Page 9 of Thanking Her Brother's Best Friends

With that, he turned around, whispering a low tune under his breath. I watched him walk away, the twinge between my legs growing and stretching into my belly.

I tried to shake off the feeling of being unbalanced and made my way to the car. True to my prediction, Chloe immediately bombarded me with questions about Aiden, Niall, and Dominic.

"Chlo, you gotta stop badgering me," I finally groaned. "I don't know what they want. They're fucking gorgeous, but Aiden... those boys are bad."

Luckily for me, Oliver was sound asleep.

"So, why can't you have somethin' good with bad boys? What are you, a grandma?"

"Do you know how wrong this could go?"

"All I know is all of them looked like they could eat you up."

2

SELENE

Two Days Later

"Oliver!"

I steppedinto my son's bedroom and sat down beside his bed. His cheeks were still flushed with sleep. He opened his eyes and gave me the softest smile. "Hey, Mom."

Our cat, Lady, was sleeping next to him. She stretched as he opened his eyes and gave me a most injured expression, as if I'd done a great injustice by waking the two of them up.

This smile reminded me of how he used to look at me after waking up from contact naps when he was a baby.

Science told me that a babe needed eight weeks to focus on the faces of their parents. But my heart told me my son had known my soul right from the moment of his conception.

I tousled his hair. "You've got to get ready for school, baby."

He let out a little breath and sat up on the bed before stretching like a cat. "I wish we could go on a very long holiday."

"Like, a month long?"

"A year," he replied with a little giggle. "I would make you take me to France."

"What do you know about France, Ollie?" I asked, wondering when he'd begun learning about other countries.

"I know they have the kind of food you like best."

This made me laugh. "It sure does. But that's not the only country with great food, love. Anywhere you go, when you get older, you'll find that each new home has a little tradition surrounding food. Sometimes, you may not even agree with it. But always remember to respect it because for most of us, food is one of the biggest love languages we have."

On occasion, I wondered whether my words made any sense to him at all. But he looked at me with those bright baby-blue eyes that he hadn't grown out of, and it was as if he held a world of understanding in them.

I loved him so much, my little Oliver. He had no idea how many times he'd saved my life by just existing.

"Come on," I said, kissing his forehead. "Get ready and come downstairs. I'll get your breakfast ready."

After going downstairs and getting Lady her food, I checked on Susan to know whether she'd be home by the time I brought Oliver back from school. I needed to finish breakfast, drop Ollie off at school, and then go to my shop.

Today was experimental day, which meant I got to go crazy trying out different pastry combinations until I found one that would just stick.

"What's for breakfast?" Ollie asked, pottering into the room.

My son could be a little fussy around food. Ben told me time and again that I was spoiling him. But I loved whipping up treats for him, and no one was going to stop me from making all of his little whims come true.

"Blueberry pancakes with syrup, but can you eat a banana for me first?"

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