39. Walker
Chapter 39
Walker
T his was the life I had always envisioned, the life I had always wanted. The sun was shining in the early afternoon, and I had all my teammates and family surrounding us as my pack and I enjoyed ourselves.
Sunny had yet to go on the Slip ’N Slide, but I knew it was only a matter of time. Storm and Micha had convinced Kennedy to give it a go, so Sunny was cuddling baby Samuel. There was something so right about seeing her with a baby in her arms.
“You should eat your fries,” I said, nodding down at her untouched plate.
She looked longingly at the food. “I know. They look so good, but I'm busy having baby cuddles.”
With a smile, I picked up a few fries. “Ketchup?” She nodded, and once I had dipped them, I held out the food for her to eat, which she took gratefully.
Yes, I had only offered to feed her to help her, but I couldn't deny the fact that it was scratching some primal alpha itch. Feeding my omega while she sat with a baby in her arms; there was something so caring about it, and I wanted to do it more.
Too bad we didn’t have a baby of our own yet.
“This is for you, Sunny,” Gil said as he handed me a gift bag. “I wish I could take credit for it, but I’m not even sure what’s in the bag. My astounding wife did it all.”
My omega chuckled, and I reached out, grabbing the bag for her, as she had her hands full with Samuel. “In that case, thank her for me! Is she stopping by today?”
Gil shook his head. “She wanted to, but they were short-staffed at the call center, so she picked up a shift. She’s a 911 dispatcher.”
“I’m so sorry, I wish I could have met her. You’ve said so many lovely things about her.”
“She’ll be at the firehouse meal next month, if all goes well. The life of emergency service providers doesn’t pair well with a lot of planning.” He chuckled.
Wasn’t that the truth? Yet, somehow, as I looked around our large yard with all our friends laughing, eating, and playing on the slide, it seemed like my life was pretty fucking perfect.
Sunny nodded. “I’ve had to reassess all my cooking skills to foods that suit slow cookers, because half the time when I cook, you guys get called away!”
“And yet, I’m looking at going up a size in turnouts because you keep feeding me so well!” Gil patted his belly. “And those cookies are criminally good. I’ll mourn the day you move in here and out of the fire station.”
“I’ll still bring cookies, or send the guys to work with them,” she assured him. “Actually, if you go look in the kitchen, there’s another batch of the oat cookies you like.”
Gil’s face lit up. “You are an angel!” he said, before quickly turning and hurrying back into the house.
I sat down in the deck chair next to hers, unable to keep the smile off my face. “You’re so good to them, you know?”
Sunny shrugged, but a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “Considering all of Sixteen keeps my guys safe when they’re out on calls, the least I can do is make them some treats.”
My guys .
We were hers.
Fuck. I was in deep.
Our bonding had been a total accident, and I knew I had great affection for Sunny, but with overwhelming force, it dawned on me.
I was in love with her.
Part of me wanted to grab her, pull her into my lap, and tell her just how obsessed with her I was, but it wasn’t the time or place.
She had a baby in her arms that wasn’t hers, and we had way too many guests.
Why had I thought it was a good idea to invite a bunch of people to our new place? Because of them, I couldn’t drag Sunny up to her new nest and spend the next three hours knot deep in her, letting her know just how much I loved her.
“Shall I open the gift?” I asked Sunny as she rocked the baby.
She nodded. “Sure, I’m curious!”
I tugged the bag open and lifted the item out, both of us bursting into laughter at the s’mores scented candle.
“I seriously need to meet Gil’s wife.” Sunny chuckled, before looking around and tapping me on the arm. “Rune is about to slide with Luka! Can you video it on your phone?” she asked sweetly. She was still on baby duty, otherwise I had no doubt she would be over there, taking them herself.
“Of course,” I said, standing up and kissing her forehead before heading over to the Slip ’N Slide.
“Walker! Going to slide?” Rune asked as he sat down at the top, Luka in his lap.
“Soon. For now, I’ve been sent as the cameraman,” I said, pulling out my phone.
Rune nodded, waited a moment until he was certain I was filming, then pushed forward.
Luka loved it. The entire time, he had his hands in the air and was giggling manically. I took video and pictures for Sunny as I watched.
Our son was so bright and full of joy. He was seriously a perfect kid—we had gotten so lucky.
Once I had plenty of footage, I made my way back to Sunny, who was happily watching Samuel as he napped in her arms.
“I think Luka is going to hold Rune captive there for a long time,” I said as I grabbed one of her favorite sodas from the cooler and cracked it open, handing it to her.
“Thank you.” She took the soda with one hand. “He looks like he’s having fun, doesn’t he? I like it when he gets to spend time with Charlotte. He doesn't really get to do much with kids his own age.”
“Have you thought about putting him in daycare, just so he gets some time with children his own age?”
Sunny nodded. “Unfortunately, it's expensive. When I wasn't bonded, I received aid that meant I could let him go for an hour or two a week. But now…”
I cocked an eyebrow. What she wasn't saying was that now she was officially bonded, the income of the entire pack would be taken into account when deciding how much funding Luka was entitled to. Sunny had probably avoided bringing it up because she didn't want to spend our money.
“You know we get so many hours of daycare a week free because we are first responders? It's an initiative the city made a few years ago to help encourage first responders to get back to work after having a baby.”
Sunny’s eyebrows rose. “Really?”
I nodded. “There's a really nice daycare not far from here. I think it's only like a five-minute drive or a fifteen-minute walk? We could look into sending Luka there a day or two a week so you can have a bit of time to yourself to study and rest, and he could have some fun with kids his own age.”
She bit her lip, thinking for a moment. “That does sound like a good idea…”
“We’ll look into it tomorrow. For now, we’ve got… well, I don’t know what we’ve got.” I laughed, looking around at all the friends and family milling about. The rest of our pack and most of Kennedy’s was surrounding the slip Slip ’N Slide, and a few of the firefighters had even joined them. Gil and several of the older guys were surrounding the grill, debating on how to cook meat. Apparently, there was a lot of detail that went into that.
“Chaos and family, that’s what we have.” Sunny sighed wistfully.
I couldn’t help but smile at her perfect description.
“Chaos and family,” I agreed.
As the sun was starting to set, Kennedy gratefully took her son back off Sunny, thanking her profusely.
My sweet omega insisted it was her pleasure.
It was my pleasure watching her hold the little one as well.
“Okay!” Sunny declared, standing up and stretching. “Are we going to slide?” she asked, looking at me, hands on her hips.
I grinned at her. “You want to slide?”
She cocked her head to the side. “It would be a shame to miss out. I can feel Rune’s glee through the bond.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “What are you wearing under that dress?”
She smirked. “A bikini.”
“In that case!” I jumped to my feet, scooping her up into my arms, her beautiful giggles spurring me on as I ran as fast as I could to the splash zone.
Sadly, she didn’t take her dress off, but she got plenty wet as I dragged us both down the slide while our pack mates cheered. Sunny almost strangled me with how tight she was holding on to my neck, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
The cool late afternoon air whipped by us as we slid, the soap and running hose making us glide down the slide shockingly fast.
It was only a few seconds, but it was an amazing rush.
“Holy fuck, that was fun!” she shouted as we got to the bottom, looking around and grinning at Rune, who was standing to the side, dripping wet himself, with a soggy but very happy toddler in his arms. Luka couldn’t stop giggling, waving his fists around or touching Rune’s facial hair.
“Again?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow.
Sunny beamed at me. Her dress was soaked, and the ends of her hair were dripping. She was a beautiful mess.
My beautiful mess.
She nodded enthusiastically.