My eyebrows shot up. "That early? Wow. I'm going to have to talk to Pops about instituting a swear jar around here. I’m surprised Vas or Joey haven’t already suggested it. Though they’re sometimes the worst culprits." Speaking of that… I glanced around the room before looking back at Tanner. "After all this is over, do you want to start looking at houses or do you still want to stay here?"
Tanner scooted closer, near enough that our feet could touch as we lay facing each other while leaving enough room so our son didn't get squished. He reached up and brushed his fingers over my cheek. "Is it okay if we stay here? We have our own little bubble here in our room and our private spot on the roof, but there's always family around. If we want to hang out, we just have to go downstairs. That's nice, right? I don't know... I just got to be part of this family and I'm not ready to be apart from them yet."
He looked worried as his eyes searched mine. I leaned carefully over Alexei to kiss my mate. "I understand, and I'm fine with that too. It's not always this crazy, anyway. Joey and Vasily's families have their own homes like Cyrus does. They're just living here because of the shi—ah, mess that's been going down. I think Pops would love having us stay put. He likes you, and we both know he'll love having Alexei close at hand."
"So it's okay?"
"It's more than okay, Facts. It's perfect. Just like you." I kissed him again. "I love you so much, thank you for being the kind of guy who gets help when they find someone locked in a storeroom. Even if you did pass out the first time you scented me."
Tanner giggled. "Only once though. Boris's mate did it twice. I can't wait to get his story. I bet it's a doozy."
"Yeah, I have a feeling things are about to get much more exciting in Boris's tidy life." If I was secretly amused by this, I wasn't going to admit it.
"Right? It's going to be fun watching them." Tanner ran a hand up my arm before resting it on my neck. "I love you too, Ivan. You and your whole crazy family of tough guys with hearts of gold." I lifted a brow, but he just rolled his eyes. "Deny it all you want. Every last one of you Novak men are just big old teddy bears. Fight me on it. I dare you."
"If there wasn't a baby between us, I'd tickle you senseless for that one." I smiled and leaned in for another kiss.
Tanner sighed.
“I hope that wasn’t a commentary on my kissing skills.”
He shook his head. “I just… I wish I knew how to get a hold of my sister. I think she’d like knowing she’s an aunt.”
His wistful tone broke my heart. “I know family is important to you. And I know that all my family doesn’t make up for missing yours…”
Tanner smiled softly. “But it helps.”
I rested my hand on his cheek. I didn’t want to promise anything I couldn’t follow through on, but once this mess with the redheaded bitches was over, I’d do whatever I could to track down Tanner’s sister. "Let's get some sleep, Facts. This little guy is going to wake up screaming before we know it."
Tanner yawned and rubbed his cheek against the pillow. "Is it bad that I'm not even going to bother with undressing or hitting the lights? I'll deal with it when I wake up."
"Nothing is bad if it helps you parent your young. And from what I've seen with my brothers, we'll need to sleep every chance we can." Not to mention that today had been really long and this bed felt way too good.
I thought about handling the lights, then gave a mental shrug. He was right, we could deal with it when we woke up with Alexei. I moved our son up a little so I could rest my hand on Tanner's waist as I let my eyes drift closed.
The rest of the world and all the problems waiting downstairs melted away until it was just us... me, Tanner, and the baby we'd created through our love.
15
Tanner
When I woke, the room was dim, and the bed was empty. I rolled over, and thought it was strange how easy that was. It shouldn’t be easy. In a half-awake panic, I patted my stomach, which was considerably smaller than it had been the last time I’d woken. Baby… born. Baby… gone. Baby… probably with Ivan.
But I should make sure.
I rolled out of bed—it was unnervingly easy—and poked my head out of the bedroom door. Immediately, the distant, warm laughter of the Novak clan filled my ears. I sighed happily. That was what family ought to sound like. Not the tensely barked orders of the past months. Joyful. Relaxed. As if for a second, the craziness of the world had been set aside.
In my excitement, I nearly tripped down the stairs, only to be caught by my mate at the foot. “You know you can’t fly in your human form, right?” Ivan’s eyes twinkled.
I lifted my head and chin high. “Hey, you never know. Maybe birthing a baby has given me magical superpowers. Stranger things have happened.”
“A radioactive spider has a higher likelihood of doing that.” Ivan offered me his arm like a gentleman, and we descended the last two steps together. “Besides, if your goal is to be a superhero, you don’t need a superpower. You’re already one.”
“Aw, you can’t relegate me to Hawkeye status! That’s lame. I did like him in the movies, though.”
In what moments we could sneak away from the craziness, Ivan had been expanding my comic world knowledge, though I already had more than the average person.
We entered the large family room, and I smiled to see Cyrus and Leaf. Leaf had already claimed Alexei, and Skylar stood on Cyrus’s lap and leaned over his big arm trying to see the tiny baby her papa was holding.
“Tanner!” Leaf exclaimed excitedly. “Alexei is the cutest baby in the world. How is that possible? I mean, Skylar was also the cutest baby in the world and I’m really glad we didn’t have babies at the same time so it’s not a competition, but oh! How fun would it be to have babies at the same time? What do you think, River? Should the three of us—Joey, I’m not trying to exclude you!—should we all try to have babies at the same time?”
River winced and flicked his brother’s head. “You’re going to wake the baby, a-a-applehole.” His eyes darted down to the boys surrounding Cyrus and Leaf—their adopted sons. “And that’s crazy talk. Four babies in the family at the same time? As if we don’t have enough insanity around here. And I can’t promise I’m ever going to be pregnant again. It’s not fun, Leaf.”
“Uncle River almost said a bad word,” the middle boy, Morgan, said. His hands flew as he spoke.
The youngest boy, his biological brother, Chucky, made several gestures, and Nate, signing and speaking, replied, “What River almost said was—”
“Nate!” several adult voices shouted at once.
“What?” Nate’s expression was pure innocence. “I didn’t say it.”
“But you signed it,” Leaf said in exasperation. “How many times do we have to go over this? Signing is just another language. If I started swearing in Spanish, it would be just as bad.”
“Yeah, but not everybody understands sign language,” Nate grumbled.