Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
ULY
The next morning Brent had to go into the office and asked if I was absolutely certain I was okay with babysitting for a while.
The boys clung to me until I came up with a project for them to do.
We were sitting in the great room, me watching them color on big sheets of snow white paper.
They were so focused on what they were doing they had their tongues poking out.
I leaned over to take a look, and found both of them were drawing family pictures.
Of course, everyone on the sheets had names.
There was Daddy, Momma, Eddie, and Jack.
Judging by the greenest trees I’d ever seen, plus the bluest lake, I assumed we were outside. The place looked beautiful.
“Here, Momma. We made these for you.”
I shook the cobwebs out and smiled at the boys holding their drawings in shaky hands to me. I took them and held them up, eyeing them critically.
“These are lovely,” I told them.
“Whose is better?” Jack wanted to know, his eyes alight with excitement.
No way would I fall into that trap, because neither was better than the other.
Jack’s was lovely and Eddie’s was stunning.
“They’re both very special in their own way.
You have the sun and I see you made it reflect on the water.
That shows you have a keen eye. Eddie has eagles flying in the trees, looking for a place to build a nest for their family.
That tells me he knows a lot about nature. ”
His eyes widened. “You knew what they were?”
“Sure, because I love eagles too.”
Honestly, I’d had no idea, but guessed. Fortunately, it turned out to be the right thing.
“Momma?”
I smiled down at Jack, who was worrying his lower lip. “Yes?”
He put his hands on my shirt, stroking it. “Do you love us?”
The question rattled me. “Of course I do. Why would you think I didn’t?”
He sniffled. “Because you went away for a long time.”
Of everything he could have said, this wasn’t what I was expecting. I lifted him off the floor and onto my lap, He smiled and snuggled in. A moment later, Eddie climbed up too. They both sat there, staring expectantly at me.
“Sometimes there are things we can’t control, and they cause us problems. I swear to you, if something hadn’t happened, Momma would never have left you and that’s a promise.”
“What happened?”
I was getting in too deep. I didn’t know what Brent had told them about their mother dying, and I didn’t want to be involved in the conversation.
“Momma got sick,” Brent said as he came in through the door. “Remember how you felt when you were sick? You had an icky tummy and you were so tired? That’s how it was for Momma.” He came to where we were and knelt down, putting his hand on my knee. “But boys, you have to remember. Uly isn’t Momma.”
“That is Momma!” the boys screamed, clutching me tighter. “She came back to us!”
Brent opened his mouth to say something, but I stopped him. “Leave it be, okay? They’ll realize eventually, but for now just let them have this.”
There was pain in his eyes, and I realized how hard it had to be for him, the boys comparing me to his wife.
He reached out and cupped my cheek. “She would have absolutely loved you, just so you know. Anyone who gave attention to the boys earned high marks in her book. And no one has ever given of themselves the way you do. You’re kind, considerate, and respect their feelings and boundaries.
You would make a great Momma.” He smiled.
“If you weren’t, you know, not a woman.”
I stuck out my tongue, which made the boys giggle. “Momma is funny.”
Brent ignored them as he took my hand. He had to know how nervous I was by the way it was trembling. “Listen, are you up to going somewhere with me?”
“Sure.”
“We wanna come!” Jack exclaimed.
“No, this is for grownups. You can stay with Emily and Jake. They offered to sit with you until we got home. They’ll even watch Bluey with you.”
“No, we don’t want Bluey! We wanna go with Momma!” they cried, clutching my arm tightly. “Please, Daddy?”
He was torn, I could tell. “Uly?”
Imagine my surprise he asked my opinion. Of course, as far as I was concerned there was only one acceptable answer. “I’m cool with it, if you are.”
“I had wanted it to be just us, but….”
He sighed. I understood wanting some time to ourselves, especially since we had so much to talk about, but the boys were dealing with the same situation and they had no one they could talk to about how Momma came back or any way to process their emotions.
“Hey, guys? Can you go grab your jackets?”
“Okay, Momma!” they shouted, then they rushed out of the room and down the hall.
“Look,” I said, turning my attention to Brent.
“I am so sorry about how uncomfortable this must be for you, but the boys need to understand they’re not going to be left behind.
