29. Kennedy
Chapter 29
Kennedy
I was freaking out.
Storm was coming to my place to spend time with Char and go through our nighttime routine. He had come by for a morning with her, but this felt somehow more…intimate?
First, we were going to meet up for coffee and cake. Luckily for Storm, caffeine was one of the few reasons I would dare to leave the house with my grumpy, teething toddler. It was one of my rare days off, so I bundled Charlotte into her stroller and made my way to campus.
The day before with Micha had been amazing. We had both done so much studying, but in a nice, companionable calm. Whenever Charlotte had started fussing, he scooped her up and amused her, so I could work.
It was actually the most productive study session I’d had in months. The only downside was that my vagina had ideas of its own, practically crying for the alpha’s attention. There was zero question of my attraction to him, and I wasn’t sure what to do with that.
As we passed the duck pond, Charlotte reached out her hands and made little grunting noises. She wasn't quite making words yet, but she would make the D sound for ducks.
“I'm so sorry, sweet girl. We'll be going there after Mama’s seen her friend,” I assured her, even though she probably didn’t understand me.
Charlotte loved feeding the ducks. I had a small bag of peas in her stroller, and usually, we stopped on the way to campus, but I had decided to let Storm join in on the way back to our place. Part of me felt like a monster for denying her, because she was used to going to the duckies first, but I thought it would be a nice bonding activity for her and Storm.
Luckily, she only fussed for a few minutes before she became enraptured by the sights and noises of campus life. We weren’t at the age of extra-large tantrums yet, thankfully, and I was honestly dreading those days.
Storm was waiting for me inside the café. He was sitting at a quiet table in the corner, talking to a blonde girl who was also gently rocking a stroller. She was stunning, almost painfully so. Why was Storm talking to her?
An irrational jealousy gripped me. I knew what Storm was like. He was a manwhore through and through, so I shouldn't have been shocked by him talking to another woman. Then again, he seemed so adamant that he was going to change now that he’d learned he had a child.
Apparently, this omega also had a child.
Storm’s head lifted, and he broke into a giant grin when he saw me. Pushing his chair back, he hurried over to me, pulling me into a hug. Despite my unhappiness, I melted into it, inhaling that fresh rain scent that I was enraptured by.
“Kennedy, thank you for coming! Do you want something to drink or some cake?”
I nodded. “Iced coffee and a slice of chocolate cake.”
“I’ll order that.” He looked back at the table, where the blonde was beaming over at us. She looked genuinely pleased to see me, which threw me for a loop.
“I am sorry to do this, but Sunny and my nephew, Luka, are over there. I will tell her to go away if you don't want to meet her now. But she has been hovering because I accidentally let it slip that we were meeting up.”
Relief washed over me. It was his family, not anything more sinister. Did I even have a right to be upset if it was a girl he was wanting to date? It wasn't like Storm and I were in a relationship. Sometimes I got the impression that he wanted to be in a relationship with me, but given the whole situation with our daughter, we had to take things very, very slow. If he was still seeing other women, then there was no chance in hell that we would work out.
“I'd like to meet her,” I said with a smile as Storm bent down and greeted Charlotte warmly.
“Hey, Miss Sweet Angel. Have you been good for your mama today?”
I frowned. “Sort of. She's definitely deciding that sleep deprivation is the way forward, but I'm hoping it's a phase.”
Storm grimaced. “Well, we'll have to make sure that you manage to get some rest. Even if Little Miss isn't,” he said, standing up. “I'll go order your coffee. Do you want to wait here? I can introduce you to Sunny once I’ve ordered your much-needed caffeine.”
“No, I'll go take a seat. I want to meet her.” I smiled. Curiosity was tugging at me.
Storm nodded and made his way toward the counter. I pushed the stroller in the direction of the table where Sunny was sitting. They had picked an ideal one, with plenty of space for strollers.
“Hey! You must be Kennedy. It’s so nice to meet you!” Sunny cooed as she stood up, pulling me in for a surprisingly strong hug. Her scent was overwhelmingly omega, sweet and tart lemon. It was one I could happily be around for hours.
