Her lips twist into a scowl. “Oh. I didn’t think of that.” She waves me off, “It’s fine, we’ll use yours.” I watch, amused, as she makes herself at home in my bathroom and shouts at me to hurry up. I have a feeling the next four years with Lainey by my side are going to be absolute chaos and for once, I can’t wait to embrace it.
Lainey left ten minutes ago, and I feel like I’m going to throw up. Before he left me earlier today, McKenzie explained that while he wants a one on one date with me as soon as possible, he thinks my first official date should include both him and the twins. I’ve never even been on a date with one guy, how the heck am I supposed to handle three at once?
I don’t have any more time to spiral because there’s a knock on the door, almostso soft I miss it at first. That knock is followed by a much louder, quicker rap. A quiet giggle escapes, because that was so obviously Paxton at first, and I’m guessing McKenzie got impatient and decided he wanted to knock, too.
Answering the door and being hit by all three of their scents at once is so distracting I miss Parker advancing on me until his hand has tangled in my hair and tilted my head up to meet his achingly warm gaze. “I missed you, flower.”
My body sags under his touch. I don’t know how it’s possible to be so attached to someone I just met, but I am. I didn’t even realize how much I missed him until now, and it’s only been a few hours. I push up to my tiptoes and brush my lips across his, sighing at the contact. “I missed you too.”
Parker holds me for a few seconds longer before moving aside and then I’m face to face with his twin. My smile widens and I throw my arms around his middle, breathing in his sweet taffy scent. “Hi, Paxton,” I mumble into his chest.
Lean arms circle my shoulders, holding me to his chest. The smile is evident in his voice. “Hi, Posey. I was starting to worry I’d scared you off.”
The words are quiet, but there’s a truthfulness to them that makes my heart hurt. Paxton was the first alpha I was ever attracted to, and meeting his packmates doesn’t take away from that attraction or how much I missed him. I pull back, meeting his worried stare with a grin. “Me, scared? Never. I’m more likely to go after something I’m afraid of with a baseball bat than run away.”
He barks out a laugh, his face lighting up with relief and humor. “Good to know.”
“What am I? Chopped liver?”
Paxton goes to stand next to his brother in my entryway, leaving me face to face with the jolly gorgeous giant. “You.” I poke McKenzie’s chest with one finger. “Have some explaining to do. You let the entire school think we got engaged this morning?”
His face turns beet red, all the way to the tips of his ears. “I didn’t know they were going to think that,” he tries to defend himself, but I just raise a brow, because I would bet my bottom dollar hedidknow. “Alright, alright. I didn’t knowfor sure. But maybe I hoped.”
I shake my head, not really upset but wanting to make him squirm a little bit. The massive alpha bends at the waist, putting his lips right next to my ear. “Should I get on my knees for you again to apologize?” The words are a husky whisper, and slick floods my panties in response to both the words and the image they create.
Three matching groans ring out, and I turn to see Parker adjusting himself unabashedly. If there’s one thing I’m learning about that man, it’s that he has absolutely no problem showing me exactly how much I turn him on, regardless of our location.
“Maybe later,” I respond, equally as quiet. My throat clears, and I turn to grab three small gift bags off the entry table. Nerves skitter across my skin and make my fingers tremble as each alpha takes the bag with his initial on it. For Parker and Paxton, I also wrote the color on the outside of the bag since I didn’t know who they were at the time that I made them.
“You shouldn’t have, sweetheart. It’s our job to spoil you.” Paxton says sweetly. McKenzie is already tearing into his, and his enthusiasm quells some of the nervous energy inside of me. “Holy shit!” His mouth drops open, hazel eyes wide and bright with excitement. “I thought you were joking. This is the best gift I’ve ever gotten.”
I watch as the twins pull out their scarves, matching awed expressions on both of their handsome faces. In this moment if Parker didn’t have his nose ring in, I’m honestly not sure I could tell them apart from just a glance.
“It’s nothing,” I blurt, wringing my hands together. Gift giving is one of my love languages, and most of the time it’ssomething I’ve crocheted with that person in mind. Watching the guys handle their scarves like I’ve gifted them precious gems and not just some tangled yarn makes my heart skip a beat. I’ve never had someone look so… honored, by being given one of my creations.
“Posey,” Paxton sounds choked up, which shocks me. “You made these for us?”
My head bobs, heat suffusing my cheeks once again. It feels like all I do is blush and perfume around these guys. It’s like my brain goes offline and my omega takes the wheel, leaving me with only my baser instincts to rely on. “It was nothing. I told you I crochet in my free time, and I had a lot of fun picking out colors for y’all.”
Looking around, I see they’re all watching me. McKenzie looks like I just askedhimto marryme, Paxton looks about half a second away from crying, and Parker is staring at me with hunger and appreciation burning in his eyes.
“Well alright,” I clap, ready to change the subject before I cry or turn into a puddle of slick on the floor. “Now that that’s out of the way, should we get this show on the road?”
My scent match made me a scarf.
The thought plays on a loop in my mind the entire walk through campus to the parking lot and the drive out to the edge of town. The only thing that finally breaks me out of my state of awe is Posey’s thrilled squeal when Mack pulls up to the Harbor Days fall festival. We were originally going to take her bowling but when I remembered this was going on, I suggested we bring her here instead.
Now, as I watch our girl bouncing on her toes with excitement as she eyes all the different activities, I’m really fucking glad we did.
All three of us have our scarves wrapped around our necks, mine a mix of light and dark greens with a white ‘P’ on the end, Parker's a deep navy blue with the same, and Mack’s a dark red with even darker burgundy border and an ‘M’ on the end. Posey doesn’t have a scarf on, but she’s wearing a thick sweater that looks incredibly soft, and a pair of jeans that fit her so well the company should be paying her to advertise for them.
“You brought me to a carnival?” She squeaks, clapping as she takes a turn kissing each of us on the cheek. My hand immediately flies up to cup my cheek protectively, desperate to savor the feel of her lips on me, no matter how brief the contact was.
Almost crying over her gift was mortifying, but I’ve never had a girl care so much about me shemademe something by hand. Let alone something as beautiful as this scarf. I don’t think I’ll ever take it off. Lifting the soft material to my face, I inhale and get a lungful of her potent scent.
I wonder if she worked on these in her nest.
Fuck, I can’t think of Posey in her nest right now or I’m going to get a boner. And there are children here, so that would be wildly inappropriate. Usually after dark all the families with kids go home, but for right now, the festival is packed to the brim with teenagers, couples, performers, and everything in between.
