Page 81 of Catching the Mistletoe

“And actually, your earrings are amazing, too.”

“You really think so? I made them myself.”

“No way! That is so clever!”

She laughed, her shoulders losing their stiffness. “That means a lot. Coming from you.”

“That’s a really nice thing to say.”

“We all watch the show, you know. You guys are doing so great.” Hastily covering her mouth, she continued, “Don’t worry. I know we aren’t allowed to talk about the specifics, but we were fucking stoked when we heard you were coming here. Oh, shit. Sorry for the bad language. Shit—”

Laughing, I reached over to rub her arm. “Don’t fucking worry about it.”

Odette blew out a breath of relief and gave me a rueful smile. “I’m gonna grab a coffee. Do you want a top up?”

“No thanks. I’m good.”

Of course, the moment she was gone, my eyes tracked back to Mack. He was crouching down, talking to a little boy that was probably no more than three years old. That piqued my interest, since this was a youth shelter, so I wasn’t expecting to see little kids here. Hovering right nearby was a young girl, around sixteen, at a guess, smiling fondly at the toddler, while holding a whinging baby in her arms.

The kid was adorable, his brown eyes lively, his grin cheeky, his hair a riot of curls. He started doing a cute little dance, hopping from foot to foot, and I saw the mom’s face change. She leaned down, saying something hastily to Mack, who quickly got to his feet. It took her less than two seconds to shove the baby into Mack’s arms, scoop up the little boy, and rush from the room.

Poor Mack, standing there with the fractious baby and an alarmed look on his face. Clearly, he wasn’t a baby kinda dude, which was hilarious and understandable. Taking pity, I got up and crossed the room, plastering a reassuring smile on my face.

“Hey, sweetheart,” I cooed, rubbing the baby’s back gently.

“Uh, hey.”

“Everything okay?”

“The kid needed to pee. Apparently, he’s potty training, and she had about five seconds to get him to the bathroom before he wet himself.”

“Sounds dramatic.”

“I don’t suppose you want to...”

“Take the baby from you? No thanks. I don’t know the first thing about babies. And besides, you’re doing awesome.”

Sure, that was a tiny white lie, since he was kind of gently jiggling the baby and awkwardly patting her, but a bit of encouragement could go a long way. She started grizzling a bit more and his eyes widened in panic. I took a hasty step back and glanced around for a baby bag. “I’ll see if I can find her binky.”

“Binky? What the fuck is a binky?”

Right next to where the mom had been sitting was a bright pink carrier bag. “Bingo!” I dug out a pacifier from the side pocket and held it up triumphantly.

“Oh, thank fuck.” Mack popped it into the baby’s mouth and she immediately calmed, her eyelids drooping, her little fists uncurling. “What should I do now?”

“More of the same, I would say. She looks like she’s about to nod off.”

Now that the baby was quieter, Mack was less stressed, so he stopped jiggling her and switched to soft, rhythmic pats on her back. She let out a shuddering sigh and dropped her little head to his shoulder, her eyes fluttering closed.

“Look at you. Mr. Baby Whisperer.”

“Funny.”

My tone was light, but holy fuck, this was the cutest goddamn thing I’d ever seen. My ovaries imploded. Literally. Like pop! Right there. I glanced around, because surely everyone heard that? My heart clenched and my belly swooped, and I could almost hear the whispers of a child’s laughter echoing in my ears. Mack was cradling the baby, his expression a mix of awkward and tender.

His strong, capable hands, his powerful frame, his soft, comforting murmurs, and the way his hazel eyes flickered over the baby’s features had tears pricking the backs of my eyes. Holy shit. I couldn’t help imagining him with our baby, his voice a low, husky murmur, his eyes crinkling at the corners. Okay, I was officially losing my mind. This was wild, insane, and so far out of line I was in the next county.Not cool, Arabella. I felt like I’d been sideswiped by a Mack truck, haha. Not really funny though, is it? It was just that I’d never looked into the future enough to imagine myself with kids and now here I was, seeing them in my mind’s eye in HD resolution. And with Mack, no less. Madness. Utter insanity.

I was just about to back away when the mom rushed back, her son balanced on her hip, a grateful smile on her face. Mack carefully passed the baby over to her and she snuggled into her mother, her eyelashes sweeping her chubby cheeks.

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