“Hi, it’s nice to meet you.” I smiled, hugging her back.
“We are family now! I’m so excited. Is this Charlotte?” she asked, looking down at the stroller with a bright smile.
“It is!” I said, looking down at my baby, whose attention was firmly on Sunny’s golden yellow hair.
“This is Luka. He’s completely conked out,” Sunny said. Her son was passed out in his stroller, his head at a funny angle. I smiled to myself. I knew far too well how babies would get into uncomfortable sleeping positions, and no matter how many times you tried to right them, they would go right back to sleeping with their head at an awkward angle or their bum in the air.
“He’s precious,” I said as I slid into a seat.
“He is, but he’s an adorable menace.” Sunny smiled as she took the seat opposite me.
“How old is he?”
“Almost one and a half. They grow so fast! It feels like he was a newborn just yesterday.”
“I catch myself looking at Charlotte, and I’m always amazed at how much she's grown,” I admitted. Luka was a lot bigger than Charlotte, though, and I got the impression it wasn’t just because of age. He was probably a little alpha in the making.
“So, Storm has told me everything about what a gigantic ass he’s been. Honestly, I’m surprised you haven’t punched him yet.” She frowned in the general direction of her brother.
“The jury is still out on bodily harm,” I said, taking Charlotte out of her stroller and placing her on my lap. She was far too awake to stay put.
“Here’s your coffee and cake,” Storm said as he placed the delicious goodies in front of me. Naturally, upon the sight of delicious, sweet food, Charlotte was grabbing for it.
Before I could stop her, Storm had scooped her out of my arms and was sitting down next to me with the baby in his lap. “Now, while I appreciate the desire to have cake, because cake is amazing, that is for your mama and not for you, young lady,” he told her in a mock-stern voice. Charlotte looked up at him with her big blue eyes, and I could have sworn she was pouting.
“I can hold her,” I said quietly.
Sunny butted in. “Of course, you can. You are her mama, and you will no doubt be the best at wrangling her. But you have coffee and cake to consume, and it's that much harder to do so with a baby on your lap. I should know.” She cocked her head as she smiled warmly at me.
I reached forward and picked up the iced coffee, taking a sip with the straw, closing my eyes for a brief moment as the sweet, bitter caffeine hit my taste buds.
“You sure you should even be having coffee?” Storm asked after a few seconds. Sunny turned to him, her face screaming oh, that’s brave of you .
“Coffee in moderation is fine,” Sunny insisted. “She probably needs it, considering she had a baby with a big dumb dumb.”
Storm had the good sense to look bashful. “Sorry, I just read some things about people cutting back on things like sushi and coffee while pregnant.”
“One or two cups are okay, and I don’t drink it often. With the current chaos in my life, I need it to be able to function,” I informed him, taking a pointedly big sip. My coffees were more cream and sugar than actual coffee, but I didn’t need to defend myself.
Still, there was a small part of me that was pleased he was reading about pregnancy.
“How far along are you now?” Sunny asked.
“Around eleven weeks. We go for a scan soon.”
“Ah, I loved those scans. The gestational diabetes test can fuck off, though.” She grimaced playfully as she spoke.
“I didn’t get one of those with Char! Gosh, I’ve got so many questions.”
“Ask away! That’s what I’m here for… Well, that and maybe some baby cuddles, once my brother stops hogging the cutie.”
“Is it weird that I kind of want to be Sunny when I grow up?” I laughed as Storm pushed the stroller through campus as I sipped on another iced coffee.
Storm laughed. “Not at all. She seems so confident and put together. I don’t know how she does it.”
I nodded, even though she seemed put together and amazing, I could tell that she was stressed. Any single mother would be. We had spent the better part of an hour exchanging stories and tips about looking after our children.
Eventually, when Sunny had reluctantly looked at her phone and realized it was time for her to go, I had to resist the urge to pout. It was my first time hanging out with someone who could understand me in such a way, and I kind of regretted not getting there sooner.
“I'm just glad I've got her number.”
“You think that's a good thing now, but wait until she's texting you at four in the morning when Luka won't sleep.”
