Page 58 of What A Croc
“You said we were going to play a game!”
Blinking my eyes open, the mound of clothes I had dumped on the bed fresh from the dryer stared at me. “We did promise him, but I really need to fold these.”
Jackson turned me in his arms, his palms resting on my ass cheeks. He gave my lips a quick, hard kiss. “Cock blocked by my five-year-old and laundry.” Laughing, I let him pull me from the room. “The laundry can wait.”
“But–”
“Robert, you just agreed to move in with us,” he gave me a grin over his shoulder, tugging me into the living room. “Let’s celebrate with a rousing game of Sorry or Trouble, or whatever he wants to play. I’ll help you fold the clothes later.”
Now we were pulling up next to my cabin, navigating around the many cars filling the yard space, Jackson’s trunk full of empty boxes. Aiden practically vibrated from the back seat, as we came to a stop.
“There’s Patrick and Rory,” he exclaimed, quickly getting his seatbelt off. “I don’t see Charlie. And who is that bigger boy?”
Looking out the windshield at the yard full of adults and children running around, I scanned until I found who he was asking about. “That is Matty. He’s their cousin. And Charlie is over there, look.” I pointed to the large, brightly colored blow up castle in the corner of the yard. “Her papa is helping her go on the slide.”
“Can I go?” His voice was pure excitement and energy.
Jackson opened his door, waving his arm in a flourish. “Be off with you. Mind your manners!” He called after him as an afterthought.
Popping the trunk, he filled his arms with empty boxes and placed them up on my porch, while I busied myself getting the gift bags out of the back seat.
Today was Julianna’s second birthday party, and it looked like all of Wyatt and Becks’ friends had come out for it. Jackson came back over, and I instructed him to make sure to grab Aiden’s overnight bag. Wyatt had asked him if he would like to stay over tonight. He knew we were going to be packing up some of my belongings and moving them, and it was also a good chance for Aiden and Julianna to spend more time together, as well as Aiden getting to know Wyatt and Becks better.
Aiden had been hesitant at first, especially since Julianna was still “a baby” as far as he was concerned. Wyatt had told him he could invite Charlie to spend the night too, and now they were all having a sleepover. Personally, I thought Wyatt was nuts having a sleepover with three kidsall five and under, after hosting a birthday party, but what did I know? Just thinking about it exhausted me, but that might also just be pregnant me talking. Exhaustion was my perpetual state lately. Whoever said you had a trimester where you had a ton of energy was a fucking liar.
It would give Jackson and me a chance to pack and move things without Aiden under foot, and we’d have a kid free night. We weren’t stupid enough to turn that down, even if we ended up being too tired to do much more than sleeping. Though I was really hoping that wouldn’t be the case, because I felt like all I did lately was fall asleep on Jackson. Or, like when he had asked me to officially move in, anything we started always got interrupted. Which was likely a problem most parents with small children faced, and we’d better get used to it.
Jackson grabbed Aiden’s backpack in one hand, then wrestled the gift bags from me.
Rolling my eyes at him, I huffed, “They aren’t heavy.”
Crooking his arm, since his hands were full, I linked my arm around his, pleased by his chivalry. “It’s not about them being heavy.”
We made our way to a table already filled with gifts, then surveyed the yard full of people.
“Wow,” Jackson said quietly, “I knew there were four of them, but seeing them all together is something.”
I looked over to where he was staring, seeing Brendan Sinclair standing at the end of the inflatable slide, flankedby his three identical brothers. The wolf shifters were tall, broad, and imposing.
“You know Brendan and Finn,” I said, squinting against the sun. “The one all in black is Jamie, and the other one is Lachlan. He’s married to the owner of The Sweet Spot.”
Jackson nodded, “Quinn, right? He’s waited on me a couple of times.”
“Yeah. Rory and Patrick are theirs.” I pointed over to a group of omegas, sipping drinks, and watching as the kids ran around. “Quinn’s over there with Wyatt and Ryan. The smaller one with the teal in his hair is Wade, Finn’s husband. They have three kids, Logan, Remy, and Sammi, who you’ve probably heard Aiden mention.”
Jackson nodded. “I have, I just didn’t realize they were our doctors’ kids.”
“And the alpha with them is Gabe Carmichael. His husband, Asher, is a pediatrician in town. I’m not sure where he is.”
“I’ve actually met Asher a few times through Brendan,” Jackson commented, before Brendan called his name, waving him over to where the alphas were keeping an eye on the little ones playing on the castle. It also had a bounce house, besides the slide, and I could see several children inside it, jumping up and down.
“Go,” I urged him, “I’m going to waddle over to say hi to Wyatt.”
Jackson bent and kissed me softly. “You don’t waddle.”
When I snorted, he winked at me. “It’s a sexy waddle.”
Rolling my eyes at him again, but laughing, I made my way over to the group of omegas and the one lone alpha that was part of their little group.
