Page 56 of Knight Life In Vegas

When I tried to help, they pushed a cup of coffee into my hand and sent me to sit down on the couch. It was almost comical to see the three of them in my minuscule kitchen. I barely had room for me in there when the kids wanted to be part of things, but somehow they managed to navigate it with some semblance of grace. Maybe they had some secret pack telepathy.

As strange as the morning was, having alphas continue to take care of me, my children being oddly calm, and a meal taken together, it felt like it had happened a thousand times before. The kids scarfed down their breakfast, absolutely delighted by their scoop of ice cream on top of the waffles, and I sat tucked between Eduardo and Francisco, who wore matching grins, Dylan sitting at my feet between the boys as I ate my own food.

I couldn’t quite bring myself to look at Eduardo. The memory of his body driving into mine was too fresh, and the taste of Francisco was still on my tongue. Sitting between all of them made my body ridiculously happy, every symptom I had been suffering long gone. But my mind was as confused as ever.

The kids were so happy. These alphas showing up to help didn’t mean they were keen to take on parenting full-time, and it would be naïve of me to assume that. Too much was still far too unknown for me to give in.

“What’s on the agenda for today?” Dylan asked, tipping his head upside down to look at me.

“The boys have a day program they attend at the school and I’m back on the job hunt for something with flexible enough hours that I don’t have to hire childcare.”

“Come work with us.”

Francisco kicked him lightly. “Don’t pressure her.”

The statement activated Ollie. “You could work with horses, Mommy? Does that mean we can pet them more?”

“It would mean that,” said Eduardo, “but you have to let your mommy make her own decisions. You can come see the horses anytime you want with or without her working at the arena.”

Sammy nodded sagely. “I think you should do it, Mommy.”

“Oh? Why is that?”

“The horses make you smile. You’ve been so sad, and I don’t like when you’re sad.”

Oh god. Knife to the heart.

I’d been hoping I’d kept all that under wraps enough they wouldn’t have noticed, but apparently I wasn’t as stealthy as I’d intended.

“You don’t have to worry about me being sad, honey.”

“But I do,” Sammy insisted.

I swallowed my nerves and turned to Francisco. “What would I do if I worked with you?”

“Depends what you want to do. I can’t offer you too much in the way of hours. The business is…well, it’s been better.”

“Don’t feel obligated to hire me. If you can’t manage it, that’s no problem.”

“No, we can do it,” Francisco insisted.

“We know you know how to ride,” said Dylan. “Do you know how to train them?”

“I haven’t done it for a while, but I have in the past.”

“Give us your horse résumé,” said Dylan. “I’m so curious.”

Pride puffed me up. “I was a national equestrian champion three years running before I quit. Almost went to the Olympics.”

“Almost? What happened?” Eduardo asked.

My pride drained away, replaced instantly with shame. “I quit when we moved to New York City. My ex-husband was trying to climb the corporate ladder and said I wasn’t around enough to support him, that he would never impress the higher-ups if his own wife was too busy mucking out stalls to attend work events.”

Tension radiated from the alphas.

Unwilling to face it right this moment, I ushered my children up from their empty plates to wipe their mouths.

“I have to drive them to the school. Don’t feel like you have to leave.”

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