Page 108 of Fragile Heart

“You’re fine, sweetie,” I offer, my voice way calmer than I feel. “You can call me that if you want, all right?”

He smiles, his dimple showing, and hugs me, pressing his cheek into my stomach.

“I’m so glad you live with us,” he whispers.

I run my hand through his hair, letting him hug me as long as he needs. After a minute, he pulls away and focuses on his trucks.

“To Jackson!” he says.

I climb into the driver seat and start down Olivia’s street.

Olivia waits until we’re out of town, speeding down the highway, to say anything.

“So the transition is going well?” she asks. She runs a hand down her belly and adjusts in her seat.

“Seems to be,” I offer.

Yesterday had been awkward at first when Camden had woken up to find both his dads gone. The call Caleb promised helped a lot, though. And today has been great. We’d made pancakes and then packed a bag of things for him to do while we sit through whatever nightmare pile of paperwork the Council’s going to potentially hand me today.

“You read the paper this week?” Olivia asks in a different tone.

I glance over at her and frown. “No,” I say carefully. “Should I avoid it?”

She nods. “Definitely. We should probably make sure Caleb doesn’t find a copy of it, either. He was fit to be tied with the article Jessica wrote about you and Ethan after the fireworks. And she was mostly nice about you in that one.”

“I spent four months being called a gold digging whore by Brett’s mistress,” I say after a minute. “Honestly, Jessica’s probably tame compared to that.”

Olivia grimaces. “Yeah, okay. It wasn’t quite that bad.”

“What’s a whore?” Camden asks. “And why does it dig for gold?”

Olivia covers her laugh with a cough. I glance back at Cam. He has that line between his eyes, his gaze focused on the road outside the car. He taps his truck against his leg. I fumble for some way to soft pedal the phrase but don’t manage to come up with anything that isn’t going to open another can of worms.

“I thought you found gold in rivers,” he says when I don’t say anything. “Grandpa Mark read a book to me last week about guys using pans with holes to find gold in water.”

“Gold digging is a mean term,” I say, trying to keep my voice light and calm. “And so is the other word.”

Camden frowns. I focus on the road again.

“Why would someone be mean to you, Mommy Bri? You’re so nice to everyone.”

Camden sounds genuinely worried.

I clear my throat. “There was someone I used to know that didn’t like me. She thought I was the reason her life was… not the way she wanted it to be.”

Camden purses his lips but doesn’t say anything else.

Camden circles me, his truck following a route around my thighs as he does. He mutters a race commentary under his breath. My phone pings with a message, and I dig it out of the bag I’d brought. When I see it’s Olivia, I set the packet of papers on the counter, keeping my hand over the most sensitive information.

Cake in hand. Just looking for some champagne glasses that don’t cost an arm and a leg. Everything good there?

Just waiting for a jerk of an Alpha to admit he didn’t have an appointment so I can get the paperwork turned in.

Ugh. Those ones are the worst. World doesn’t belong to you just because you grow a knot, you know?

I can’t help but smile just a bit.

If we finish before you, we’ll walk down to that bakery at the end of the street. I promised Cam a treat anyway.

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