“Looks like it.”
I got up and grabbed a soda from the fridge before flopping on the couch. I wanted what I had to tell me something, anything. Rubbing my finger over the mention of the baby boy again—that was me, it had to be—my eye landed on the T in adopt. Something about that was different from what I recalled about my godfather’s handwriting.
I picked up the school assignments, the ones the professor would have seen in the outer section of the satchel, and looked at the letter T in Sombertooth that Rawlins had scribbled over the cover. I compared it to the letter Holden had found. The T’s were the same with a twist on the line over the letter. Next, I checked the notebook with the tales of shifters. The letter T’s matched the one in the letter on what was supposedly Rawlins’s assignments.
Something made me rummage in one of the boxes I’d brought from home. Compared the T’s in one of my godfather’s shopping lists. They were different and as I remembered them.
So imagining that Charlie wrote the letter to the professor, the shifter tales and the assignments were written by her and not Rawlins. Was that possible? And if so, the bank statements were from her too because they were both hidden in the same place.
I burst into tears, and Phelan stopped typing and sat beside me, putting an arm around me. My poor mate. He had no idea what he signed up for when he mated me. I came with so much baggage.
“Put it away, babe.”
I sniffed and wiped my eyes on his shirt. “No, it’s good. I’m happy crying.”
He closed one eye. “Are you sure?”
I giggled because I’d shed a lot of tears since we mated. “Mmmm. It’s made it all real. Charlie and Arnieweremy adoptive parents. It’s finally confirmed. And Charlie did leave me something. She wrote all about shifters for me, and it was her, and I guess Arnie, who’d put money away for my future.”
Phelan screwed up his face. “So why did the professor have it? We’ve already determined he wanted to mate Charlie.”
That was a really good question. He gave me what he said was Rawlins’s satchel that he told me my godfather had wanted me to have. But the lining was intact when I received it, so the professor had no clue what was inside.
Why was that important?
TWENTY-EIGHT
PHELAN
Going back to school after his paternity leave had been rough on my mate. It was a whole layer of stress on top of adjusting to being a new dad. It was difficult for me, too, but in a very different way. I wasn’t dealing with all the hormones and the physical side effects of being away from Eira, like having too much milk.
Rawling had been with our little one every single day, her growing inside him before I even knew she existed. And then he had to go back to school and leave her behind. He’d been a trooper about it all, but it was hard on him.
He and I were a team, despite having the manny now. I didn’t know how working parents did it. At least with school, we weren’t gone eight-plus hours every single day.
When Rawling came home tonight, he crashed. He wasn’t awake long enough to grab a sandwich. Something had to give. This was unsustainable.
With Eira in my arms, sound asleep, I one-hand typed into the search engine, looking for ideas of what we could do over the weekend that would get us away from Sombertooth and all the stressors it came with. We needed some room to breathe andrelax and have some fun as a family. By the time I finally went to bed to join my mate, I had the whole weekend planned.
I made sure to do the overnight feedings, not wanting him to lose a second of precious sleep. We were going to be low on pumped milk, but that was okay because this weekend, we didn’t have a need for it. It would be just us, and the baby would have her endless, on-demand supply from the source
“Okay, sweet one, I’m gonna have to put you down now so I can make your daddy some breakfast.” I knew at this young age babies didn’t know what we were saying, but I’d read in a book that it was good for language development to talk away, and I tried to.
Eira didn’t make a fuss as I put her on her play mat, which was good. I could do a lot of household tasks one-armed, but I preferred not to be holding or wearing her while I was at the stove.
I beat some eggs and put some bread in the toaster, not starting it just yet. I could very easily be on borrowed time and wanted everything ready to cook in case she got fussy.
With everything ready to go, I woke up my mate and told him breakfast was in three minutes. I started the toaster and cooked the eggs. The timing was perfect. He sat at the table just as everything was ready. He looked so much better than last night.
“You ready to come to breakfast?” I picked up our sweet girl, and we sat at the table with my mate. She wasn’t going to be eating with us, but I wanted her to feel like she was part of everything.
“I’m sorry I fell asleep so early last night.” He picked up a piece of toast and tore off a huge chunk. He must’ve been very hungry after skipping dinner.
“Don’t be sorry. I’m glad you did. You needed it. It’s been a stressful week.” I’d contemplated letting him sleep in but ultimately decided getting out of here was more important.
“It’s been a stressful year.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” I said. “After breakfast, I need you to get dressed in more comfortable shoes and off-campus clothes.”
