All he could do was smile and nod. Even being this swollen wasn’t so bad as long as Liam would love on him.
Chapter
Seventeen
Liam set the finished cradle in the room Theo had made into the nursery. A bunch of the pack had come up today from both outposts down below, and Dean and Gage had snowmobiled up to bring gifts, because if they didn’t give Theo a shower now for that baby, he was never going to get one in time.
The midwife seemed to think Theo was going to pop in spring, but there was no way.
Flat out. No question. Not going to happen.
He swore Theo was twice the size he had been at Yule, and now the snows were heavy, it was about to be mid-January, and that baby was going to come out fully formed like Athena out of Zeus’s forehead if Theo wasn’t careful.
Liam snorted, and Ryan, who had helped him move stuff, smiled. “What?”
“Theo. He’s going to blow. I don’t think he’ll wait until spring.”
“No lie.” Ryan laughed with him. “I’ll go get the fam setting things up. You get Liam and Gael out of the pool.”
That was easier said than done.
Theo loved the pool—loved it, but their son—that baby was a little water monster.
Gael splashed, he laughed, he rolled around. He was absolutely joyous every time he saw the pool. They were going to have to fence it off to make sure that Gael didn’t sneak down there in the middle of the night and take a swim.
Theo assured him that puppies were natural swimmers, but Liam just didn’t buy it.
There was something about Gael that brought changelings to mind, despite his ability to howl.
He headed down to the pool after clapping his brother on the back, smiling at how Theo was floating with Gael draped over his belly.
“Baby? We have visitors.”
“Visitors?” Theo patted Gael’s butt. “Do you want to go see the people?”
Gael growled softly.
“I bet there’s snacks.” Theo gave Liam the side eye.He’s so cute when he does that, but I don’t want to encourage it.
No, because when he’s older, it won’t be cute. And I don’t want to have to bite.
Theo nodded, “Fair enough. Come on, buddy, we’re gonna go back to the house. We can swim more later.” Theo didn’t give him a choice, didn’t make any arguments, just took the little boy up to the shore and handed him over. “Here you go; let me dry off. There’s clothes for him up here.”
“Got it.” Liam toweled off the slippery little guy before stuffing him into a diaper and a soft onesie.
Gael jabbered at him, and it sounded relatively happy—actually almost cheery. His son liked to visit with people. He loved snacks.
“I love you, you wiggle worm.” He nuzzled Gael’s cheek with his nose, and that made the baby squeal with laughter, kicking and giving him a huge, wet, gross openmouthed smack on the cheek.
“Da!”
“Theo, did you hear? He said my name. Say it again, say da.” Liam was over the moon.
“Uh-huh.” Theo sounded a little preoccupied.
“Mate, pay attention—this is important. He called me by name, he said Da. Do it again, do it again, son, say Da.”
“Da!”
