Page 158 of Pack Baby for the Silver Foxes

I grinned. “Presley said they were never going to use it.”

Lincoln’s laugh was deep enough to settle in my bones. The evening might have stayed easy but Hudson’s phone buzzed.

He looked at the caller. “Damien.”

The kitchen seemed to cool by several degrees.

I put the bread down. “What does he want?”

Hudson read the message. His expression didn’t change, which meant whatever he felt had gone somewhere private and locked. “He asked if he can stay here when he arrives.”

My stomach dropped. Lincoln set the spoon down carefully. “He said he was staying with a friend,” he said.

Hudson glanced at him.

“No,” Lincoln repeated. “Not before he knows.”

“There’s the guest apartment on the lower floor,” Hudson said. “We can book that.”

I gripped the edge of the stool. “I could stay with Maeve while he’s here.”

Both men looked at me. Not angrily. Worse, hurt.

“Mary,” Hudson said.

“It would make things easier.”

“For whom?” Lincoln asked.

“For all of you.”

“No.” The word came from both of them.

I swallowed. “Are you sure?”

Hudson crossed the kitchen and stopped in front of me. “Never more so.”

Lincoln came behind me, his warmth at my back, his hands settling on my shoulders.

Hudson cupped my face. “He needs to know the truth soon but you’re staying,” Hudson said.

“He’ll be hurt and angry.”

“Probably.”

“He’ll think I’m awful.”

Lincoln bent and kissed the side of my head. “Then he’ll be wrong.”

My eyes stung.

Hudson’s thumbs moved over my cheeks. “You’re not leaving your home so Damien can be spared reality.”

My home.

The words slipped under my ribs.

“This is my home?”