“It's so beautiful,” Shawn said. “The architecture is exquisite. So detailed. And the landscaping!”
“And what about that fence that a certain someone built?” I nudged him and pointed to the fence I'd put up near the elder's apartments.
He laughed and nodded. “All the fences are beautiful, too.”
When I pulled in to Jaxon's driveway I noticed Gavin's car was parked there too. As we approached, I saw Jaxon and Gavin slinking out of the front door and tip-toeing across the porch.
“Bryce and the baby are finally asleep,” Jaxon explained quietly as we met them in the yard.
“Lori's been keeping you up at night?” Shawn asked, and I beamed at him, proud he'd remembered the baby's name. LuLu sat patiently at Shawn's feet, glancing around at her surroundings.
“Oh yep, Lori sure is a howler,” Jaxon said with a laugh. He then extended a hand to Shawn. “Nice to see you, man.”
“You too,” Shawn shook Jaxon's hand firmly.
“This is Shawn, he was our nurse.” Jaxon introduced Shawn to Gavin. “And now he's uh…”
Jaxon winked at me and I raised my eyebrows. “Here to see the homestead,” I said, finishing his sentence for him while placing a supportive hand on Shawn's shoulders. He looked at me and gave me an appreciative smile. “And this is LuLu.”
“Nice to meet you both,” Gavin said, shaking Shawn's hand and then bending down to rub LuLu's head.
“Gavin is Cole's uncle,” I said to give Shawn some context.
“Oh yeah, the boys are around back,” Jaxon said and motioned for us to follow him.
As Jax led the way, I reached out and took Shawn's hand. He shot me a shy smile and squeezed my hand. His long fingers were cold so I tugged the sleeve of my jacket down to cover our hands, then looked up as I heard him gasp. LuLu's ears pricked up and we both looked at Shawn to find his eyes were locked on the woods that grew right into Jaxon's backyard.
“Wow. It's so beautiful!” he said as we stepped into the yard.
“Yep, we sure like it here.” Gavin smiled as he shut the gate behind us.
“I had no idea there was anywhere this nice in Timberwood Cove,” Shawn exclaimed.
Jaxon laughed and slapped Shawn on the back before turning toward the woods and letting out a high-pitched whistle. In less than a second, two rambunctious young wolves spilled out through the brush and tumbled across the yard toward us. Shawn tensed beside me, and LuLu stood to attention. I squeezed his hand. I heard him take a deep breath and felt him start to relax, but LuLu backed up and hid behind his legs.
Cole and Liam shifted back into their human forms but kept running full-speed at us, scarves and coats blowing back behind them as they sprinted. Cole threw himself against me and wrapped his arms around me, almost tackling me to the ground with his momentum. I let go of Shawn's hand to catch Cole.
“Miss me, kiddo?” I asked as I laughed and wrapped my son into a big hug.
“No way,” Cole scrunched up his nose and then gave me a beaming smile. “Okay, maybe a little bit.”
“Good sleepover?” I asked.
“Liam and I just found a gross dead thing in the woods,” he said, pointing to the woods.
“It was disgusting,” Liam said, but the huge smiles on both their faces said they’d loved every second of it.
“I hope you left it well alone,” Jaxon said, draping an arm over Liam's shoulder.
“Yeah, but it was so rotten, you should have smelled it!” Cole pinched his nose, and then bent down to say hello to LuLu who was shyly peering at him from behind Shawn's leg.
“Boys, this is probably not something Shawn wants to hear about first thing in the morning,” Gavin warned.
“Oh, it's fine,” Shawn said, waving off his concern. “I'm a nurse, I can stomach anything.” We laughed and Shawn smiled, but then let out another sigh as he looked up at the back of Jaxon's house. “I know I keep saying this, but everywhere in the homestead is just so beautiful.”
“It's beautiful land up here, and we pride ourselves on our architecture and workmanship,” Jaxon said. “We use techniques that have been passed down through our pack for centuries. I'm sure Linc can tell you more about that… It's a shame we can't share more of our land and our culture, but for our safety, people have to be a member of the pack to live here.”
