He gave her a single nod. “Yes, ma’am.”
I offered Yazmín an arm as she sat, since the chairs didn’t have arms, and smiled as she let out a sigh of relief.
“Joey will be a good helper,” I assured her. “He loves to cook and is always trying new recipes. The biggest thing you have to worry about… is him trying to talk the family recipe out of you.”
“Oh?”
I grinned. “He made pho for our Friendsmas. I don’t even want to think about how many hours he spent on that broth.”
“I spent as many hours as it needed,” Joey said as he pulled the garnishes from the fridge.
Yazmín laughed. “You shall sit with me. We will discuss food as we chop.”
I echoed the laugh, then took several steps as the omegas seemed to have found their common ground.
“Thank you,” Jessie said, falling in beside me as I headed outside to grab a box.
“Hmm? For what?”
“I’ve been trying to convince her to sit for hours. Kerry’s at least been listening to Callum about resting.”
I shook my head and smiled. “That was all Joey. He took one look at her and decided he was her prep cook.”
“I’ll take it.”
Despite having worked all day, the mere smell of the posole seemed to give everybody a second wind. We emptied both trucks in record time, and Randy’s parents—plus the kids—showed up with pizza just as we finished.
My mate’s cabin—our cabin—was full to bursting with our family and friends gathered. The kids had a blast talking to all the new people, and Russy reveled in the sheer volume of head scratches he received.
It was the first glimpse of the warmth that would surround us for the rest of our lives.
Chapter 27 - Randy
~February~
“You ready for your heat?” Kerry asked over the phone. “Got everything you need: sports drinks, granola bars… that alpha knot you’ve been loving so much?”
“You’re horrible,” I laughed.
“I prefer incorrigible.”
I snorted. “You can be both. But to answer your question, yes. I have everything. Just waiting for Craig to get home.”
“He’s not home yet?”
I shook my head. “He should be here any minute. I hit that point where I don’t want to eat a few hours ago, and cooking sounds like an exercise in torture. So I told him to pick up something for his dinner in town.”
“Ah, makes sense.” He paused, and I could hear the smirk in his voice when he spoke again. “How badly did your ovaries explode when you got to hold the baby?”
“Oh, you fucking asshole,” I grumbled as my instincts latched onto the memory of holding my newborn niece.
He burst into laughter. “I thought so.”
“You’d be the same way, you jerk. Pre-heat was already itching under my skin, then I had a baby plopped into my arms. My entire body seemed to say: ‘Yes, this is the point.’”
“Well, you know there is one way to deal with that…”
“I’m going to hang up if you keep teasing me about knots and babies.”
