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Hooboy.
When I stepped further into the cafe, it was the tall, dark and handsome one who spotted me first. Devan, that was the name they’d used yesterday at the hearing. He was Alana’s foster brother too, apparently.
His dark eyes burned into me, his face tense, and I felt stripped bare. I wanted to fidget on the spot, but I held my gaze steady as I stared back at him. I navigated the stroller around all the chairs and people, and when I made it to the table, Devan’s eyes dropped to Huey.
And his face softened completely.
He lifted an eyebrow and gestured to the car seat Huey was still strapped into. I nodded. I looked over at the other two men at the table, but their eyes were focused on the baby too.
Devan held Huey in his huge hands, supporting the baby like he’d held him a million times. “You’re getting so big, little man. I’ve missed you.” He turned his eyes to me. “I stayed with Alana for the first month after he was born. I was only gone two weeks when…” He trailed off. He’d been gone for two weeks when she died. I could imagine the guilt he must feel.
Huey cooed and reached for the dark-eyed man, like he knew him already. Like he loved him. Like this man was familiar in a world where he’d been passed around strangers for two weeks, missing his mother.
River and Rigby were watching him too, and when Devan put the baby over his shoulder, patting him softly until he drifted off to sleep, I couldn’t help it. I burst into tears.
River slid away from me like I was contagious, and Rigby just gaped. I didn’t look at Devan as I tried to push down my sobs, but they just kept pushing past my lips like a wrecking ball. “I’m… sorry,” I choked out, scrubbing my cheeks with my hands. “It’s… just… tiredness. I’m okay.”
I firmly believed it, too. I was okay. Of course I was okay. Hell, if I kept repeating it, maybe I would actuallybeokay.
Rigby stood up and came around the table, pulling me to my feet and wrapping me in his arms. He was a perfect fucking stranger, and he was hugging me, and it made mefeel better. His hand stroked up and down my back softly, as he murmured things that I couldn’t really hear because I was short as hell and only came up to his pecs. But the steady rumble of his voice was reassuring.
“It’s okay. This is a lot. Come on, now. It’s all right.”
A tissue appeared in my peripheral vision, and I realized River had grabbed one from my diaper bag. I gave him a tight smile of thanks and pulled back, embarrassment settling in over my body as I realized I’d just cried into the chest of a stranger, in public.
Everyone was staring at me now, and my face flushed hot with shame. I’d had the baby less than a day and I was already a mess. Everyone could clearly see that I had no fucking idea what I was doing.
River seemed to give the surrounding crowd the stink eye. “Swap places with me.”
I swallowed hard as he gave me his seat, with its back to the rest of the cafe. Chewing my lip, I nodded appreciatively. “Thank you. I promise I’m not normally like this.”
Rigby made a soothing noise as he led me to River’s vacated seat. “Naw, it’s okay. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks for all of us. I’d be worried if you didn’t want to cry.” Somehow, this big blond giant validating my feelings did kind of make me feel better.
A waitress came over as soon as my ass hit the seat, and took my coffee order. Or at least I thought she did; she didn’t actually drag her eyes away from River and Rigby.
Finally, I thought I might actually have myself under control. Then Huey started to fuss. I panicked. This shit didn’t come naturally just because I had boobs and ovaries. It was mostly just winging it and Googling and second-guessing shit.
I held my hands out for him, but Devan just stared me down. “If you have a bottle ready, I can feed him.” Rigby cleared his throat, and Devan glared at him. “Please.If it's okay with you.”
I looked between the three men. The fact they’d obviously been talking about me before I arrived—hell, probably had hour-long discussions about me at some point—made me feel a little self-conscious.
Well, even more so, considering there were still wet patches on Rigby’s shirt from my tears.
I gave Devan a tight smile. “Sure. There's one in the little insulated bottle holder thing.” I rummaged around in the chaos of the diaper bag. Eventually, I’d be better at this; I had to keep telling myself that. I passed the still warm bottle to Devan. “He’s been a bit fussy taking it, though.”
Devan nodded, hitching the baby into the crook of his arm and testing the milk on his own wrist. Happy I wasn’t scalding his nephew from the inside out, he put the bottle to the baby’s lips. Huey took it so easily, I wanted to cry all over again.
Maybe it was just me. Maybe Huey hated me.
The waitress returned with my coffee, and she seemed a little awestruck by the sight of a huge man holding a tiny baby. My animalistic hindbrain had perked up, likelook at this specimen with his young. He would make an excellent mate for the season.
No. Just no.
The waitress managed to drag herself away, and I took a fortifying sip of coffee. I made a happy humming moan as the caffeine hit my veins like liquid gold. A throat cleared, and I whipped my gaze away from the man and the baby.
River was looking at me intensely. “Miss Stone—”
“Nova. Please call me Nova.”
