He glanced toward the living room and Gillian followed his gaze. Tamsin sat curled up in one of the comfy chairs, her legs tucked under her, reading on her tablet with baby Maisie asleep on a quilt on the floor in front of her. Tamsin also wore earbuds and gently tapped one foot in time to whatever she was listening to.
“Ah,” Gillian silently mouthed.
He nodded. “I told Dewi I’d catch up with her later,” he said in his normal tone. “Trent, Badger, and Duncan are holed up in Badger’s cabin, but if they need me, they know where I am. Besides, I’ll see everyone tonight at the barbecue.”
Gillian winced. “Shoot. I forgot about that.” Around forty people had been invited and already RSVPed, Enforcers and their families, who were either visiting the compound or who lived locally. Peyton had sent out invites the morning before the day he left, only telling her after the fact and claiming he wanted it to happen before Dewi and the rest of the Florida contingent headed home. After all, it made sense for them to have an Enforcer meeting while Dewi was there. The families could socialize while the rest of them talked business.
Now Gillian wondered if Peyton knew he’d be leaving the next day when he sent those invites.
She shivered.
“What’s wrong?” Ken asked.
She didn’t want to give voice to the darker fears trying to claw their way to the surface. “I hate hosting large shindigs when Peyton’s not home,” she said. “It means I have to do twice the schmoozing, and I’m not great at it. Especially right now with everything going on.”
And she felt guilty about that, too.
I’m a sucky wife and Pack Alpha mate.
“We could cancel it,” Ken suggested. “I’m certain everyone would understand, given the circumstances. Dewi can do video chats.”
“No, I can’t do that. I mean, I can do it, but I shouldn’t.” It was tempting to cancel it just to piss off Peyton, but it wasn’t like she didn’t already know everyone who’d be in attendance. Was even related to some of them, too, either by marriage or blood.
And when she thought about cancelling…
Well, it was like there was a mental door there that she couldn’t open.
Like maybe a Prime order not to cancel it. One that she couldn’t remember.
“I can play dirty and pull the mate card and ask Dewi to schmooze more,” Ken teased. “She is the expanded pack Alpha, after all. Plus the Head Enforcer. This is all kind of her jam to start with. She should be the one to run it without Peyton here. Either her or Trent.”
“I might take you up on that,” she said. “Don’t suppose that rat bastard husband of mine’s replied to you yet, has he?”
Ken carefully supported Adair while he fished out his phone with his free hand and quickly scrolled through it. “Nope, sorry. No emails, either. Seriously, I wouldn’t worry. He told me he’d be out of contact for a couple of days.”
Still, Ken’s reassurance didn’t completely silence the insidious anxiety scratching at her mental doors. “If you want to take over Peyton’s office to work, feel free.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah. He’ll be okay with it.” She forced a cheery smile she didn’t feel. “And if he’s not okay with it, then he should’ve been here to say otherwise, right?”
He didn’t look convinced. “Riiiight?”
“I’m kidding. Seriously, it’s fine.” When she started cleaning up the kitchen he tried to get her to take Adair back, but she waved him down. “No, I appreciate everything you’ve been doing. I can clean up after a meal.”
“But you just had a baby.”
“Yeah, and?” When it was obvious he didn’t have a rejoinder, she patted him on the shoulder. “I’ll finish this and then take her and head over to Asia’s for a few hours.” She lowered her voice and tipped her head toward the living room. “I’ll take them with me,” she whispered. “Give you some alone time to work.”
His posture finally relaxed. “Okay. Thanks.”
“Anything new? With the…project?”
“That’s what I’ll find out when I download the latest data dump and go through it.”
Fifteen minutes later, she had the dishwasher filled and running, and what little else was left had been washed and set in a drainer to dry. Ken was amazing about cleaning as he cooked, meaning very little clean-up at the end.
“See? Was that so hard?” she teased as she took Adair back.
