Page 81 of The Ruby Dragon's Unconventional Mate

“Time for the baby shower!” Dakota called.

“Surprise!” That was Samuel.

“Oh, but—” He looked at his books, chewing his lip.

“Baby, come on. I can help you finish that later.”

“We all will!” Logan beamed at him, coming to kiss his forehead. “You and your books.”

“Well, they are the gift that keeps on giving.” He let Dakota tug him over to a chair, and he eased down into it. “You should have warned me,” he told Bryant.

“Mmmhmm. I should have.” Bryant winked. “But I wasn’t sure exactly what day they would choose. Just that it would be this week.”

The front door opened again, with Lachlan and Alban coming in, hands filled with wrapped packages. Then Bea and Mickey and their toddler followed along with Amber and Mari.

“We brought cake and presents to celebrate the new baby! German chocolate for the win.”

Oh, that did sound good.

Lars grinned as his home was suddenly filled with all his family, his friends. His eyes filled with tears, and he blinked them back because he wasn’t sad at all. “You guys…this is amazing.”

“We didn’t want to stress you out by planning something formal, so we thought we’d just do a visit with food and presents!” Lachlan kissed his cheek. “And surprise you. Were you surprised?”

“I still am!”

Everyone settled in—finding chairs and cushions, keeping the little ones more or less corralled between the adults. There was room for everyone, and the din was fascinating. He ended up snuggled in between Samuel and Dakota.

“How are you feeling?” Samuel asked him, bumping shoulders with him, and he had to grin.

“I’m doing great. I don’t mind being pregnant too much. Except for the flying thing. I hate that part, but honestly, it’s really been very good so far.” He was a little lonely. He needed to get out more, he guessed. He just…wasn’t sure.

“We haven’t seen you very much, so we were worried that maybe things were hard.”

Dakota nodded and smiled at him. “You know, anytime that you want to hang out, all you have to do is call.”

Could it be that they all missed him as much as he’d missed them? He wasn’t sure. But he hoped so.

“I do miss you guys. A lot.”

Samuel beamed at him. “Well then, we will keep you busy. We have all sorts of things we could do.”

Dakota nodded. “TV. Games. Pedicures.”

“It all sounds amazing.” And welcome. He’d missed his friends.

“We just got our signals all mixed.” Samuel leaned over and whispered. “And we knew you and your mate needed to adjust to the Keeper situation, but that looks pretty solved.”

He glanced over to where Alban and Arthur were chattering in twinspeak. “I think so, yes.”

“Good deal.” Dakota winked at him. “Then you will be hard-pressed to be rid of us now.”

“Good, I missed you, and besides that, you both know how to be pregnant.”

“Dude, Lars, you’re doing an exceptional job. After all, you don’t hate your life.” Dakota looked up at Logan when he growled and smiled beatifically. “At all.”

“Someone’s in trouble!” Samuel singsonged.

“Are you trying to suggest that maybe you don’t want to get pregnant with another set of twins or thirty?” Lars teased, knowing exactly how his brother-in-law felt.

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