I’m grateful when Saylor and Briar show up immediately following the breakfast from hell. Honestly, I’d rather pee myself again than to ever tell someone I love them and have said person respond with thank you.

    I’m so thrown for a loop that I blurt out the details, shoving myself off the couch to pace. The wrapped presents they brought for the makeshift baby shower have been sitting in the corner since the day Ridge was shot. The whole reason they came over was to watch me open them.

    “Okay, that is pretty bad,” Saylor says, dropping the gift she was holding and shoving herself off the end of the sectional. “But guys are weird. Maybe he wanted to say it without an audience?”

    “Maybe,” I concede.

    King lies across the floor, blocking most of my path, so I do an about-face to march back in the opposite direction.

    “Look, you’re bonded,” Briar chimes in from her spot on Ridge’s recliner. “That alone shows that he wants to be with you long term.”

    “That’s true.” It still doesn’t make me any less embarrassed.

    “Are you just really angry, or are we walking through contractions or something?” Saylor asks, looping her arm through mine as I continue to pace.

    Iugh. “No, hopefullybor is still over a month away.”

    “Oh, good.” Saylor smiles, patting my forearm. “I mean, not good that you’re upset, but it’s a good thing you’re not inbor.”

    “Wow, you are on Calder-levels ofmunicating,” Briar says to Saylor before meeting my eyes. “Are you more upset that he didn’t say it back, or are you embarrassed because you had an audience?”

    Ugh.

    It’s definitely the second.

    It slipped right out.

    Being able to feel his emotions in the bond,bined with the beautiful gift that he had been trying to give me for days but was so patient about… It all just umted. I don’t think I’m full-blown, head over heels in love with him yet. The beginning of experiencing that emotion is there, though.

    “I think I should have told him that I’m falling in love with him, not that I love him,” I say, stopping dead in my tracks. “I came on way too strongly.”

    Briar rolls her eyes. “He bit you. There really isn’t aing on too strong when you’re bonded for life.”

    “It does feel a little like semantics,” Saylor says.

    “Look, this is just between us, but when Keir and Calder tell me they love me, I feel that emotion through the bond,” Briar says. “When Easton says he loves me, all that I pick out is obsession. Maybe possession? Whatever. It doesn’t matter because that’s the feeling he’s experiencing when he thinks of being in love, so to him, that feeling is love.” Her lips blow together. “This is harder to describe than I expected, but I think ites down to psychopaths experiencing love differently than we do. Maybe Trigg doesn’t know how to quantify that emotion, and rather than lying to you, he just stayed quiet. It’s very possible that it runs in the family gics.”

    “Oh my god, Easton and Trigg are rted!” Saylor gasps. “I knew it. It’s all Shaw has talked about for days. He swore they had to be long-lost brothers or something.”

    I smile tightly.

    Easton asked me not to mention that.

    Briar spilled the beans, so I wait for her to speak. “Yeah, so I’m not great at keeping secrets. How about gifts? It’s time to open gifts, don’t you think?”

    I blink repeatedly.

    I have been a pretty shitty gift receiver. Trigg sent me into a spiral, and I didn’t even open the presents.

    “That would be amazing. Thank you so much for the goodies. I’m sorry I got distracted.” I pat Saylor’s arm and head for the couch, but I’m pretty sure the cat is out of the bag with Trigg and Easton and how they’re rted.

    “I’d have a mild meltdown over that too,” Saylor says, following me to the couch. “Please say I’m allowed to tell Shaw that he was right because I’m legitimately incapable of keeping something like this a secret.”

    Briar sighs. “East is going to spank me over this. I can feel it.”hr

    The two women went above and beyond with adorable outfits, baby nkets, and a variety of other small things like pacifiers, a thermometer, and baby socks.

    I’m tired by the time they leave, but I’m unsettled. A vague n starts to form in my head. I should hunt down Trigg to see if things are going to be weird between us. Only forcing myself to stand proves harder than I expected. My legs and feet hurt, and I’m generally just not interested in having to move at the moment.

    “Well, you look exceptionally pouty.” Ridge grabs the baby stuff, moves it out of the way, and climbs onto the long end of the sectional next to me. He’s still injured, but he lifts his right arm and nts his hand on my stomach.

    I sigh.

    Now I’m even more ufortable.

    Ridge is the only one of the guys I haven’t said I love you to. It’splicated because I do have feelings for him, but I’ve known Hartley a whole lot longer. Or rather, I’ve spent more one-on-one time with Hart.