“Well, sign me up,” Shawn responded.
I glanced at Jaxon and found he was already regarding me. We shared a look, and I knew then I’d been given permission to do exactly that.
8
Shawn
After meeting some more pack members at Jaxon’s house, Linc took Cole, LuLu, and me back to his place for lunch. The Country Club was stunning. All the houses seemed to have intricate woodwork and lush gardens. LuLu was right at home, playing with the kids and bounding around in the thick grass. Linc’s house was no exception, a sizeable timber home that was so cozy inside, it felt like something from a cabin inspiration magazine.
While Linc rummaged around in the fridge for burger ingredients, Cole grabbed my hand and pulled me upstairs to his room to show me his telescope.
“Here’s the finder, here’s the focuser, here’s the eyepiece. You can’t really tell how they all work right now because the sun’s out,” Cole explained confidently.
“Looks like a sweet unit.” I said, impressed that a kid at his age was into space to that extent.
“Yeah, it’s pretty good. Sometimes I draw the craters that I find on the moon. Wanna see?” he asked excitedly.
“Definitely.” I sat down on his bed and admired the workmanship of the bed frame. The headboard was decorated with wolves and intricate patterns that looked kind of tribal. I wondered if Linc had made it.
Cole pulled a sketchbook out of his desk and flipped it open in my lap.
“Wow, these are really detailed, Cole.” I could tell he was proud of them, but I was being honest with my assessment. “Did you use a mechanical pencil?”
“Yeah, I always use a fine point for more accurate drawings,” he said proudly.
“Guys!” Linc yelled up the stairs. “It’s grill time!”
“Coming Dad!” Cole shouted in reply, hurting my eardrum. He turned to me. “My dad makes the best burgers.”
“I can’t wait to try them,” I said as we went downstairs.
“Well, I hope you like yours charred. That’s the only way he makes them.”
“Fine by me, as long as the onions are burnt too. I love burnt onions.”
“Me too! But you know what’s the best? Onion rings.”
“That’s true. Does your dad make onion rings?”
“No, not yet anyway,” Cole replied wistfully. “We can dream…”
Cole was right, Linc’s burgers were good, although blacker than I usually had mine. We hung out in the backyard, drinking iced tea and playing with LuLu until the sun started to dip low and it became too cold to stay out. When we started packing up supplies for our stargazing field trip, Linc brought out a tent to his car.
“What’s…that for?” I asked, a little weary about a sudden camping trip I hadn’t agreed on, my mind flicking quickly to bears eating me alive in the woods.
“That’s for when Cole gets tuckered out. I thought we could have a mini sleepover on the beach since he tends to get tired early. I’m bringing a few blankets too.”
My heart swelled at Linc’s attentive style of fatherhood. He was assertive, but not just to get his own way. He also pre-empted the needs of his dependents… Nothing like other alphas I’d known, and definitely nothing like Phillip.
Once we got the car packed up we stopped by my place where Cole excitedly wanted to help me get all the parts of my telescope packed into its case. He unfastened and re-fastened the Velcro straps more than a few times and did up each zipper with zeal. He wanted to carry it out to the car too, but not only was it too heavy for him, I didn’t want to entrust him with such delicate equipment. It had cost me a pretty penny, so I was firm with my refusal
, but he understood, which I thought was mature of him.
At my favorite spot on the beach, we set up the little pop-up tent, spread out blankets on the sand, and got to work setting up the equipment. When everything was done, Linc poured us hot chocolates from a thermos. I held mine close to my chest, smiling at him as he as he looked through my telescope. LuLu ran back and forth on the sand for a while, chasing sea gulls, then toddled her way over to the tent.
“What am I looking at here?” Linc asked.
“Hm, let’s see,” I said, nudging him out of the way and looking through the viewfinder.
“It just looked kind of black,” he said.
“Uh…” I held back a laugh and glanced at him. “You’re looking at the lens cap.”
