Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Grady
“Uncle Holden, did you make brownies?” Quinn bounces on her toes beside the Homestead’s kitchen island, her rainbow-striped pajamas swapped for jeans and a sweater that’s too long in the sleeves. “Did you? Because Sprinkles is extra tired, and he needs brownies.”
Holden stirs a saucepan, garlic, butter, and an herb I can’t quite identify rising with the steam. His golden-brown curls flop across his forehead, and flour dusts the sleeves of his Henley. “Brownies are for dessert, princess. After real food. And dogs can’t have brownies. You know that.”
“Real food is boring.” She leans forward until her chin rests on the counter. “Can I help?”
“If you wash your hands.”
She bolts for the sink.
After getting most of my possessions unpacked and put in their places, everyone had headed over to the Homestead for dinner.
I had taken it slow on the hay-covered path while Jared walked beside me, his arm brushing mine whenever the trail narrowed.
Emily and Leif had walked ahead, her hand on the small of his back, their shoulders touching, and Sprinkles raced between all of us until his energy finally gave out.
As soon as we arrived at the Homestead, he laid down in front of the fireplace with his tongue lolling, his massive chest rising and falling in slow, exhausted waves.
By the time Jared and I arrived in the kitchen, the place was chaos in the best possible way, with people drifting through in clusters.
Nathaniel carries plates out to the table, while Blake lounges beside the refrigerator with a beer in hand, his rainbow bead bracelet catching the overhead light whenever he gestures.
Dominic moves between the kitchen and the dining room, carrying serving bowls, his French braid coming entirely loose now, black waves falling past his cheekbones.
Chloe occupies a stool at the far end of the kitchen island, turned to the side to give her pregnant belly room, a mug of tea steaming between her palms. Her pink hair is pulled back in a ponytail, the long strands curling around her shoulders in soft waves.
I stand by the sideboard with my cane, one hand braced on the top, my bad knee throbbing after the walk from the cabin.
Quinn rushes back to Holden, bringing a stool with her that she plants at his side and clambers up onto.
As Holden lets her stir the pot, Leif appears from the hallway that leads to the side door. His mauve-taupe hair is damp at the temples, and he has changed into a soft blue sweater that brings out the periwinkle of his eyes.
Leif takes the long way around the island to ruffle Quinn’s hair. “How do you still have all this energy?”
She giggles and ducks her head. “I took a nap while Aunt Chloe was rearranging all the furniture.”
“Don’t you mean when I was rearranging all the furniture while Aunt Chloe pointed from her chair?” Blake demands.
“Hey, I helped too,” Dominic protests as he comes back into the kitchen. “You weren’t lifting that couch alone.”
“I helped with the couch, too!” Quinn shouts and flexes both arms, her little biceps nonexistent beneath the sweater sleeves.
“You carried a throw pillow, princess,” Blake says.
“It was a huge pillow.”
“It was the size of your head.” Leif bumps her shoulder with his. “And you dropped it on my foot.”
“You have big feet.”
“Because I’m tall.”
She peers down at her small sneakers with a dubious frown. “I don’t have big feet, but Grandma Wright said I’m going to be tall.”
Chloe snorts into her mug. “Everyone is tall compared to Grandma Wright.”
I remember meeting the older woman at Chloe’s wedding and have to agree. Holden’s mother is five feet tall, without an inch to spare.
Holden turns from the stove, a wooden spoon held aloft. “Grady, come try this for me. It’s a wild mushroom and thyme cream reduction.”
I limp over and lean in for a bite. Garlic, thyme, butter, and an earthy flavor I can’t place bloom across my tongue. My stomach growls in approval.
“That’s the vote I was looking for.” He turns back to the stove, satisfied. “Dinner will be ready as soon as the pasta is done cooking.”
“I could have been your official sampler,” Blake pouts.
Holden swats his hand away from the pan. “You’ve sampled enough already. Go sit. All of you.”
“Yes, sir. Come on, princess.” Blake gives his bondmate a scruffy nuzzle before grabbing his niece under one arm and heading into the dining room, the little girl giggling the entire way.
Nathaniel helps Chloe down from her stool, and the rest of us migrate to the dining table.
Quinn claims the seat beside her with the speed of a child who has already figured out who gets served dessert first. Jared drops into the chair across from me with the tired eagerness of someone who’s spent the day lifting heavy things and is now being fed.
Emily takes the seat to my right, her shoulder brushing mine as she settles. Leif sits beside Jared, and the Wright Alphas fill in the remaining spaces with the ease of men who’ve shared a table for years.
