Page 69 of Sold Rejected Mate
I lower my voice, taking her hands in mine so we stand together, alone, in the center of the nursery. “I boughtusa house. If you want it. If you’ll have me.”
“Of course I will,” she says, lifting up on her tiptoes to kiss me. She doesn’t ask me not to leave again, and I don’t promise her that I won’t. Because we already know. The way we know that this thing between us is settled.
When she pulls away, she says, “Are there really chickens?”
I can’t stop the grin that spreads over my face. “Do you want to see them?”
***
Two hours later, the house is full of laughter and the smell of barbecue from the backyard.
“Still can’t believe you’ve never grilled before,” Xeran says, glancing over at me with the tongs in his hands.
“Silver spoon and all that,” Felix says. “Maybe if you get him a silver spatula—”
“Then I can shove it right up your ass,” I mutter, which makes Xeran laugh, which makes Phina ask what’s so funny. Before I know it, the girls are howling with laughter.
“It’ll be the most action he’s gotten in months,” Soren quips.
Felix punches him in the arm, then pouts. “I told you that in confidence, man.”
“As if we can’t all tell,” Valerie laughs as I bring her plate to her—free from meat since it still makes her nauseous.
While we eat, Phina and Valerie talk about their babies, who’ll be born just months apart. Built-in best friends. They talk about play dates and the first day of school, even though Phina isn’t even close to her due date yet.
“Where’s Nora?” I ask when Xeran takes a seat next to me.
“Summer camp,” he grouses, to which Phina responds, “She may be your best friend, Xer, but you are not hers.”
Xeran raises his arm, points to the friendship bracelets there, and lowers it briskly, like he doesn’t really want anyone to get a good look at them. I read one and see it says “bst dad eva.”
“Don’t worry,” Xeran says, his voice low as he cuts into his steak, his eyes flicking up to mine. “Yours will be making them in no time.”
“Yeah,” I say, realizing as I glance around the yard at all the people I love that I really mean it when I say, “I sure hope so.”
Epilogue - Valerie
“Fuckingdrive!” I almost scream, hand flying up to grip the handle of Lachlan’s sports car as we take the curve hard and go hurtling toward the hospital.
I have to make it there on time. And based on when the contractions started, there’s not much of that left before the baby is here.
“You okay, baby?” Lachlan asks, reaching over the center console and linking our fingers together.
I’m not okay, not really—I’m sweating and anxious, and it doesn’t help that he’s making me sit on a plastic seat cover.
“What?” he asked when I caught him installing them. “I’ve just heard stories about certain fluids staining car seats, so I thought I’d be proactive…”
That led to a pregnant-cry session in which I claimed he loved those damn cars more than me, which he solved with ice cream, take-out, and three hours of me with his credit card, ordering even more stuff for the baby.
“Fine,” I say. “I just want to get there already.”
We screech into the hospital parking lot just as Felix pulls up, hopping off his bike and joining us as we walk inside. Instantly, a nurse appears, her eyes locked on me.
“No, no,” I say, waving a hand first to her, then to my belly. “Not for me—we’re here to see my friend.”
“The luna?” she breathes.
When we nod, she checks the list for our names, then brings us up to the private wing, where she shows us into the waiting room. Soren and Kalen are already waiting.
