Page 109 of Pack Baby for the Silver Foxes

“Ah, clever.”

Hudson sat beside me with his coffee. “He’s been workshopping his technique.”

Lincoln’s mouth curved. “And I have a delicious fruit smoothie in the blender.”

The dreadful thing was that it worked.

I took the vitamin. Lincoln watched until I swallowed it, then pushed the toast closer with a satisfied nod.

Ten minutes later, the private elevator chimed. Maeve came in holding Mila’s hand, followed by Mac, who was wearing one sock, a dinosaur sweater, and a sour look on his face.

“What’s up with you?”

“Fergus pinched my sausage this morning, so I had to have a hash brown.” Mac plonked himself on the stool.

“He was goading the dog pretending it was a light saber,” Maeve said.

“I wasn’t going to kill him.” Mac’s voice rose.

Maeve looked at me and smiled.

Mila spotted Lincoln and lifted both arms.

“Oh, so that’s how it is,” Maeve said to her daughter. “I carried you for nine months, gave birth to you, and sacrificed sleep for you to choose a man you barely know.”

Lincoln held out his hands. “She knows we need the practice.”

Mila went to him without remorse.

Mac looked at my plate. “Are babies eating that?”

“The babies are eating whatever I eat.”

He considered that with pure interest. “So they like toast with bananas?”

I nodded. “Today they do.”

He picked a piece of banana off my plate. I reached across to the fruit bowl and gave him a whole one. “Thank you.” He peeled one side away. “When they come out, can they have teeth?”

I paused with my mug halfway to my mouth. “I sincerely hope not.”

Mac nodded. “I know. Mila bites, and it hurts.”

Hudson set a cup of coffee down in front of Maeve.

“Thank you,” she said and turned to Mac. “You did too when you were her age.”

“I did not.”

Hudson gave a small cough into his coffee.

Lincoln looked down at Mila, who had grabbed his beard with both hands.

I laughed. “She’s got you there.”

Hudson smiled at me over the rim of his cup, and the room shifted a little. It kept doing that now.

After breakfast, Hudson had a call, Lincoln had emails, and Maeve took Mila into the spare sitting room to take a call from her husbands.