Page 19 of You Otter Know
Of course, now Bodhi was due in less than a month, and he was going to pop. Bang.
“I was wondering, babe. I know we both work from home, and we haven’t gone out and socialized a whole lot since you’ve been here. I wanted to throw you a baby shower. Is that something you’re even interested in?” River sat pulling Bohdi’s feet into his lap, and then he began gently massaging them. His hands were nice and cool, and it felt so good because it was August and it was freakin’ hot. Of course he was fixing to blow during one of the hottest times of the year.
“I don’t know. I did that registry for your mom.”
“Babe, that’s not the same thing at all.” River moved up to his ankles, not digging in with his thumbs or anything, just gently sliding those fingers over and over, moving the fluid around.
“It’s not?” Bohdi shrugged. “I mean, my family can come. Your family could come. That would be enough people, don’t you think?”
“Is there anyone you work with, even remotely, that you’d want to come? We could have it on Zoom even.” River did love his technology.
Bohdi laughed. “It might be easier to have it on Zoom so I could just lay here on the couch.”
“Yeah, you have gotten pretty big. The midwife seems to think there might be two.”
“I know.” They didn’t have a lot of ways to go get ultrasounds and that kind of stuff when they were shifters. So they relied on shifter midwives who seemed to be half medical professional and half mystic.
“Well, think about it.” River rubbed up along his calves and that sent such exquisite relief from the agony of the swelling through him that he almost passed out.
“Okay. I’ll give it some thought today.” He was just happy that he didn’t feel like he was passing on his non-shifty genes to his kids anymore. He learned how to shift pretty darn well.
As if reading his mind, River grinned at him, rubbing all the way up to his knees. “I know you’ve been so much more relaxed since you started shifting that day spontaneously.”
“I have. I didn’t want you to be stuck with a non-shifty mate, and I worried about our kids. But now, I feel like we can take them swimming and do all sorts of weird stuff with your family. They may be small, like me, but nobody’s going to care.”
As huge as they felt in his belly, it could be that River’s kids we’re going to be giant otter-sized. At which point Bohdi just decided when they came out of his birthline, he was gonna give up all responsibility for them and let River raise them to be feral.
He wouldn’t really do anything like that, but he still kind of felt like he might. This being pregnant thing, once he got as big as he was now, was really tough. He was going to have to time it better next time so that he was huge during the winter.
“Next time?” River raised an eyebrow. They’d gotten pretty good at understanding each other’s thoughts. Not all the time—sometimes they still had a misfire—but it worked really well.
Next time, you don’t think this is going to be the end of it, do you?But he knew better. He and River liked to do the wild thing. While he could see working toward planning out the kids, he loved to be knotted, and he didn’t think he would be able to just be careful all the time.
“I like the idea of next time, but let’s get through this one first.” River scooted up under his thighs and started rubbing his belly a little bit, which always made the baby kick and move around.
“Sounds great, babe.” He was able to relax down onto the pillows he’d put on the couch, going really boneless. If Rivergot underneath his lower back and massaged, he might melt completely.
“Let’s test that theory.” River scooted just a little more, so his hips were bridged up on River’s thigh, and then started rubbing his back.
His eyes crossed and he had to moan because that felt so good it was almost otherworldly.
“That’s it, baby. Just relax and have a little nap. You need to get comfortable, and I’ll put a pillow under your back before I let you down easy, okay?”
“Mm-hmm.” He could barely see any more and he figured his tongue was probably hanging out. That was okay. This was perfect.
As Bohdi drifted off to sleep, he could hear River murmuring about his baby shower, which was sweet as all get out.
He kind of couldn’t wait to see what River came up with.
Chapter
Twelve
River had cake. Two different kinds: yellow with chocolate frosting, and red velvet with cream cheese frosting.
He had balloons and presents and punch and little sandwiches and pastries and dips with crudités.
He’d invited Bohdi’s family to come up for the weekend, and he was providing hotel rooms for all of them. He’d arranged for a couple of Bohdi’s old coworkers to come up — his best friend from his old job, Jane, and one of the guys that had encouraged Bodhi to go to the lodge for Christmas where they met.
