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My head swivels to stare at him sadly. “We’re a team, a family. I’ve never felt safer or more secure anywhere than here. Nothing you could tell me would make me want to leave. I thought you understood that about me.”
“We underestimated your feelings for us,” Pike sighs.
“Obviously!” I bite on my lower lip, unsure that the knot in my gut will ever subside now. I’m not put off because there was another woman. It’s depressing that they hadn’t told me.
Zoe tentatively steps into the kitchen, poking her head around the threshold. “Lily’s in her bedroom,” she announces.
“We should go tuck her in,” I sigh, rising.
“Aspen, are you going to leave?” Pike demands.
I whirl around and shake my head vehemently. “Have you not heard a word I’m saying?”
“Not even if we lose Lily?”
Everyone freezes with Pike’s blunt question, the blood draining from my face. “We’re not losing Lily…” I whisper.
“Stop,” Flint snaps. “Lily is waiting for us to tuck her in.”
Silently, we form a single file line and head up the west side staircase toward Lily’s room. She’s already tucked in her unicorn canopy, her dark hair brushed and spilling around her small shoulders as she sinks into a pile of pillows.
“You’re all here!” she squeaks excitedly, and my heart swells with love for her.
We can’t lose her. We won’t.
“Who’s going to read me a story?” Lily asks.
“All of us are,” I decide, picking her favorite book from the shelf and perching on the edge of the bed. “I’ll start, and then I’ll give it to Papa Caden, and he’ll hand it to Papa Pike?—”
“And then Papa Flint!” the child concludes.
“You got it,” I say, trailing off as a lightbulb goes off in my mind. I blank out for a moment, my eyes darting toward each of the men, tongue darting nervously over my lower lip.
If I’m right…
“Mama Aspen, are you going to read?”
“Yes, honey, I’m sorry.” I clear my throat. “Once, in the wooded woods, there were seven angry goats…”
I barely manage my part, my mind still whirling before handing the book to Caden as my heart hammers wildly.
“Are you okay?” Flint whispers in my ear.
I nod, knowing this isn’t the time, but I can’t wait until we’re all alone again.
The book seems to go on forever, but eventually, Lily’s dark eyes grow heavy, and the excitement from the party kicks in. She’s asleep, her chest rising and falling softly as Pike tucks the unicorn duvet around her chin.
I can barely contain myself as we pile out the door and secure the little girl inside. I turn to confront them in the hallway upstairs, stopping them in their tracks.
“You say that Alexandra chose Ryker,” I breathe excitedly the second I’m sure we’re out of earshot. “How quickly did they get married after?”
He stares at me for a moment, trying to read my expression.
“Almost right away,” Caden replies and looks away, confirming what I already suspected in my gut.
“And how soon after that was Lily conceived?” I press.
“What is all this about, Aspen?” Flint asks tersely.
