I sling him onto my hip and secure him with one hand. I move around the living room, using my other hand to pick up small screws and parts and gather up the wrapping that the bed parts came in. "Room is secure," Marcus says as if he's on a mission and not stuffing pizza in his mouth surrounded by flat pack furniture.
I let Noah down, and he shoots out of my arms like a rocket. "Jesus, he can move."
"Yeah," Paige says with a mouthful of pizza. She chews as she moves to block his path into the bedroom. "You have to be fast. He'll be walking soon. But your six-year-old, he'll run around the house."
"Not inside he won't."
Paige raises her eyebrows. "You can have all the rules you like, but kids run everywhere. It's a fact."
She gathers up Noah and turns him around to face me. "Go on, go back to Uncle Amos."
I'm not Noah's blood uncle, but we're all like family around here.
Noah heads straight for me, and his face lights up when I open my arms to him. I crouch on the ground, and he crawls onto my lap.
"Aww, he likes you." Paige beams.
I smile down at the little guy. "I like him too."
I glance up to find Hudson frowning at me, and I know what he's thinking. "Relax, Hudson. He's not mine."
Hudson's frown deepens. "You sure about that? You look pretty cozy together."
Paige has never told anyone who the father of her baby is, and it drives Hudson wild.
Paige laughs hard. "He's not Amos's. Oh my god, have you looked at your nephew?"
Noah chooses that moment to launch himself off my lap and crawl across the floor. He must know something's up, because he goes right up to his Uncle Hudson and sits on his foot as he grabs a piece of pizza that dropped to the floor.
"Uh-no." Hudson grabs the pizza out of his pudgy hand, but not before Noah's stuffed it in his mouth. "Buddy, don't eat food from the floor. You can have a piece, but not off the floor."
He hoists his nephew into his arms. Noah's dark hair falls across his face, and his chocolate-colored eyes turn wide as Hudson pries the pizza out of his fingers.
The happy expression from a moment ago disappears, and he lets loose an earsplitting wail. I wince and cover my ears as Noah howls over the loss of his pizza.
"Fucking hell," I say under my breath. "I'm glad I've skipped his part."
It takes a full two minutes for the crying to stop. I faced imposed torture during BUD/s SEAL training, but the cries of a baby are something else.
Finally he's placated with a piece of pizza of his own and tucked into Paige's lap as she sits cross-legged on the floor.
"Did any of you guys know Jake had a son?" Paige asks.
"I don't think Jake knew he had a son," I say.
"What makes you so sure?" She eyes me suspiciously. "Avery mentioned there were letters in his belongings. Could they have been to Sam's mother?"
Avery shakes her head. "Different name. We still don't know who the letters are to. Does the name Sofia Eaves mean anything to any of you?"
She looks hopefully around the group, but everyone shakes their heads.
"Not a name I know," says Marcus. "But I can do some digging for you."
"I've already looked online; there are hundreds of Sofia Eaves, but none of them makes sense in how they would relate to Jake."
"Leave it to me," says Marcus. "I might turn something up."
I glance at him, and we share a look. Marcus is making light of it, but he has his ways of finding information, and they're not all legit. If anyone can track down the mysterious Sofia Eaves, it's Marcus.
