Baiting Him (How to Catch an Alpha #2)(49)

When Chris pulls his eyes away from Sam, he looks at his sister, and his expression softens. “I’m sorry you had to deal with that. I fucking hate that you had to see them together.” He looks from Chrissie to me. “Thank you for being there for her when that went down.”

I lift my chin, then tell him the same thing I’ve been telling his sister. “I think you and Chrissie should reach out to your father while you’re here and ask him to meet up. You both deserve to understand why he did what he did, and I hope when it’s done, everyone can move on, or at least things won’t be so awkward if your sister runs into him or his wife again.”

“I’ll make that happen.” He steps toward the couch and his sister, and then he pulls her up to stand and gives her a hug. “We’ll get this sorted,” he tells her, and she buries her face in his chest before wrapping her arms around his back to cling to him.

I look at Sam, who’s watching them with a somber expression. He feels my gaze, and his eyes come to me, and he gives me a sad smile. He’s been dealing with this situation from the beginning, right along with Chris and Chrissie, so I have no doubt he’s just as confused about everything that has occurred with their father as they are.

I pull Chrissie down to my lap when her brother lets her go, and she tucks her face against my neck and wraps her arms around my waist as she cries quietly. I try to remember it’s good she’s letting this shit out and not holding it in, even though I really hate her tears. After some time, she pulls her face back to look at me, then closes her eyes and drops her forehead to the center of my chest as her bottom lip wobbles. “I love you.”

Jesus, I don’t know if I will ever get used to hearing those words come out of her mouth.

“Love you too.” I kiss the top of her head, then look up to find Chris and Sam both studying us with the same warm expressions.

“We have happy news,” Sam says as he reaches over to take Chris’s hand, and Chrissie lifts her head to look at the two of them.

“What news?” she asks, wiping her cheeks and scooting off my lap.

“We’re getting married.”

“What?” she yells, and I barely have time to prepare for her sudden movement as she launches herself at both men. “Oh my God. Why didn’t you say anything before now?”

“We wanted to tell you in person,” Sam says, giving Chris a look, and her brother rolls his eyes at him.

“When did this happen, and who asked who?” she questions, looking between the two of them.

“Neither of us asked,” Chris replies with softness filling his voice. “We were talking about our plan to adopt a child and then about names, and we knew we’d want our baby and us to all have the same last name. So getting married was just an obvious step. Well, that and I am tired of calling him my partner, like we’re playing a game of chess.” He grins.

“Wait.” Chrissie shakes her head. “You guys are getting married and having a baby?”

“Yes, but we aren’t having a big wedding, since we need to save for the adoption process. And who knows how long it will take for us to get chosen by a birth mother? The agency we found says it takes a year for the average couple to have a child placed with them, and since we’re not average, we know we might have to wait awhile. We’d like to get the ball rolling sooner than later, which means when we get home, we’ll file for a marriage license. And once that’s approved, we’ll make it official and move on to the next step.”

“This is such amazing news. I’m so happy for both of you.” She hugs her brother and Sam before asking, “Have you told Mom yet?”

“No, we were going to share the news at dinner, but apparently Sam needed you to stop looking so depressed, so he decided to tell you now,” Chris says, giving Sam an unhappy look, and Sam shrugs.

“Dinner,” Chrissie whispers, then she looks at me. “What time is it?”

I glance at the watch on my wrist. “Five.”

“Oh crap.” She bolts up off the couch and looks down at me. “I have to go fix my face.”

“You look beautiful.”

“I look like I’ve been crying, and my mom is a dog with a bone when she wants to know something. And she has no idea we haven’t talked to our dad, and I don’t want her to know that, especially with her leaving tomorrow to go on vacation.”

“Right,” I mutter, then stand and look between Sam and Chris. “We’ll be back down to pick you both up for dinner, unless you two want to come up and hang at my place until it’s time to go.”

“We’re good here. I wanna shower, and Sam is going to snooze,” Chris says, then looks at his sister. “I’m going to send Dad a message and see if he’s open to meeting with us.”

“Okay,” she agrees, not sounding happy about the idea.

He stands and looks down at her, taking hold of her face and telling her softly, “This whole thing isn’t yours to deal with on your own, and you have people who love you and want to be here for you, so let us.”

“I’m going to try,” she says.

Chris looks at me. “Word of warning: she always thinks she needs to protect everyone, even if it means hurting herself, and you will never be able to convince her that you don’t need protecting.”