Page 135 of Down Knot Out
“Still in the golf cart.” Putting his cap back on, he turns and heads for the door. “I’ll grab it.”
Quinn tugs on Chloe’s hand. “You have to see the pictures. I drew the fish with all its scales. Grady helped me count them.”
“All thousand of them,” Grady mutters, but his exasperation can’t hide his fondness.
Holden steps forward with a dish towel. “Weshould get you cleaned up first, Quinn. You’ve got half the ocean in your hair.”
She touches her tangled curls, finding the strand of seaweed. “Oh! I forgot about that. We were collecting specimens.”
“Specimens?” I raise an eyebrow at Kyle as he returns with a small pink backpack.
The Beta shrugs. “She found a starfish. And some interesting rocks. And what might have been a crab, but it escaped.”
“It was definitely a crab.” Quinn accepts the backpack and unzips it with urgent fingers. “I named him Frederick.”
“Frederick the Escapist Crab,” Dominic muses. “Sounds like a mystery for Detective Stardust to solve.”
“Exactly!” Quinn spreads a damp notebook on the kitchen counter. “See? This is Frederick.” She points to a scribbled shape with an excessive number of legs. “And this is the salmon. Grady says we’re going to eat him for dinner.”
“After he’sss cleaned and filleted,” Grady clarifies. “I refuse to eat anything that’s s-s-staring at me.”
Kyle bumps his shoulder. “We’ll turn you into a true fisherman yet.”
The kitchen fills with voices as Quinn recountsevery detail of their fishing expedition, with random help from Grady and Kyle. We hear everything from how the bait was slimy in her fingers, to how the fish fought on the line, and how Sprinkles tried to bite the salmon’s tail when they finally landed it.
I lean against the counter, watching Chloe tuck a curl behind Quinn’s ear as the child speaks. She listens with her whole body, nodding and gasping in all the right places, her attention never wavering despite the rambling narrative.
Blake sidles up beside me, arms crossed over his chest. “She’s good with her.”
“She is,” I agree.
Blake slides an arm over my shoulders, his beard tickling my neck as he leans in close. “Think she’s carrying one of our pups now?”
My stomach swoops, and only Blake’s arm keeps me upright as I turn to stare at my bondmate.
He arches one eyebrow. “Yeah?”
Fuck.
I turn back to stare at Chloe. In all the urgency to bond, none of us discussed the other very real possibility that comes with spending a Heat with our Omega.
I imagine her swollen with our pup, and longing jolts through me so hard that the rest of ourbondmates’ heads turn toward me. Even Chloe flicks a look my way before tuning back into Quinn.
Blake squeezes my shoulders. “One day at a time.”
I swallow hard. “Yeah.”
He rests his weight against me. “Today’s a good one.”
“It is.”
Tomorrow may bring challenges. But today, there is joy and a house full of the people who matter most.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Blake
The water taxi idles at the dock, engine humming, its hull bumping the pilings. Kyle stays seated behind the wheel, waiting for my signal. Just in case.
