Page 120 of Home: Posy 5

"You guys are so adorable!" She smiled happily and clapped her hands. "Okay, now I'm going to take you four around to look at the art. Wyatt, you mingle with the other guests. Oh, and make sure you thank Leo. He bought your painting of Poppy's fox. Now go out there and shine, my fifth star!"

Goddess, I love this girl.

"Your word is our law, cutie."

I kissed her cheek and stepped back, and she looped one hand through Cole's elbow and the other through Mase's before steering them where she wanted them to go, Jay trailing behind them like a lost puppy.

Narrowing his eyes, Ash stared at me for a second, then scoffed and tried to give me a noogie. I dodged quickly, growling in outrage at the threat to my fluff.

"Ash?" Posy's sweet voice called. "Are you coming?"

"At least once tonight, I'm sure," he called back.

I snickered, knowing without looking that our girl's face had turned bright red. Then Ash smirked down at me, and I raised an eyebrow.

"I'll get you later, little brother. I owe you two for flinching."

"That wasdodging, not flinching, you dumb waffle."

"Same same,laststar," he retorted, then hustled off.

Left on my own, I took a few deep breaths before I had to 'go out there and shine,' but my peaceful moment was interrupted when this crazy little blonde woman popped up beside me and stared at me with tears running down her face.

"Aw, come on, Mom!" I groaned, wiping her cheeks with my fingers. "Don't cry!"

"My baby boy," she sobbed. "I wish your father could have seen this. He would have been so, so proud of you."

She and I didn't talk too much about my dad. Not because we didn't love him, but because we had loved himtoo much. Time hadn't done shit to ease that sharp stab in my heart every time I thought of him, but it had taught me how to manage the pain enough to go on with life.

"Well, we all know I got my talent from him." I handed her the cloth hanky Posy insisted we all carry in our pockets. "Youcan't draw a straight line with a ruler."

"True enough." Taking the hanky, she blotted her face and blew her nose before she shook her head. "But I meant he'd be proud of you for opening yourself up like this."

"I never would have done it if Posy hadn't encouraged me," I admitted. "She all but dared me to, and you know I can't resist a challenge."

"I do, indeed. If you didn't have Granite, you'd have the scars to prove it."

Looking at her round face with its familiar lines and blue eyes that were exactly like mine, I felt the time had come to tell her something that had been on my heart lately.

"Mom, I want to apologize to you. I know I hurt you so much by being resentful toward you and Nathan those first couple of years after you became chosen mates. I'm sorry I took my feelings out on you guys. But I get it now. I understand."

"You never needed to apologize, baby boy, but what do you understand?" She tilted her head as her eyebrows drew together.

"I understand that after Dad—"Dammit! Why is it still so hard to say?"After the sickness, there was a huge, gaping hole inside your chest, and you had to fill it withsomethingbefore you shriveled up and died, too, and Nathan was that something for you."

I took both her hands in mine and made a disgusted face at the snotty hanky wadded up between our palms, but still leaned down to kiss her forehead.

"Art wasmysomething, and it gradually became something more than a coping mechanism. Something I could love and enjoy and find purpose and meaning in. It took Posy coming into my life for me to realize it was the same for you and Nathan. I'm glad he's there for you, Mom. I'm glad you became each other's something more. Dad would have wanted all of us tolive, not just survive."

Great. Now she was crying again.

Preggie Mom cry lots. Granite rolled his eyes.Always has with every pup.

Dad, come save me from Mom, I linked him.I don't know how you stand her when she's pregnant.

You'll learn how to stand it yourself one day,he chuckled.And once that little pup is in your arms, you know it was all worthwhile in the end.

That day is far in the future,I assured him, damned determined that there were not going to be any pups until Posy was one-hundred percent ready for them.

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