Chapter 42 #2
Leaning onto her mattress, I run my fingers through her hair and whisper, “Little Bug, it’s time to wake up.
” She opens her eyes, gives me a bleary look, and falls right back to sleep.
Huffing a laugh, I dance my fingers over her back and sides.
“Come on, sleepy. I have a surprise for you.” That gets her attention, and she sits up to rub her face.
Standing up, I offer her my arms, knowing she’ll want to be carried to the kitchen.
“What’s my ‘prise?” She asks, leaning her head against my shoulder.
“Open your eyes and look, silly goose.”
Sitting her on a stool at the island, I point to all the Christmas stuff sitting a few feet away. “What do you say we eat breakfast, and then you can help me put up all the decorations Papa Manny brought for us? We can surprise him and Papa Shepherd when they come home later.”
“Papa Manny gets to come home?” Her excitement echoes my own, minus the dancing in my seat. “Okay, Mommy! Let’s do it! I wants yogurt with lots of sprinkles.”
We eat quickly and dive into the pile, sorting everything out by type.
A mess surrounds us when Foster wakes an hour later.
“Well, you two look like you’re having fun!
” He stops to press a kiss to both our heads on his way to the coffeepot.
“Shep called. They started the discharge paperwork, so they should be home in a few hours.”
“I guess we’d better hurry then, Little Bug,” I tell Kaitlin.
Foster joins us as we assemble the tree. It’s taller than either of us, so we find a step stool in the garage to reach the top. “Whoa, it’s huge!” Kait exclaims when the pieces are all put together. “What’s next?”
Laughing, I grab a box of bulbs and cut the tape to open it.
The base colors are red, white, and green, but their patterns vary.
Some are glittery, others striped. I pass her one, and Foster shows her how to hang it on a branch.
Together, we get all the colored ornaments onto the tree.
There is another box of them sitting beside the couch, but they’re sentimental, so we’ll wait for Shepherd and Manny before we add them.
“Ready for the best part?” Foster asks as I add the tree skirt.
He leans down and plugs the lights in. I sit back on my heels and pull Kaitlin to my side, watching her stare up at the branches in awe.
Foster briefly disappears, returning a moment later with Everett in his arms. “I didn’t want him to miss it. ”
The garage door rattles, and Kaitlin jumps to her feet. “My papas are home!” She rushes to the hallway, and I yell after her, making her promise to stop at the door into the garage and wait for them to get out of the car. Foster follows her, leaving me to sit by the tree and wait.
“Come on, Papas, hurry!” Their voices carry down the hall as she urges them to move faster. Her excitement makes them laugh and warms my heart. Even though it only lasted a few brief days, I missed the sound of our pack filling the house.
Kaitlin appears first, dragging both men by their hands.
“S’prise!” she shouts, letting them go to skid to my side and dramatically show them the tree.
Manny stops and stares, mouth agape, as he sees what we have done.
There is a pile covering the table of other decor to go around the house, but the tree is all we had time to put up before they returned.
“Wow, you did all this for us?” Manny asks, slowly crossing the room to join us. “It looks amazing, Princesa.”
“It isn’t finished yet.” Kaitlin glares at me, but I ruffle her hair and smile, grabbing the box with their ornaments. “We saved these for you. They seemed important.”
Manny’s face softens as he accepts the box. “They are.” He glances over his shoulder at Shepherd. “For both of us.”
Shep raises a brow and steps closer to look inside. “Are these…”
“From your mother.” Manny confirms. “I asked if she had any ornaments from your childhood that we could add to our tree.”
Foster wedges himself between them, both to look inside the box and to feel them pressed against him. My Omega has missed his mates. He’s going to need several nights with all of us in his nest to prevent this distress from affecting his health.
“You made these?” Kaitlin asks, standing on her tiptoes to see the ornaments.
Manny drops to his knees so she can see better, and goes through the ones he made one by one, showing her each and telling her how old he was when he made it.
She lights up when he tells her he wants to make new ones with her.
“Would you like to help us hang them?” Shepherd asks her, helping Manny back to his feet. He grimaces, obviously still sore from being attacked. Feelings of guilt bubble in my stomach, but I push them back down, reminding myself that I’m not responsible for the actions of others.
Everett stirs in Foster’s arms, searching for food, so I take him and settle on the couch to watch my mates finish decorating the tree with our daughter.
The life I’ve found with these men is more than I could have ever dreamed of.
There is laughter, and there are tears, but there is also love—the foundation for a wonderful future.