He groaned and held his face in his hands in embarrassment. “I told you I needed help with this!” he said before he burst out laughing.
“I didn’t know you needed this much help!” I chuckled and moved to take off the cap.
“I’m finished, Shawn!” Cole called out, and I turned to find him smiling proudly, sitting beside his telescope.
“Make sure you’ve got the lens cap off,” Linc said.
Cole rolled his eyes and held up the cap. “Duh.”
“Let’s have a look at what’s in the sky!” I said, scooting closer to Cole. Linc followed, sitting close to me and leaning over to be part of the conversation.
“How do we do this?” he asked. “Tell me the basics.”
“First, you look at the sky without a telescope. It gives you your bearings, and you see what’s up there, and decide what you want to get a closer look at.”
“I see the Orion!” Cole said, pointing out the three medium-bright stars in a straight row.
“Good job, Cole,” Linc said, praising his son.
“Well spotted,” I agreed. “Have you ever seen the nebula above the club of Orion?”
Cole shook his head so I helped him to position his telescope, and then sat back to let him look at the nebula. I felt Linc moving closer to me and I leaned into him, enjoying his warmth and his smell.
“Wow,” Cole said.
“You’re good with kids,” Linc whispered. I felt a surge of pride, followed by a sharp stabbing in my heart. I was good with kids. I deserved one of my own. Still, the compliment seemed genuine, and I turned to thank him with a small kiss.
“Shawn… Can I look at it through your telescope?” Cole asked in a little voice.
“Of course,” I said, and we all scooted over. Linc moved to the other side of Cole and wrapped his arm around his son as I explained how to use the scope and find Orion with the prerecorded settings.
When I’d finished and Cole was off and running with the technology, I realized I hadn’t seen LuLu in a while. I went over to the tent to check on her. She had burrowed her way into the blanket that Linc put in there and she was fast asleep. I guessed it had been a big day for all of us. Her head and front paws were sticking out of the blanket, but the rest of her was wrapped up. Her little paws were twitching in the midst of her doggy dream, and I clutched my chest watching her. She just looked so sweet and innocent.
I turned back to the star-spotting set-up and watched Cole showing Linc something through the eyepiece. Linc protectively rested his hand on Cole’s back. The wind ruffled their jackets slightly, and as I approached, they both turned to look at me with bright eyes.
“We found Saturn!” Cole exclaimed.
“That’s awesome,” I said. “Will you show me?”
Linc moved out of the way so I could bend down to the eyepiece, and then he moved his hand from Cole’s back to mine. My back instantly felt warm and tingly where his hand rested on it. I suddenly remembered the way he’d rested his hand on my face and wiped my tears away this morning. I inwardly smiled, shooting him a quick smile before squinting through the eyepiece.
Cole yawned loudly behind me.
“You tired, bud?” Linc asked him.
“Yeah…”
“LuLu is in the tent if you want to cuddle her,” I offered.
Cole nodded, and then scampered off, leaving Linc and me alone.
“Let’s get our own blanket,” Linc suggested, reaching into the duffel bag he brought from the truck. I helped him lay it across us as the wind whipped it back and forth, then lay down into his inviting arms. The sea air was cold and salty in my lungs, and Linc’s shoulder was warm and cozy under my head.
“Thanks for coming out here with us,” Linc said, his deep voice sounding breathy and husky near my ear.
“It’s my pleasure.” Everything I’d done with Linc so far had been wonderful, but also a little unreal. I was amazed how it was both at the same time—extremely unlikely and dramatic, but intimate and natural too. Knowing he felt the same way helped me relax.
“There are so many stars out tonight, even without the telescope, it’s so beautiful,” I said.
“Makes you think about life in a different way, doesn’t it?” he replied, looking up at the sky.
“In what way?”
“How beautiful and amazing the future can be now I’ve found you.” He turned to kiss me, his touch making me want to stay there, curled up in his arms, safe and warm.
“Tell me all about how beautiful this future could be.”
