Page 181 of Pack Baby for the Silver Foxes

“No.” I shook my head. “I won’t. I know there are laws and paperwork and probably twelve folders Hudson has already color-coded, but I won’t choose which of you is more mine.”

Hudson’s eyes shone. “We’d never ask that of you.”

“Someone will.”

“Then someone will be disappointed,” Lincoln said.

Mac nodded solemnly. “Daddy A says paperwork can be defeated with better paperwork.”

Artem lifted his glass. “Correct.”

Ivan leaned back. “Sometimes a fire helps.”

“We’re in Mayfair, Ivan,” Maeve said.

“Metaphorical fire,” he added.

Gregor glanced at him.

Ivan smiled and muttered, “Mostly.”

The laughter saved me from dissolving completely.

Then the door opened, and I turned. Damien stood in the doorway, and for one awful second, the whole room stared.

He looked sheepish. No other word for it. His sandy hair was damp from rain, his hands shoved into the pockets of his coat. He looked younger than he had in the penthouse. Smaller, somehow, without any anger making him loud.

Hudson stood straighter. Lincoln’s hand settled at my back.

Damien looked at them first, then at me. “I know I’m late,” he said.

“You are,” Hudson said.

The waiter behind him looked deeply interested in being elsewhere.

Damien cleared his throat. “Can I sit down?”

I looked at Hudson, then Lincoln, then I realized I was the one he was really asking. “Yes,” I said.

Damien took the empty seat near the end of the table. There was a beat when no one spoke. Then Damien looked at my hand. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you.”

His throat moved. “Are you all right? All three of you, I mean. The babies.”

“We’re fine,” I said.

“Good.” He looked down at the tablecloth. “Good.”

“I honestly didn’t try to hurt you,” I said before he could say anything else. “I swear that I never knew.”

He nodded. “I know, I was just angry when I had no right to be.” Damien stared down at the tablecloth. “I did what I always do. Took the worst thing I could think of and threw it before anyone could throw something at me first.”

“That’s very self-aware for a man who once accused a road of being badly positioned,” I said.

His mouth lifted on one side. “The bend was not necessary.”

“I agree.”