I smiled, picking up one of the dowels. “Indeed, I do.”
“Will you show me? Can we finish it tonight, so I don’t look like a failure in the morning?”
“You’re never a failure as long as you’re trying, but yes, I can show you.”
He melted with relief and drew me between his spread knees so I could show him how all the pieces went together, then let him try himself. I liked him surrendering to my expertise, and he was a willing, if not particularly adept, student.
“You did good,” I praised, rewarding him with another kiss on his cheek, and he puffed up like a peacock over the completed frame of the cradle.
“Never knew three words could hit me like a shot of whiskey,” Parker said with a shaky laugh. “Can you forgive me?”
“I don’t want to hold a grudge against one of the fathers of my child. I think we can work past it, but I’m going to need a few more days of this introspective Parker before I’m ready to let it go.”
He got to his feet and pulled me with him. “Fair enough. You’ve stayed up too late helping me with this, and you need to rest.”
I laid my palm on his chest, feeling the beat of his heart. “Good night.”
He looked like he wanted to say a thousand different things to me, but instead, he settled on, “Good night.”
He was too complicated and I was too tired to give him any more thought when my bed was calling. I gave him a little wave before departing, heading to my nest and Logan’s waiting arms.
Chapter 39
Logan
My phone has been buzzing all day with calls from unknown numbers. Between all the work to finalize the nursery and spending time with Clover and her family, showing her dads around the city, it had been easy to ignore. But now the texts had started.
Unknown number:
Logan, answer the fucking phone
This is ridiculous, you can’t ignore your own family
Logan
LOGAN
Oh, good. My mother had started using burner numbers. A dozen more messages followed before I cracked and answered while everyone was getting ready for bed.
“What do you want?”
A bitter laugh met me. “What do I want? For my own flesh and blood to not ignore me like trash. Where the hell do you get off treating me like that?”
I bit down on a sigh and navigated my way to the kitchen, so I could pace in peace. “I was busy today. Other than that, I haven’t been ignoring you.”
“Bullshit. Why else would my calls be going through to those entitled assholes you call a pack instead of to you?”
I fell silent for a moment. My pack had talked plenty of times about rerouting calls from my family to their phones, but I hadn’t realized they’d gone ahead with it. Apparently, it had been wishful thinking that the peace was because my mother had chilled out.
“What do you need this time?”
“The money you give me isn’t enough. I’m practically living in poverty, while you’re living the fucking lap of luxury over there. I can’t believe you would be so heartless to the people who raised you, to not give us the same standard of living, when we all know you didn’t earn that money yourself. Stop being so greedy.”
I muted the call when I couldn’t get control of my growl. I went through a round of box breathing while she continued to berate me about all the ways I’d left them to starve after the sacrifices she’d made for me growing up.
What sacrifices?
My family had been quick to use me at every opportunity. I’d heard a thousand times over that my mother only stayed with my father because she couldn’t make it as a single mother, and she’d added another alpha to the mix to supposedly keep us off the streets. Instead, they’d always made things harder.
