Page 45 of A Bear's Journey

Chapter Thirteen

Olivia

One month later

“Craig,sweetheart, you have to keep stirring or the cheese will burn. Jasper, could you get the rolls from the oven, please, and Olivia get him the bread bowl. Not the old one, the new one, with the blue on it.”

Olivia looked at both Craig and Jasper as her mother bustled back out of the room. Simultaneously, they lifted wine glasses to their lips and drank as Olivia lifted the correct bowl out of a cupboard.

Her mom bustled back in.

“Much better, Craig. Is that melted? Yes. Go ahead and pour it over the pasta and then you can just bring that pot to the table, it’s nice enough. Gary’s bringing the pork chops in from the grill right now so double-time with those rolls, you two.”

She bustled out again.

They looked at each other again, smiles lifting the edges of their eyes.

“Amazingly, it was much worse when I was a teenager,” Olivia said, helping Jasper stack the rolls in the bowl.

“At least you were well-fed,” he said.

Craig lifted his wine glass to his lips again.

* * *

The dinner tablewas piled high with food, just like every week when Jasper and Craig came to dinner. Even though Olivia had been nervous about her parents’ reaction, her mom and dads had taken to Craig and Jasper immediately, welcoming them into their little family with no hesitation at all.

Buck hadn’t been seen off of his ranch in a month. Amazingly, L’Aubergine had been willing not to sue Olivia in exchange for two weeks of dishwashing, which left her soapy and exhausted but grateful.

She still lived at home. Craig and Jasper had kept to their promise to take things slow, so now she was spending a couple nights a week at their place, feeling a little more normal week by week.

Right in the middle of dinner, just as everyone had their mouths full, the phone rang.

Olivia’s mom jumped up so fast her chair overturned and rushed to the wall unit in the kitchen.

“Yes?” she asked, breathlessly.

Everyone stopped.

“We’ll be right there!” she shouted, then hung up.

Everyone stared.

“Cora had her baby! He’s healthy! They’re all healthy!”

Everyone at the table started talking at once, but Olivia’s mom waved her arms until they went silent and stared at her.

“Come on, we’re going to the hospital,” she said, grabbing her purse and walking for the front door. Olivia, her dad, and her papa followed, though Jasper and Craig hung back, looking uncertain.

Then her mom stuck her head back around the corner and looked at them.

“Come on!” she shouted. “You’re family!”

* * *

They werethe second ones to arrive, moments after Julius and Hudson and Quinn. Everyone barely fit into the tiny hospital room. Cora looked tired but radiant.

Hunter and Ash stood to one side of her, both silently staring in awe at the infant in Hunter’s arms.

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