Page 93 of This Wild Heart

“I don’t know why I’m crying,” she said around messy sniffles. “I’m gonna see you at your first preseason game.”

Gently, I patted her back. “That’s what happens when you’re eighteen months pregnant and have to say goodbye to your favorite brother. If Cameron and Ian weren’t such dicks all the time, maybe you’d cry for them too.”

It had the desired result, a slight eye roll that cut through the tears. Jax merely smiled at her, outrageous affection in every single glance in my sister’s direction. “I need to head to work, angel.” He leaned in for a lingering kiss, hand resting on her belly. “I’ll see you at home, all right?”

She nodded, cheeks slightly flushed. I elbowed her after he walked away. “Don’t you have a job to do too?”

“I’m gonna stay and hang out with Mom for a while. You know it’s always hard for her when everyone leaves.” Poppy elbowed me right back, and I rubbed at my side with a grimace.

“Erik is staying with Isla for another night though.”

“Yeah, but he’s in the guesthouse.” Poppy sighed, squinting into the sun as she glanced back at the house. “Did you say goodbye to her yet?”

I shook my head. “Heading in to do that now. She was crying when Anya and Leo went out to the truck, so I wanted to give her a minute.”

“Please. She’s going to be a wreck all morning. A minute won’t do shit.”

With a sigh, I dropped a kiss on the top of my sister’s head. “Fair enough. Might as well get it over with.”

Poppy stayed out in the front, waddling over to the truck to talk to Anya through the passenger window. The house was quiet when I walked in, and Sheila’s back was to me where she stood at the kitchen counter, a yellow ceramic bowl in front of her, and the movement of her body told me mixing something by hand.

I came up behind her, wrapping my arms around her and setting my chin on the top of her head. “What are we making?”

She sighed, leaning back into my hold for a moment. “Some chocolate cupcakes. I was craving something sweet after those brownies that Ivy tried to pass off as dessert last night after dinner.”

My brows knitted together. “I thought they were hockey pucks.”

Mom laughed. “She is trying, but Lord, it is a hardship trying to eat anything that comes out of her kitchen.”

“Need any help?” I dropped my arms, hitching my hip against the counter as I watched her folding the batter together.

Her focus remained entirely on the cupcakes, and I could tell just from her profile that she’d been crying. “Sure, honey. You can grab those liners from the pantry and stick them in the tin.”

Even though Anya and Leo were waiting, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for one more quiet moment with this woman I loved so much. We worked shoulder to shoulder for a few minutes, her scooping the batter into the cups after I’d tapped the ivory paper liners in.

When the tin was full, the decadent whiff of chocolate had me humming appreciatively as she set them in the oven. Sheila finally looked at me with her slightly red-rimmed eyes, handing over the spoon coated in chocolate batter.

Wordlessly, I took it, sliding it in my mouth to clean the remainder off.

She scooped another spoonful off the edges and handed it to me again. “Your father used to think I was nuts for letting you lick the spatula.”

“His greatest error in life,” I said even though my chest hurt from the weight of the memories. “He didn’t like eating uncooked dough or batter.”

Sheila laughed. “If that’s his worst trait, I think he did all right.”

“Indeed,” I answered softly.

She set the bowl in the sink and filled it with hot, soapy water to let it soak, then dried her hands off using the towel slung over her shoulder.

“Training camp tomorrow, right?” she asked.

I nodded. “Hard to believe, but yeah. Guys are gonna give me shit for missing the last few days of training, but Coach said it was all right.”

She snorted. “They fined you for missing workouts, didn’t they?”

I grinned. “Yup.” I nudged her with my shoulder. “Worth every penny.”

“I’m glad you came back home, honey. We needed this, didn’t we?”

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