They lost their mother, and that obviously devastated them.
This whole thing about mates sharing a scent?
That’s not right, man. You can smell me and know I’m not Jenna because you can see me and know it intellectually.
The boys? This has to be messing with their heads.
They saw their mother die, and now there’s someone who they think smells like her.
They’re so uncertain right now, they’re trying to hold on to something familiar.
We could go, but I think if we do, there will be two very angry and hurt kids here when we get back. ”
If I thought he’d be upset, I was mistaken. He smiled at me, then gripped my hand in his, lacing our fingers together. “Thank you, Uly.”
“For what?”
“Keeping their needs in mind. I get wrapped up in my head sometimes, and it escapes me that even though they’re kids, they have big feelings and needs too.
And you’re right. It’s not fair to them that they can pick up her scent on you.
It makes sense that they’re confused. I’m not uncomfortable, though.
I know who you are and I’m aware that you’re not Jenna.
You’re Uly, who smells of chocolate cake and coffee. ”
“And flowers?”
He gave a one-shoulder shrug. “The barest hint. I hadn’t really noticed until Chaim told me to sniff you.
Yes, there are flowers, but that’s definitely not the first thing I noticed about you.
” He leaned in next to my ear. “That would be your kindness, so you know. I could feel your hurt and upset, and it called to my bear to fix it, to make you smile. My bear might have noticed the scent, but it wasn’t what prompted him to respond. ”
And knowing that made me feel a lot better.
“And that kiss? Mind. Blowing.”
I smirked and turned my head, meeting his lips. Was it fast? Yes, absolutely. But it felt right. All of our conversations, where he actually listened to me, validated me, showed me that I wasn’t broken, had me falling deeper in what I now know was love. Maybe there was something to this mate thing.
I couldn’t wait to find out.
brENT
“Momma, look!” Jack cried into his headset as we flew over the gently rolling hills covered in blossoms, grass, and tiny trees.
“I see,” Uly said, gripping the bar in front of him in white knuckled hands.
“You okay?” I asked, my headset minimizing the noise from the rotors.
He swallowed hard. “This is a lot different than a jet,” he croaked out.
“Never been in a helicopter before?”
He shivered. “That would be no. I never realized it was so small.”
“Not that small,” I corrected him. There were three rows of seats.
Uly sat up front with me, while Jack and Eddie were strapped in the second set.
We were flying over the Pandila Valley, a lush area that our people loved to go to where they could shift and run to their heart’s content.
Just beyond it were the Cuya Falls, where salmon and other fish were plentiful.
It was where Cullin and I had taken Chaim, Benjy, and the kids fishing.
Speaking of children, mine were in the back talking about what they were seeing.
It amazed me how we’d been here often, but they still found new things to look at.
Seeing the world through their eyes was a fascinating thing.
I set their headsets so they could continue to speak with each other, and Uly and I could converse privately.
“You own this whole area?” Uly asked, a degree of awe in his voice.
I had, at least until I moved almost everything into a trust with the sleuth’s name on it.
I never wanted them to do without or be forced off the land if something happened to me.
“The sleuth does, yes. We have a board that oversees everything, ensuring habitats stay natural, but still allow for controlled growth. And speaking of that, where would you like your house built? I’d prefer to get the request in so there is time to study it. ”
He sucked in a breath. “Oh. I… don’t know.”
There was a tremor in his voice and hearing it grated on my nerves, because I felt I wasn’t giving him what he needed.
“You know, you’re welcome to stay with us.
I wasn’t sure if you wanted your own place, so thought it would be a good idea to ask.
But if you’re comfortable living with me, the boys, and the staff, then you are more than welcome to stay in the house. ”
Please say you want to stay.
He huffed out a breath. “No, it’s fine. I wouldn’t want to be in the way.”
And I knew I had to choose my next words very carefully.
What Jamie had said was true. After being teased mercilessly when he was a kid, then let go from six different jobs that I knew of as an adult, Uly had to be ready for rejection.
He wouldn’t find it from me. “I would love for you to stay, and I know if you asked the boys, they would be all in. It’s a big house, but even with the staff around it’s lonely, you know?
Having you there would make it more of a home.
” I reached over and patted his arm. “Plus, I like the idea of you being around.”