Page 40

Cullen

W e were all reeling after our conversation with Bethany.

I was all in. She wanted to be a pack, and I craved that as well. I wanted to be able to show her off, to scream from the rooftops that such an amazing omega had chosen me.

I was an idiot in love.

Though I was sure my absolutely amazing daughter had something to do with it as well, I liked to pretend that Bethany fell madly in love with me first.

I’d been obsessed with her from the day I met her.

Now that bonding was on the table, there was a weird electricity in the house. We didn’t know when it was going to happen, but it was going to happen. I was sure Jensen would be looking into the health and well-being side of things, but that OB-GYN appointment couldn’t come soon enough.

After our conversation, I’d wanted nothing more than to pull Bethany into my arms and snuggle with her for the night, but she had gone straight back up to the nest to watch over Joey. Though I’d pouted, I couldn’t help but love her all the more for her dedication to Joey.

When Joey had woken up for some dinner, she had been herself, if not a little subdued. It was clear she was exhausted, and we didn’t want to push.

It didn’t feel right to send Joey to school until we had cleared up what her classmate had said to her.

So we decided to play hooky.

Obviously, I cleared it with Gideon first, but in the morning, I grabbed Joey and drove over to the restaurant. She was excited to be doing something other than schoolwork for once.

“Let’s go raid the chocolate pantry before Sally sees us!” I laughed as Joey scampered toward the back.

The staff member in question was in the doorway before I could even blink.

“You really think you guys can keep anything from me?” she asked, her eyes full of laughter.

She had a soft spot for Joey. All the staff members did.

I had been bringing Joey to the restaurant since the day we started working on it, when half the walls needed tearing down and the kitchen consisted of nothing but a sink and a few broken tiles.

“It’s been a rough few days. We need some daddy-daughter time,” I admitted quietly. “A kid at her school told her that Bethany was going to have a baby and we would forget all about Joey.”

Sally’s jaw dropped in surprise. “Was it the child or the mother? That’s not something a seven-year-old would come up with.”

I hummed in agreement. “Don’t know how the truth got out, but for today, Joey and I are going to have a little one-on-one time and bake some monster cookies.”

Sally’s head jerked away from watching the pantry Joey was raiding on the other side of the kitchen. “Wait, so the nanny is pregnant?”

“She’s not the nanny, not anymore.” I smiled. “And, yes, she is. She’s also going to join our pack at some point soon.”

“Well, fuck! Congratulations.” Sally patted my arm, beaming at me.

“I wouldn’t be too happy.” I smirked at her. “I’m going to have to step back from being a workaholic when the baby gets here. So I’m officially making you manager. Your workload just got a lot more intense.”

Sally’s grin widened. “Well, it’s about time you made my position official! Thank you. Now, I think your cute firstborn wants attention.” She pointed toward the pantry, where Joey was standing with several boxes stacked in her arms, beaming over the edge.

“I found so much chocolate, Daddy!” she shouted.

“Well, then, let’s get baking!” I declared, running my hands together as I crossed the kitchen to her.

An hour later, we were up to our elbows in cookie dough. Joey had wanted to add so many ingredients that I wasn’t sure cookies would bake, but the dough was delicious. We’d probably eaten half of it while mixing.

I had made sure I had preheated the flour and used pasteurized eggs, so they were safe to eat. My sweet child was not going to pass up an opportunity to eat cookie dough.

“So…” I said as we added more chocolate chips to the dough. Joey was sitting on the counter next to the cookies, overseeing the additions. “What do you think about Bethany having a baby?”

Joey paused, cocking her to the side as she sprinkled in a few more chocolate chips. “Beth said they would be my brother or sister. Is that right?”

I nodded. “It is. But all the daddies want you to know that, just because we’re having a baby, it doesn’t mean we’ll forget about you. You are our first baby, and nothing is going to change that.”

Joey looked deep in thought for a moment. I didn’t know if she was contemplating the cookie dough or what I had just said.

“Would that make Bethany my mom?” she asked quietly.

I took a deep breath, keeping my face still. That was quite the loaded question. Ideally, we should have been having this conversation with all three of the dads around, but Joey was happy to ask questions right now, and I wasn’t going to ignore them.

Bethany had made it clear she was all in, biting, bonding, and family. Hell, she’d loved Joey before she loved us. If given the chance, I was convinced she would adore being a mother figure to Joey.

“That depends. Do you want Bethany to be your mom?”

“I like her. She’s nice to me, like a mom should be.”

“Well, there’s no rush. You can take things slow, and if it feels right, we can talk about it.”

“I liked having her at school. All my friends thought she was cool. Will she still come to my school things?”

I chuckled lightly, handing Joey a cookie scoop. “I don’t think we could stop her if we tried. She loves you so much.”

“The kids at school laugh because I don’t have a mom. But I have a Bethany. I kinda think that’s better.”

“She’s amazing, isn’t she?”

“Are you guys going to bond? Make a pack? Isn’t that what mommies and daddies usually do?”

“We might. How would you feel about that?”

“I love her. I want her in our pack.” Joey nodded, a smile spreading over her face. “Hey, Daddy? Am I going to have a brother or sister?”

“We don’t know yet.”

“I want a girl. Then there will be three girls in the family, and three boys!”

I couldn’t refute that logic. Even if Bethany had a boy, I had no doubt that these girls would still be running circles around us.

We had been so busy with the logistics, I hadn’t taken time to really think about what this meant.

A new little baby boy or girl in our family.

The sleepless nights, the potty training.

Gideon and Jensen had butted heads constantly in the early days with Joey.

Gideon naturally wanted to stick to a very regimented schedule and looked up everything online and researched, whereas Jensen wanted to use his doctor knowledge and insisted he knew better.

When they’d started bickering around three a.m., I’d simply scooped up baby Joey and snuggled with her in the living room while she had her bottle.

It had been some of my favorite moments with her.

Personally, I would be happy with a whole pack full of babies, boys or girls.