Chapter 4
Chapter
Four
Lachlan was starting to despair a little bit when it came to Kieran.
If Lars came over with Kaden or Logan and his mate came over with the twins, Kieran would dutifully trot Micah out and let them play. But otherwise he kept to his little apartment still.
Oh, he would play cards with Lachlan, and he would eat with him if asked to come down and do so, but he still just seemed so lost.
So Lachlan finally decided to take matters into his own hands.
He started clearing out one of the guest rooms near Kieran’s little apartment in order to make a craft room.
The place just had boxes of old crap stored in them that he hadn’t even looked at since he moved.
In fact, Lachlan wasn’t sure he would even say the boxes were full of his stuff.
The house had sort of provided what he needed when he moved there, morphing itself to suit him as Guardian houses did, but it could be that the boxes were left over from a previous owner.
Regardless, he decided to start by removing everything in the room and pulling out the carpet to put in hardwood floors. If they were sealed well, he could put a rug down or not, as the case may be, and Kiran could do anything to them and they would be fine.
Then he got a hold of Jake who was the ruby guardian of their wing and asked him to come measure the space for shelves.
Jake did woodwork for the wing, and it was absolutely amazing stuff, so his fellow guardian was, unquestioningly, the person to do it.
When he showed up, Lach was stunned to see Jake had both Grant and Gwynny with him.
“Sorry, Lach, but Sammy’s pregnant again.”
His eyes went wide. “Again?”
“Again, so I’ll take care of the babies. He’s going sit around, barf, and threaten to kill me. It will be a great day.”
“Wow, that’s kind of amazing, my friend.” Not too long ago, if he remembered correctly, Samuel and Jake had been talking about how they were going to wait for a while before they had another baby if they had another baby at all.
Looked like maybe that hadn’t gone the way Samuel expected it to.
“I’m glad I could provide some life expectancy for you, then,” He went on as he chuckled. “Do you need me to get Alban to come watch the kids?”
“Sure, but they would also love to see Micah, I bet.”
“Let me go get Kieran then. I’m certain he would love for Micah to have a play date.” And Lachlan would take any opportunity to see Kieran.
“Okay, take me up on the way and I will have a look at this room.”
“Absolutely. Grant, would you like to come with me? He held out his arms and while Grant wasn’t nearly as little as he used to be, he was still perfectly sized to be carried.
“Uh-huh. I can play with the babies, right?”
“You may, yes.”
They all trooped upstairs to Kieran’s wing of the house, and he showed Jake where the room was. Gwynny burbled at Jake, and he bounced her on his hip while he listened to Lachlan talk about what he wanted done.
“I was thinking of floor-to-ceiling shelves along that back wall that has no windows so that he can put supplies there. He’ll want a comfy chair so he can sit and knit, but also he’ll need a work station with a chair that goes with that too.”
“I like where you’re at with this.” Jake grinned at him. “I’ll keep Grant here with me to begin with, and you talk to Kieran, and then we’ll see if he’s okay with the kids seeing Micah.”
“Aww.” Grant climbed down when Lachlan released him though, letting him down on the floor.
“I’ll be right back, never fear.” He knew Kieran wouldn’t turn down children. He might say no if it was just the adults, but he was all about having Micah experience things.
Lachlan strode over to Kieran’s apartment door and knocked gently, waiting for him to answer. It wasn’t Micah’s nap time, so he didn’t think it was going to be a difficult proposition.
Kieran opened the door, his eyebrows up. “Lachlan, is something wrong?”
“No, actually nothing is wrong. Jake is here with Grant and Gwynny, and he and I have some work to do. So I was wondering if maybe you would like to help Alban watch the babies? That way they can play with Micah.”
Kieran blinked at him a little bit. “There’s no reason to bother Alban. They can come stay here in my rooms while you work with Jake, and then you can come back for them.”
“Wonderful. I’ll go tell Jake, and he can bring the kids over here while we do some work.”
“Of course let me just get Micah and set up a blanket in the middle of the floor.”
Lachlan beamed at Kieran because he was always glad to see his sweet omega engage in something. While he wished that Kieran would take the kids down to the kitchen and sit with Alban, this was fine.
It was still drawing Kieran out of his shell a little bit, and anytime he could do that it was amazing.
Lachlan went back and grabbed Grant again, hauling him along to the door of Kieran’s apartment. Jake followed with Gwynny and they all chit chatted for a few minutes while Kieran got the kids set up with some toys.
“Thanks for doing this,” Jake said. “Grant always looks forward to coming over here, and I know Gwynny and Micah are close enough in age to be happy together. Grant, you be good and help with your sister please.”
“Okay, Daddy.” Grant sat down on the floor with a puzzle while the two toddlers played with stuffed toys and enrichment items.
They left Kieran smiling at them, and Jake nudged him with an elbow as they got out of ear shot. “He looks better. He looks happier.”
“Do you really think so? Sometimes it’s hard for me to tell, and I worry that he’s not adjusting well.”
“No, man, you can totally see it. He’s doing great. Trust me. I know exactly how hard it is for someone who is ill-used to come out of their shell.”
“Yes, I suppose you probably do.” Lachlan gave Jake a smile.
“I also know this, but I’m impatient to make it so he feels better.
I know that’s not on me but I want it to be.
” His feelings for Kiran weren’t very complicated.
He was an alpha, and he felt as if Kieran was his omega.
He had a lot of rage about the fact that somebody had hurt Kieran — not to mention a great deal of guilt — but Kieran kept telling him that he needed to let that go.
Sadly, that was easier said than done.
He led Jake back to the bedroom he had designated as Kieran’s craft room and they pulled out tape measures, a legal pad, and a pencil so they could make notes on how they wanted things to take shape.
“What kind of color scheme do you think Jake?” Lachlan wasn’t much of a decorator.
He thought it was evidenced by the fact that his house was sort of a Disney-fied castle, complete with ball pit, a huge room for kids to skate in their socks, and this amazing great room that all the Guardians and their families could congregate in.
Nothing matched, and it was the most perfect place imaginable.
On the other hand, if Jake had a good idea about what color to use, he wouldn’t have to think about what color went with what or what pillow went on the couch.
“You want something neutral enough that if he does color matching, it won’t affect it.” Jake looked at the walls as they stood at the moment. “I don’t think mushroom is the way to go though.”
Lachlan wrinkled his nose. “I don’t ever think mushroom is the way to go. I don’t mind neutrals but this is kind of awful.”
“Yeah, I agree.” Jake scribbled notes. “Maybe a really light sage green or a light slaty kind of blue. With the right lighting that wouldn’t cause too much trouble and there is some nice natural light that could be let into here, too, if the curtains were open.”
Lachlan looked at Jake with an admiring grin. “Look at you being all decorate-y.”
“I know right? Honestly, Lars is probably the one you should get in here to do that kind of thing, but I’m pretty decent with the paint.”
Lachlan shook his head. “Once we get past that stage, I’d really like Kieran to pick his own soft furnishings and things.”
“Of course. I think this room is going to be amazing, and it shouldn’t take too long to make the shelves. I’ll bring the lumber here and build them right in instead of building and bringing them here.”
“Sounds perfect.”
It felt good to be doing something proactive. To be making a place where Kieran would have to go outside of his rooms to go into his other room.
One day that might lead to voluntarily coming downstairs or even going outside. Their courtyard was beautiful.
Lachlan just needed to make it all worked so that he could know that Kieran was becoming more comfortable in their space.