    Trigg had beening into the diner for weeks before all of this stuff went down… Maybe I did rush to say it too soon.

    I don’t know.

    It would be impossible to exin to someone who hasn’t experienced a bond, but it links two people on a deep emotional and spiritual level. Being able to feel their emotions toward me only seems to heighten my own feelings in response.

    When Trigg gave me the ne, it felt a lot like love was the emotion he was sending in the bond. It lit up my system, and the next thing I knew, I was blurting out the words.

    “Look, I’m not expecting any derations of love,” Ridge says, running his giant palm over my stomach. “I’m content to go at our own pace, but if you want to tell my dick you love him, he is a little insecure…”

    My face burns even hotter.

    “I couldn’t resist.” He chuckles. “Tell me what I can do to cheer you up.”

    “I’m okay,” I say, and I really am. This is a small hup, and I know that. I’m so ready to feel like my old self again. Pregnancy isn’t easy, and I still have over a month left. Then I’ll be dealing with all the crazy postpartum hormone fluctuations.

    “Can I just preemptively apologize in case I get crazier the longer this pregnancy goes on?” I ask, turning to check out his bright aquamarine eyes. “I almost don’t want to admit it, but I’ve heard the few months after shees might actually be worse.”

    “Sweetheart.” Heughs and rolls onto his side, bringing our faces close together. His expression quickly morphs into a grimace and back to a smile. Dammit. I hate seeing him hurting. “You could amp up the spiciness by two-hundred percent, and you still wouldn’t need to apologize. Pregnancy is rough, mentally and physically. None of us expect you to keep that in. I’m here for you.”

    Little crinkles appear next to his eyes as he studies my face, and it only makes him more handsome.

    “That means the world to me.” I pull my hand to his cheek, running my fingers over his beard. “I’m so grateful we found each other.”

    His face turns serious. “Me too, Mama. Me fucking too.”hr

    Ridge is incredible. I’ve never met anyone who can make meugh the way he does. Upon noticing the clothes and other baby gifts that I opened from Saylor and Briar, he suggests we tackle some of the boxes in the garage.

    He didn’t just get baby furniture.

    Ridge bought basically everything we could need to bring our daughter home from the hospital. There are boxes of diapers, wipes, diaper rash cream, onesies, sleepers, outfits in multiple sizes, socks, nkets, washcloths, burp rags, and so many other things that my eyes ache.

    King lies next to my thigh on the floor in the nursery. He’s quite a sweet dog, even if he’s gassy and grunty at the weirdest times.

    Getting down here wasn’t the easiest, but getting up will be a whole different world ofplicated. It’s still worth it, though.

    Ridge was the one who rmended organizing everything by age. We put all the newborn and zero-to-three-month stuff in one pile, that way we could pluck off the tags and wash it together. Then we have another smaller pile of three-to-six-month clothing and so on.

    My newly bonded alpha went way overboard with stuff in the smaller sizes, but I don’t have the heart to tell him that she probably won’t even get to wear it all before she outgrows it.

    He’s done everything he can to make this entire transition as easy as possible. I don’t know many men who wouldn’t at least wait for the results of a paternity test, but not Ridge.

    Things really have moved at lightning speed since we found each other, but a huge part of that is not wanting to risk losing him again. I’m sure some people will judge how fast we moved in bonding. I just don’t care what they think. Those people didn’t spend eight months worrying themselves sick with thoughts of what would happen if I never found him again. Combine that with the stress of the shooting and knowing how dangerous his job is, and I had to take drastic measures to ensure he wouldn’t needlessly put his life at risk.

    Even having him here with me, it still makes my chest tight when I think about those months we lost out on.

    Ridge is maic. The more I’m around him, the harder it is to imagine being without him. I’m drawn to who he is as a human being, and more than that, he’s fucking hot. It blows my mind a little to realize I get to keep him forever.

    “You doing okay over there, Mama?” he asks, quirking a bushy eyebrow.

    “Uh…yeah.” I lick my lips, wondering if I would hurt his shoulder if I tackled him.

    Focus dammit.

    He needs time to heal, and we really need to get this stuff done. That way, we won’t have to stress about washing baby clothes or organizing nkets once she’s here.

    Still, I would totally be down for a quickie in theundry room if he wanted to ster my hands to the dryer and fuck into me from behind.

    Ahh, hell.

    Pregnancy hormones are no joke.

    I’m a disaster.