Holden brings the pot to the table himself, steam rising in a fragrant cloud, and ladles mushroom pasta onto each plate with the efficiency of a chef who’s done this a thousand times. The breadbasket gets passed around the table, and Dominic pours wine while Nathaniel handles the sparkling cider.
“So,” Chloe says, twirling pasta around her fork, “we’ve been talking about hosting a spring bonfire to kick off the new hiking season and draw people to the island.”
Blake rubs his hands together. “And a firework display.”
“Which is illegal,” Dominic reminds.
Blake smirks. “What are the police going to do? Hop on their boat to come out here and fine us?”
“Yes,” Chloe and Dominic answer in unison.
“I love fireworks!” Quinn announces around a mouthful of pasta. “They go boom, and Sprinkles barks, and it’s the best day ever.”
“We’ll figure it out.” Chloe waves her fork. “The point is, we’re doing it. So everyone is expected to attend.”
I catch the look she throws my way and roll my eyes. Of course I’ll attend. This is my new home, and if I take them up on their offer, my new family.
I wait for a pang of sadness, but it never arrives.
Anticipation hums beneath my ribs instead.
I love my parents, but I don’t love their life or their strict expectations.
I could never relax in my childhood home.
It was only after meeting Chloe, and then the Wrights, that I learned what it was like to truly unwind.
I peek over at Emily, whose attention drifts from person to person with a tinge of uncertainty. Is she, too, thinking about how her life will change if she joins the Wright Pack?
I turn back to watch the way Blake’s hand finds Chloe’s shoulder when she shifts in her chair, his thumb rubbing a small circle over her sweater.
The way Nathaniel focuses on Dominic as his bondmate speaks, attentive in that quiet, unwavering way that says more than words.
And the way Holden flits around them all, ensuring no one’s glass goes empty.
I still don’t really understand what it would mean to join their pack, but the easy affection between them fills me with a deep longing for the same kind of connection.
And I stop second-guessing my decision to walk out of my dad’s study and hop on a plane to return here.
“We should put Quinn to bed.” Nathaniel collects the last of the plates from the table. “It’s past eight, and someone has a history of turning into a gremlin after nine.”
“I’m not a gremlin!” Quinn protests from the floor where she’s sprawled beside Sprinkles, her head on his massive flank. “I’m a princess.”
“Princesses need sleep, too.” Leif crouches beside her. “Come on, kiddo. Up you go.”
She groans but allows herself to be lifted, her arms looping around Leif’s neck as he carries her toward the stairs.
Jared appears at my elbow with his jacket. “Em and I are heading out before it gets dark.”
I grip my cane and stand. “I’ll walk with you to the split in the path.”
We call our farewells to everyone and head out the front door.
But on the porch, Emily’s hand finds my shoulder, her palm warm through the fabric of my sweater. “Stay back a minute? I want to talk.”
Jared catches on, and he jogs ahead. “I’ll warm up the boat. Take your time.”
I follow Emily over to one of the small breakfast tables on the side of the cabin and take a seat. My knee protests the bend, and I promise it a hot pack as soon as I return home as I balance my cane on the armrest.
For a long moment, neither of us speaks as Jared’s boots crunch down the path toward the dock.
“I wanted to tell you before someone else did,” Emily says at last, shifting to face me. “It’s the kind of thing that looks like hiding if you hear it secondhand.”
Ah, so she’s finally going to talk about the invite to the Wright Pack. I turn, the lights from the Homestead reflecting in my glasses as I give her my undivided attention.
“Jared and I are trying for a pup,” she blurts out.
“We decided a while back, before you left for Connecticut, but we didn’t want to tell anyone until we were sure.
We didn’t plan for it to be a secret, but it’s…
not easy for female Alphas to conceive, and we didn’t want to jinx it by talking about it. ”
Taken aback at this turn in conversation, I blink at her. “I…see.”
She takes a breath and lets it out. “But I’m two weeks late now, which isn’t a confirmation. These things... they don’t always stick for Alphas. The chances are low, and the risks are high, and we didn’t want to celebrate when it might not be real.”
Sympathy fills me, and I reach for her hand. “I understand, Em. You don’t have to—”
“But Blake figured it out,” she cuts in, as if now that she started, she needs to lay out all the facts. “And he announced it to the whole pack at breakfast while you were gone. Leif was so shocked he walked out, and I didn’t want you to find out the same way.”
“Em, it’s okay.” I squeeze her hand. “I’m happy for you guys.”