Page 58 of His Innocent Omega
He sat the car seat down, making sure the blanket covered Julianna from the cold. “I need you to prepare yourself for what we are about to walk into.” His voice was ominous, and I stopped my hand mid-knock.
“Mary’s mates are Quinn’s parents, Maeve and Allan Rafferty. This was like a huge scandal last year in the family, and I don’t think any of them are fully recovered from the trauma. It’s been like a year and a half now since they found out. It was last year, July, because it was the quads birthday,” he nodded his head doing the math, “so yeah, a year and a half. Just…don’t mention it. Act normal.”
“Okay,” I rolled my eyes at him, “that was dramatic. Should I start calling you Wade?”
“Smart ass,” he grinned back, “It’s going to be loud in here. There’s a ton of people, kids, babies, and personalities. I think this is going to be a completely different type of holiday than you’re probably used to. So if you get overwhelmed, or uncomfortable, just use your safe word.”
“You want me to safe word at a family Thanksgiving dinner?” I questioned slowly, frowning at him.
“Just if you need to,” he nodded, looking serious. “You can safe word anytime.”
“You’re ridiculous,” I rolled my eyes, shaking my head at him “How would that go exactly? Pass the rolls, and by the way, Star Wars?”
He picked up Julianna, and turned the doorknob without knocking, ushering me into a warm foyer, “Red works too.”
Shutting the door on the cold, he shouted, “We’re here!”
There was noise and light everywhere, and I wasn’t sure where to look. To our right was a huge great room, with a fire burningwarmly in a gated fireplace. Above the fireplace was a huge screen TV, playingFrozenloudly, so it could be heard over all the kids that filled the room. There were several Pack ‘N Plays set up, and I recognized Ryan and Brendan’s daughter, Charlie, dancing toLet It Goin front of the TV. Quinn and Lachlan’s little boy, Patrick, was spinning in a circle next to her. Ryan was stretched out on the floor, his legs crossed up in the air, coloring with Patrick’s twin sister, Rory, next to him. Brendan was on the couch with two other children I couldn’t make out from the tops of their heads. He waved a hand in the air at us in greeting.
Grayson grabbed my hand and pulled me into a half bath off to the left, shutting the door tightly. “Did it escape your notice that you left our daughter out there in the middle of the floor?”
He waved a dismissive hand, “She’s fine. Chances are Gigi will have nabbed her by the time we come out, and will have her the rest of the day. I need to tell you something so you don’t embarrass Ryan.”
“Why would I embarrass Ryan?”
I happened to like Ryan a lot. Miss Rose was correct; he was pretty much my right hand at the daycare. He was bright, funny, and super sweet. On top of that, he was amazing with the kids. He’d admitted that Miss Rose had offered for him to buy the daycare before she had ever listed it, but he had no desire to be a business owner, at least not at this point in his life. He was still in college, had a new husband and a toddler and he wanted that to be his main focus. And he liked the kid part of the job way better than all the paperwork.
“He and Brendan are into kink, and the family knows, so they feel comfortable being free to just be themselves when they're here.”
Frowning at him, I was confused. “I have no ideawhat you are talking about.”
“Just in case you hear Ryan call Brendan Daddy, or he seems a bit younger than normal, don’t make a big deal about it.”
My mind spun for a minute, and then I whispered, “Ryan’s a little?”
It made perfect sense to me. The way he was always so good with the kids, how he sometimes acted younger than he was–even though he was even younger than me–and his coloring on the floor just now.
“Bingo.”
I shrugged, “I won’t act surprised, or even like I heard anything out of the norm. What people do in their own time is not my business. I’m not one to judge anyone’s kinks. I like to be held down and told what to do.” When his dark eyes heated, I shoved my hand into his chest, “But only in bed.”
He laughed, “Oh, I’m aware. I’m working on it.”
A light knock on the door had us both jumping.
“Becks, everything all right?” A warm, feminine voice called.
Grayson opened the door, bending down to hug the small woman. She returned the hug with one of her own. “We’re fine, Mary, just giving Wyatt the rundown of things.”
He moved out of the doorway so I could pass, and sure enough, Julianna was missing from her car seat.
“Oh, Gigi has her, don’t worry,” The woman, who I assumed was Mary Sinclair told me with a smile, “between Miss Rose and Gigi, that baby probably won’t be put down all day. Hello, Wyatt, it’s so nice to finally meet the man that brought Becks to his knees.”
Grayson laughed heartily, and I shook my head, but the look he gave me was full of tenderness. “That he did, Mary, that he did.”
She was a petite woman, who couldn’t be more than five feet tall, and I had a hard time imagining that she had given birth to the four hulking alpha wolf shifters I had met. And all at one time. She had graying blonde hair, warm brown eyes, and warmth radiated from her. I held my hand out to her, and she laughed, brushing it aside.
Reaching up, she grasped my face in between her two hands and stared into my eyes. “We hug in this house, no exceptions.”
