Page 269 of As The Shifter World Turns

“I think we’re late,” I teased as he stood there breathless.

“Yeah… late…”

I loved it when I stole his words like that.

We weren’t that late, but everyone was on the roof when we arrived including Patch the dog.

“I’m going to set this on the table.” I kissed his cheek and walked around him to the food table as he found a seat with the omegas, Charlie toddling right over to him.

The whole Charlie thing was hard. If we kept him too long it felt like it was making things harder for his brother, Toby, but if we didn't keep him enough it felt like it was unfair to Neil, especially when Martin and he were in the worst of it. And then there was the reason he was here with us in the first place—something we could never make right.

No child should lose their parent. None.

“Do you mind watching the grill for a minute?” Micah asked, startling me. “I gotta pee.” He said the last part quietly.

“Absolutely.” I took the tongs from him. “Take your time.”

At least at the grill, I didn’t have to worry about feeling like the odd man out.

I didn’t have to do much except rotating a few hot dogs, the burgers still needing more time. Whoever made them made them huge. They were going to be greasy bites of deliciousness when they were done and I was there for it.

Micah stopped at the cooler and grabbed a couple of beers on his way back, taking a moment to kiss his mate sweetly. It was adorable the way those two loved each other.

“Thanks.” He handed me a beer. “I appreciate it.”

“No big deal. Thanks for the beer.” I took a swig, the cool beverage feeling good down my throat after the smoke from the grill.

Which of course had me thinking about a half an hour earlier when I had something much better shooting down my throat.

“Congrats.” He took a long drink of his own and I tried to piece together what he meant.

“On?” I asked.

“On taking the next step towards becoming a family.”

I had no idea what he meant and did the only thing I could think of. “Thanks.” And then downed my beer, not to get drunk, but to have something to do that would prevent me from saying anything else.

“I best get back to my mate.” I slapped on my best smile. “You need me to take over, let me know.”

“Will do.”

I walked back and sure enough, Daire was still on the topic and Micah hadn’t misinterpreted a thing.

“And I know we have Charlie and we love him and always will. But we love multiples and having a baby of our own…” I didn’t hear the rest of his words, focusing hard on looking like everything was okay.

Daire and I had to have a serious conversation. Having friends he loved andtrusted was great, but some things had to be discussed with your partner in life first. And kids… kids were definitely one of them.

I was to blame too though. I had been feeling a similar longing and what did I do about it? Leave hints. We both needed to work on communication; me expressing my needs and he coming to me first on things that pertained to us.

Gods we were a mess.

123

A WEEKEND ALONE

Daire

Glancing at Nate’s expression told me he wasn’t happy about something. And as he was glowering at me, I was probably the source. As always. Here I’d been looking forward to us having a weekend alone and instead, I’d be making up for whatever I’d done. Maybe I could get on my knees and apologize. One that involved sucking him off. That image had me grinning but Nate didn’t smile in return.

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