Chapter Eight
Winter searched for his phone hoping to answer it quickly and not having it wake Connor. He had no idea what time it was, but he’d been tired a lot lately, and taking catnaps during the day. It was a saving grace that since his first bath Connor had started sleeping a bit longer during the nights.
“Hello,” he answered without opening his eyes to look at who was calling.
“Hey, Winter, it’s me.”
Winter snapped his eyes open and sat up in bed. “Terry, what the hell, man? Do you know what time it is?”
“It’s after ten in the morning, dude, usually you and Caroline are out doing gods know what by now on a Saturday.”
“Shit, Terry, you don’t know.”
“Don’t tell me you and Caroline had a fight while I’ve been gone?”
“Caroline…Caroline and Richard died a little over two months ago.”
“Wh…what? How? The baby, what happened to their baby? Don’t tell…”
“No, Connor survived. They were in a car accident.”
“Shit, Win, why didn’t you call me?” Terry’s voiced cracked when he spoke.
He wanted to be mad at Terry for not being there for him when he felt he needed him the most. But Winter had a feeling that Terry would have run the second things got too emotional. He remembered the first time he and Caroline had met Terry, who was their guide when they took a tour of Mount Vesuvius, and all three became friends.
Before he and Caroline had left Italy, on a whim Terry had quit his job and moved back to the states but was never in one place too long; he’d stay in town for a couple of days or a week at the most before he disappeared. Winter and Caroline admired Terry for his free spirit to come and go wherever he wanted, but they knew that wasn’t the life for them.
“I tried calling you, but I kept getting your voicemail.”
“I’m sorry, Win,” Terry said. “I should have been there.”
“Where are you now?”
“I’m about to pull up to your house.”
Winter threw the blankets off then looked, around realizing that Creed wasn’t in bed. He remembered that his mate had his landscaper exam that day and might have left already. He walked into Connor’s room about to greet the baby and telling him how proud he was that he’d slept through the night. His heart dropped to his stomach when he noticed that Connor wasn’t in his crib.
“Terry, I gotta go.”
He hung up with Terry and called Creed as he rushed down the hall. He was about to go downstairs but stopped on the first step when he heard his mate’s phone ringing followed by the cutest laughter that melted his heart. Connor was starting to show small traces of his personality and laughing was new, and Winter would not get tired of hearing it.
“Winter, where are you?”
“Who the fuck are you?”
Winter was pulled out of his good mood when both Creed and Terry spoke at the same time. He rushed down the stairs the second he heard Connor start to cry. Winter shook his head as he walked past the two alphas Creed and Terry stared at each other while Winter went to pick up Connor who’d stopped crying.
“It’s okay, baby boy,” he said calming Connor. “It’s just your uncle Creed and Terry being jerks. Let’s go into the kitchen and make some coffee and leave the two idiots to hash things out.”
Winter walked over to the counter and fixed his coffee the way he liked with one hand and held Connor in the other. He was heading back up the stairs with his coffee and stopped, noticing that Creed and Terry still hadn’t moved from their spot.
“Are you two kidding me right now?” Neither man answered him. “For crying out loud. Terry this is Creed, he’s Richard’s brother. And Creed, this is Terry, a close friend to Caroline and me. He likes to spend time with us when he’s in town.”
“Richard has a brother?” Terry asked in surprise looking at Winter. “Aww, and this must be Connor.” He walked over to him and looked at Connor smiling. “He’s adorable.”
“Do you want to hold him?”
“Hell no,” Terry said jumping back from both him and Connor as if Winter had asked him to hold a bomb.
