9. Silas
“ Honey, I’m home!”
My shouted greeting echoed around the empty hallway, but I heard gurgling and laughing from the family room at the back of the house.
The bags stacked in my arms were unceremoniously dropped on the floor.
There’d be time to put them away later.
I followed the sound, hoping for my favorite sight in the world.
Rowan, hair disheveled and glasses askew, sat on the floor and rolled a soft ball to Audie, who laughed and returned it.
His chubby cheeks were rosy and his matching dimples added to his overwhelming cuteness.
Rowan, usually so put together, was unconcerned about being caught looking less than perfect.
In the months we’d lived together, he’d relaxed his standards to a reasonable level.
Or maybe mine were raised from the basement.
Like all couples, it’d taken a few fights and some negotiation as we learned how to navigate living together.
I wouldn’t ever understand his toothpaste tube-squeezing rules.
Plus, I was certain there was, in fact, more than one way to fold towels.
But I didn’t care enough to throw down about either issue.
Rowan did care.
He cared deeply .
I dropped a kiss on Rowan’s upturned mouth and then grabbed Audie and munched on his neck.
His shrieks of laughter warmed every part of me.
He was such a good-natured baby who never met a stranger.
He tossed out smiles and blew kisses to strangers like they were confetti.
“Hey, a package came for you today,” Rowan said when I put Audie down to continue this game.
“I put it in the office.” Before I left, I stole one more kiss from my sexy omega.
To make room for both of us in here, we’d relocated the single bed to storage for now.
Sleepovers usually happened at grandma’s house anyway, so no one missed it.
The extra room allowed us to put in a desk for me to work on.
Since Rowan had returned to work full-time, he worked on his accounting clients during the day while I took care of Audie and the various errands.
In the afternoons and evenings, Rowan took over the baby and house while I banged out words for my romance novels.
Our fairly traditional families were at a loss to understand how it worked for us, but it did perfectly.
When Rowan suggested I quit my driving gig so I could spend time at home with the baby and have time to write, I was scared shitless to have the exact thing I’d secretly dreamed about.
Rowan had a special way of convincing me though.
Our bite-bond made it nearly impossible to tell that man no.
Although, I didn’t push too hard either.
He’d become my biggest fan.
I found the box he’d left on the desk and unpacked its contents.
It wasn’t my first novel, but it was the one that meant the most to me.
I grabbed the top copy, signed it with a Sharpe, and brought it out to show Rowan.
“It was my new release.”
“Ooh, nice. Finally going to let me read it?”
“Yes, but I needed this one to be a surprise.” I handed Rowan the novel and held my breath when he opened it.
“Oh…oh…Silas.” Rowan reverently traced his index finger over the words written on the page as he read them aloud.
“ For R and Baby A—every chapter led to you .”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”