“What the fuck are you doing, Jasper?” Ben hissed, casting a look over his shoulder to make sure Evie didn’t hear. He was getting this parenting thing already. “We agreed.”
“Nope, you just told me how it is and I nodded along to keep you sweet. Secrets, brother, our pack is drowning in them. Now, ladies, it has been a pleasure meeting you.”
Jasper swept us an honest to goodness bow, before running off, letting out a whoop as he leapt over the stone wall, then fled across the street.
“What did the little fucker do?” Ben demanded. “What did he say?”
“Nothing,” I replied. “He just gave us a coffee and wanted to talk about Evie.”
Ben eyed the coffee cups with blatant suspicion, exhaling noisily out his nose.
“Dad! It’s time to build the moat,” Evie said, launching herself at him and wrapping herself around his thick thigh.
“You got it,” he said, tossing her up in the air in a way that had her giggling and me sucking in a breath, but as he set her up on his shoulders, he strode back to the castle. “Gotta do what I can to keep my princess safe from the dragons.”
“Oh god…” Sophie said with a snort, then a chuckle.
“What the fuck are you sniggering about, bitch?” I asked, giving her a shove. She just fell down onto the sand, laughing so hard her arms wrapped around her belly and I was forced to wait her out. “Well?”
“You’ve been out here, hanging tough, doing everything yourself,” she said as she sobered up, her smile turning wicked. “But honey, Daddy’s home. All of the daddies are home.”
Well, fuck.
Chapter 20
While the day at the beach had been a success, leaving was not such an awesome experience.
“Evie, ten minutes,” I warned her.
I needed to make a serious effort when it came to transitions. If it was something she felt meh about, we could leave without an issue, but something that engaged her? Her head whipped around and the radiant smile of hers faltered, then her eyes flashed. Her small hand tightened its grip on Ben’s hand.
“We’ve been here for hours and it’s starting to get seriously hot. You’ll get burned to a crisp.”
But that didn’t matter to my daughter right now, and I could see that clearly. Her face settled into a mulish expression. But right when I was about to try and start the exhausting process of reasoning with my child, Ben piped up.
“It’s alright, cub.”
Just a low rumble of words, but they worked magic on Evie and that hurt me. She turned towards him, staring up into his face, searching it, but that rebellious mood seemed to fizzle before it even got started.
“I’m not going anywhere. You can go home with Mum, have a shower and some lunch. Do what Mum asks you to do.”
“But Dad…”
The complaint wasn’t a new thing, but the poignancy there was. Evie’s tone wasn’t a strident one, it pleaded. I took a step forwards, the need to comfort her beating hard and true in my chest, but Ben swooped in and hugged her tight.
“Love you, cub,” he mumbled. “I’ll come and see you tomorrow, if that’s OK with Mum. You have to think of something you’d like to do.”
“Can you come to our house?” she asked excitedly. “Then I can show you my room and my books… You can come and play with my action figures and Mum can make spag bol. It’s the best.”
“Ah… Evie,” I started to say, quietly horrified by the prospect of Ben coming to our place. I never met alphas at my house, ever.
“That’d be awesome,” Ben replied, staring up at me over my daughter’s shoulder, watching me cross my arms in response. “Mum will give me the address and I’ll come by tomorrow around lunchtime.”
“You needto run these ideas past me first!” I hissed at Ben as Evie ran off to collect her stuff.
“If I did, you’d just have said no,” he replied, moving closer.
I stepped back, not wanting the shadow of his body falling over mine, not wanting to smell his scent. I was irritated, dammit, and he couldn’t just shoot me that lopsided smile of his to make it all go away.