Page 96 of Happily Ever After… Again and Again

“Okay, but where do I start?” Nix mutters, pulling out a purple pen. Wasn’t purple the color of inspiration? It should be.

“Start what, baby-papa?” Luca whispers as he slips into the room, moving with exaggerated stealth.

Classic Luca-avoiding-angry-Gideon behavior.

“I’m writing a letter to the girls,” Nix says, twirling the pen in his fingers as if it might magically summon the right words.

Luca flops onto the edge of the window seat, flipping through the pages of Nix’s notebook. He grins at the sketches scattered across the margins: Tsuki and Rowan-wolf poised on the diving board (didn’t happen, but Nixreallywishes it had), and stick-figure Gideon perched on the counter, broom in hand, while stick-figure Jamie chases a spider across the floor with a jar (thatdidhappen, and it was every bit as hilarious as his rudimentary drawing suggests).

“This is awesome! But you said a letter?” Luca runs a finger over the row of gel pens, a small, secret smile tugging at his lips.

“Yeah. Where do I start?” Nix asks again, the weight of the moment pressing softly against his chest.

“With love, silly. Everything begins with love.” Luca holds out his hand for the pen. “Can I?”

Nix feels that familiar prickle behind his eyes as he hands them over.

Luca flips to a blank page, the purple pen poised. “Our little stars, you are so loved. You are safe,” he writes, his flowy script framed by two eighth notes on either side.

He doesn’t stop there. Reaching for a turquoise pen, Luca focuses completely, ready to add more to the letter. “See? Just like that. If you add–”

“Luca Wilde!” Gideon shouts, and his heavy steps sound on the stairs and down the hall.

Eyes wide, Luca actually climbs to his feet on the window seat, his hand darting to push the window open wider as if he’d rather fling himself out the window than face whatever had Gideon stomping down the hall.

“Baby, you can’t go out that way! What did you do?” Nix hisses, wide-eyed.

Luca doesn’t answer. Instead, he jumps from the window seat with all the grace of a panicked squirrel and flings himself into the girls’ crib. He grabs the stack of blankets from the changing table and pulls them over himself in a heap.

Only his face is hidden.

“Eek! The monster!” he whispers dramatically from under the mound of blankets.

Nix giggles. “I just folded those.”

Gideon appears at the door, brows drawn down, but a small smirk tilting his lips. He rests one bare arm on the door jam.Sexy fucker.“Hello, sweet Kitten. Have you seen my wayward Luca?”

Nix has and stillcansee his mate, as his bare butt is visible from every point in the room. Maybe from other rooms, even.

“Uh…if I say no, will I also be in trouble?” Nix asks casually, doodling a swirling vortex on the corner of the “letter.” It matches the swirling heat low in his belly.

Gideon raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms. “Well, since Rowan and Grayson are on call tonight, I’ll let you decide how to answer that.”

Boy, does Nix like to be in trouble. The month before the babies were born and the six weeks after had been some of the longest of his life. “Then no. I have not seen him. Ever. No recollection. Nope. Sorry. ” He crosses his heart (on the wrong side) and then zips his lips, dropping the pantomime key into thefront of his shorts.

Gideon grins and then nods at the notebook, ignoring Luca still lying in Mari’s crib. “What are you working on?”

Nix remembers the letter he’d been working on and offers it to Gideon. “I’m trying to write something for the girls.”

Gideon steps forward, plucking the pen from Nix’s hand with that effortless confidence he always seemed to carry. Without a word, he flips to the page Luca had written on and adds something beneath the flowy script. Then, with deliberate care, he closes the notebook and sets it aside.

He leans in close, his breath warm against Nix’s ear, and whispers, “You will be naked in the living room on the bench at 9:00 PM. Yes?”

Nix nods, slipping his hand into Gideon’s hair and pulling him close for a kiss. It’s a slow, deliberate promise. When he finally pulls back, he captures Gideon’s lower lip gently between his teeth, letting it drag before releasing it.

Then he smiles his biggest, brightest grin and nods,adding a bratty, “Fuck you.”

Gideon barks out a laugh, pinching Nix’s thigh before spinning around to catch Luca peeking out through the crib railings, baby blankets still draped over his head.