you know, down the road. Maybe when she’s out of diapers,” he laughed.
Without saying a word, Angela shifted close to him on the couch and swung her leg over his hips. Then she leaned down and wrapped her arms around his neck, nestling in close. “Do you know how much I love you?”
Aiden wrapped his arms around her. “Hopefully at least half as much as I love you.”
She shook her head against his neck. “Nope. More.”
Aiden cupped her ass in his hands. “Any chance Fallon needs another nap?”
“Hm,” Angela murmured, kissing his neck. “Doubt we could get away with that. You can unwrap your package tonight, though, I promise.”
Then she sat up, grinding on his lap. She wore an evil little grin, because she knew what it did to him. Aiden reached beneath her shirt and tweaked her nipples. If he was going to be ramped up for the day, so was she.
“I’ll hold you to that,” he said, giving her a look.
“You’d better,” she murmured.
Black frowned as he watched Grunt limp from his office. The chef had been asking him about dessert preferences for Christmas dinner tomorrow night. Was he trying to figure out what Grace would want? He hadn’t really come out and said it that way, but that was kind of what Black was thinking. When he told him to go with whatever he’d had planned, Grunt had scowled and shaken his head sadly.
Grunt was a former Marine, big and rangy, with dark hair and eyes. Henry Southard was his name, but Owen doubted many of the men up here even knew that. He’d been one of the men found in Mexico two years ago, in a desert encampment. When the recovery team brought Henry into the Elton building, he’d been skin and bones, and there had been malformations where the bones of his arms and legs had been broken and allowed to fuse back abnormally to test his healing ability. It was obvious they had been broken several times already, even though he was only in his mid twenties. Black couldn’t imagine the amount of pain he’d been in when they’d first found him. He’d grunted when they’d asked his name, and it had stuck.
Even though he said little, Grunt was one of the most important pieces of the Foxhole. The guys loved him and appreciated what he could do in the kitchen. The man had an old soul, as people liked to say, and he had a presence to him that was incredibly comforting. The Spartan program had enhanced that natural empathy, making him one of the most dangerous men on the mountain, because he knew everyone’s secrets. People talked to him when they would talk to no one else. Grunt would respond in his slow, careful way, and their worries or concerns would wash away, because they were heard . The big man took comforting to a whole new level. And his kitchen was that way as well. It was bigger than a normal household kitchen, warm, but still had a massive island where a lot of them liked to congregate. Men that had been in the Spartan program had been starved, or placed on a ‘special’ diet, which usually meant lower calories to see how the body responded. When Black and the guys had been sent out here to the mountain, he’d promised them that they would always have a good dinner together every night and food available at all times. Grunt helped him do that.
Maybe this was Grunt’s subtle way of giving his approval to have someone new there. That actually made Black happy. If he had Grunt’s approval, the other men would probably follow.
Black heard footsteps outside his door, and Grunt stuck his head back in. “Hey, Cap’n. I need a bag of flour.”
He frowned. “You have flour in the stockroom.” He glanced to the stack of itemized bills he’d logged in just a few hours ago.
“I need cake flour,” Grunt insisted, his dark brow furrowed. “They have it at the general store. Get me ten pounds.”
Black just stared at him.
Grunt shook his head, shifting a little awkwardly into the office. Most of the time he carried a cane, but he’d apparently left it in the kitchen. “I’m giving you a reason to go down and see this woman again. You’ve been sitting at your desk for hours, staring out the window, and I know you’ve been thinking of her. You’ve only been pretending to work.”
Black scowled. “And how do you know that?”
Grunt gave him a chiding look. “You haven’t exactly been guarding your thoughts. That was apparently some kiss yesterday,” he said, grinning slightly.
Black fought not to curse. Had he really been broadcasting? Grunt was especially intuitive, so maybe it hadn’t been that bad. Maybe not everybody that had come in the lodge had picked up on it. At least it was early in the day and most of the guys were out working.
Huffing out a breath, he pushed up from his chair. “Fine. I’ll go get your cake flour.”
Grunt winked at him and disappeared back out the door. Black felt manipulated, but he wasn’t mad about it. Actually, he was excited. Maybe he would bump into Grace.
Before he could second-guess himself, he grabbed his keys and headed for the cold truck.