I shrugged. “If I'm answering, it's because I'm awake and Charlotte isn't sleeping, so I think I'll survive.”
“I swear, single mothers, you’re tougher than marines at times.”
I giggled. He sounded so amazed, and I wasn’t going to correct him.
“Well, you’ve got a night of bath time, stories, and putting this one to sleep, so are you ready?”
Storm nodded, a grin on his face. “Hell, yes!”
The walk back to my place was serene, until we got near the duck pond. Charlotte immediately started waving her hands in the direction of the water, babbling mindlessly.
“Does she want to go to the water?” Storm asked, confused.
I chuckled. “She wants to feed the ducks. Here, why don’t you pick her up?” I said as we veered to the side, and I parked her stroller.
Storm didn’t hesitate, bending over and undoing her seat belt and lifting her into his arms as I pulled out the bag of dried peas I kept in the bottom of the stroller.
“Is it duckie time, sweet girl?” I asked gently.
Charlotte’s only response was to babble.
“Where are we going?” Storm asked, unable to keep his eyes off Charlotte as she snuggled into him.
I nodded to a bench right by the water’s edge. “Over there. We sit on the bench, and she throws the food for the ducks.”
“I can’t see any ducks. Where—oh!” Storm broke off with a laugh as he sat on the bench and the ducks appeared, like they knew what was about to happen.
Taking a handful of the peas, I threw them into the water, then gave some to Charlotte. She was sitting on Storm’s lap, happily babbling away.
“Look at that duckie!” Storm cooed, pointing to a particularly pretty one. “We need to get you a stuffie that looks like that one, don’t we?”
Watching him interact so happily with our daughter made my heart melt.
An hour later, we were in the living room, a freshly bathed Charlotte in Storm’s arms as she drank her bottle. He was watching her almost in awe.
“Feeding her has always been my favorite time,” I admitted. “I really wish I was able to breastfeed—I feel like we'd be that much closer if I could—but it's worked out pretty well.”
“Why didn’t you?” Storm asked, his eyes not leaving Charlotte.
“We tried for a while, but she just wouldn't latch properly, and then she had some tummy issues. It seemed like this one brand of formula was the only thing that made her not have painful gas or be sick regularly. As much as I wanted to breastfeed, I wasn't going to do it at the cost of her being sick.”
Storm's face paled. “I can't imagine her being sick. How do you cope with her being sick? What can you do when she's sick?” He reeled off the words quickly.
I grimaced. “Honestly, it's absolutely terrifying, and I’m distraught every time she gets sick. Last time, I was so lucky that Eli and Micha were here to help.”
“I've heard the story of Micha’s shirt being ruined.” Storm smirked.
“Yeah, it was kind of disconcerting to wake up from a deep, fever-filled sleep to find my baby on a random alpha’s naked chest. Little did I know that, in a few short days, she would adore sleeping on that alpha’s chest.”
“I'm surprised you didn't call the cops.”
I shrugged. “I was still coming off a fever. If I had been healthy, I probably would have freaked out and called them immediately. Or threw a saucepan at his head.”
Storm chuckled. “I can't believe I’m about to say this, but I’m glad you were still a little bit sick, so my pack mate didn't end up with a concussion.”
“I probably would have missed.”
My small apartment was filled with his deep, fresh rain scent that set my body on edge. I was doing my best to resist getting the warm and mushy feelings for him, but unfortunately, he was devastatingly handsome, sitting there cuddling up with our daughter. It was so sweet. Storm had been attentive and doting ever since he had discovered that he had a daughter.
Now that I was spending more time with him, I could see little facets of him in Charlotte. They definitely shared the same nose.
Charlotte’s eyes were drooping as she snuggled into Storm. “You're going to have to go put her down in her crib soon,” I told him.
“Can we have just a few more minutes?” he asked. “I feel like I've missed out on so much, I want to soak up every bit of it.”
“Sure.” I nodded, my heart aching at the distraught look on his face.
We ended up sitting there for another three hours while I struggled to keep my eyes open, the busy day taking its toll on me.
Eventually, I gave up and let the lull of sleep claim me.