“Well, we could move in together when we’re ready. Cole already likes you a lot. We can be a family. If we want more kids, we can look into adopting. I just want to grow together and build a perfect life. How about you?”
“That sounds…too good to be true. This is all happening so fast…” It was hard to prevent my emotions from overflowing. I felt elated to be with Linc but also sad thinking about how terribly Phillip treated me, how I had almost given up on love before I met Linc. I took a breath and steadied myself. “I’ve always wanted that domestic life with a wonderful alpha, kids, and LuLu being pampered like she deserves. Things like cooking together as a family, and pillow fights and—” Just then a falling star flashed across the sky right in front of my eyes. “Did you see that?”
“Yeah!” Linc sat upright. “Wow… Time to make a wish, Shawn.”
I closed my eyes and wished for what I really wanted more than anything. The wish was the same, the one I had buried after learning it was impossible, but still yearned for all the same: I wish to have a child of my own. Saying it, even silently, reminded me it might be a waste of a wish. And I wish Linc will never leave me, I added quickly, just in case.
I opened my eyes to see Linc gazing at me with a small smile. He leaned in and gave me a kiss so tender it made me forget all about the shooting star. I kissed him back softly, and wrapped my arms around him underneath the blanket, running my hands over the girth of his arms. He gently nipped at my lower lip, and I sighed in pleasure before resting my head back on Linc’s shoulder.
A flicker of movement on the beach caught my eye. I turned to look, squinting into the darkness, and saw there was something wiggling on the sand in the distance, about halfway between where we were and the breaking waves.
“Psst,” I said quietly, to get Linc’s attention.
“What is it?” he whispered back. I pointed in the direction where I saw the movement. Linc stood, and then helped me up, and hand in hand we crept closer to whatever it was. After just a few steps, I felt Linc squeeze my hand. He indicated a spot slightly to the left of the first wiggle I had seen.
“Another one.”
“What are they, though?” I asked.
“Dunno, let’s get closer,” Linc said with the excited smile of a little boy.
When we were about six feet away from where the first wiggle had come from, I heard Linc gasp. “Look! There’s hundreds of them!” He waved his hand at the expanse of sand in between us and the water.
A bright moonbeam shone off a shiny, flat appendage flapping off the side of one of the little creatures. Its back looked rounded, but it was generally shaped like a disk. I suddenly realized what we were looking at. Apparently so did Linc becaus
e we turned to each other at the same time. “Baby sea turtles?”
We both stared in amazement. The turtles were moving lightning fast for how small they were, determinedly flapping their flippers against the sand and creating rippled tracks behind them. In no time, the first one that I spotted had reached the water, pushing bravely ahead into the frothing waves, which, although small, must have seemed huge when seen through his little turtle eyes. A wave broke over him and he seemed to swim peacefully off.
“This is incredible,” Linc said. “I’ve never known turtles to hatch at this time of the year or this far north. Their mother must have got lost. It’s actually a miracle. “I have to go get Cole so he can see this.”
I nodded. “But make sure LuLu stays in the tent. I don’t want her to disturb the babies on their journey.”
“Good thinking,” Linc said, and squeezed my hand again before he rushed back to the tent. I folded my arms in front of me and lowered my chin into the neck of my jacket to protect myself from the cold, but other than that I was rendered motionless, spellbound by the incredible synchronized migration of the turtles.
“I couldn’t wake him. He and LuLu are dead to the world,” I heard Linc say as he walked up behind me. He took a step closer to me and wrapped his arms around me from behind, resting his chin on top of my head.
“I guess it’s just for us to see then,” I said, feeling special that Linc and I got to share the sight with each other. Realizing it was the middle of the night by then, I told Linc, “Let me know when you want to go back to the tent.”
“Are you kidding? I don’t want to miss a second of this.” Pressing my back closer to him, I felt another rush of warmth as I relished in the comfort of his body against mine.
However, no matter how wonderful this moment with Linc was, I couldn’t help but worry about how long it could last.
9
Surprised Daddy Page 9