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CHAPTER 32

Reagan

“Maybe you should come back inside, kitten.” Tate moved to stand in front of me on the front porch, blocking me from the morning sun I’d been bathing in.

It’d been a week since I’d nearly given myself a heat stroke and the guys were still acting like the sun was poison. I looked up at him and frowned.

“Get out of my sun, please.”

“Your skin just healed. You’ve looked like a lobster shedding its shell for a week.” He braced his hands on the arms of my rocker and leaned down so we were eye to eye. “Don’t make me carry you inside. You do and I’ll consider it a request for a spanking.”

I gasped. “You wouldn’t.”

He just smirked. He would. He would definitely spank me. Matter of fact, he looked eager at the prospect.

I pushed him away and stood up.

“Fine. Fine, fine, fine. I’ll go inside.”

West was in the living room, sitting on the couch with Lucky in his arms. He looked up and frowned when he saw me being shepherded in by Tate.

“Your cheeks are pink. Are you feeling okay?”

I sank down on the couch next to him and reached for Lucky. He scowled at me and grunted before turning his cheek into West’s chest, effectively rejecting me. I couldn’t help the tears that filled my eyes. The guys had been insisting on spending more and more time with Lucky to let me rest and they were bonding so well but I didn’t want to be forgotten.

“Shit. Don’t cry, kitten.” Tate knelt in front of me and shot a dirty look at West. “What’d you do? Bribe the kid with something?”

“He doesn’t love me anymore, does he?” I buried my face in my hands and cried. “I’m going to lose my baby and your stupid brother is still avoiding me.”

Tate sighed. “Lucky would punch each of us in the throat to get to you. You’re his mom, Reagan. You’re not losing him. Ever. On the matter of our stupid brother…”

“Forget I said anything. I’m sorry. I must be getting my period or something.” I wiped my eyes and blew out a shaky breath. “It’s fine. Everything is fine.”

Lucky let out a wild squeal and started kicking his feet wildly while reaching for me.

“Now I’ve emotionally blackmailed my son into coming to me! Oh, god.” I still pulled Lucky into my chest and rocked him.

“I think she got too much sun again…” West saw my expression shift to anger and held up his hands. “Forget I said anything.”

“Where is your stupid brother? What is he doing?” I realized how insane I sounded and took a deep breath. “You know what? Ignore me. I’m just in my feelings today, apparently.”

“What do you need?” Tate braced his hands on my knees. “Need me to set up mommy and me therapy appointments for you and Lucky? Need me to hunt down Mills and shove my foot up his ass? Or bring him here so you can do the honors?”

I let out a small laugh.

“Mommy and me therapy appointments? Really?”

“I’m desperate here, baby.” He looked as desperate as he sounded. “I don’t have a clue what’s happening but I don’t want to see you cry.”

“I think I just need to do something. I’ve been sitting around for a week and I feel like I’m going crazy. I have too much time to think and that’s never been a good thing for me.” I looked out the window at the beautiful summer day and sighed. “After Lucky goes down for his nap, could we maybe just take a little walk?”

West hesitated. “If Mills sees us letting you go for a walk in the sun, he’ll murder us. How about we sit on the porch, in the shade?”

“How about if I perish from never seeing the sun again?”

“Fine.” Tate cut his brother a look and shrugged. “If Mills gets pissy, he can come complain to her. We’ll take you for a short walk, close to the house. We can’t go too far from Lucky anyway.”

I grinned and felt a bolt of arousal at the look Tate gave me. He looked like a stern parent who wanted to lecture me about my attitude but instead he just shook his head and looked away.