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“Tibby! Tibby!” Cherry’s voice interrupted out conversation as she called for Tibby from where she was sitting on the tire swing. “Come push me!”
Tibby stood up from her seat and shot both of us a delighted grin. “Sorry ladies, duty calls.” She said before crossing the grass to join the little girl.
“She’s doing great with her.” Eloise commented as we watched Tibby push Cherry in the swing. The two were chattering together and, if I didn’t know any better, they would look like family.
In the month since Pack Simmons had filed for temporary custody of her, Cherry had blossomed into a cheerful little girl who finally acted her age. She laughed easily, and was affectionate with the members of Pack Simmons. I was also pretty sure that they were going to eventually make Cherry a permanent part of their pack.
Watching her now, I was reminded of how much I’d been loved by Ric, Gage, and Leon. They had taken on parental roles in my life and had done a great job. I was suddenly filled with the urge to see them.
“I’m going to go in and see how Ric’s doing.” I stood and smiled at Eloise who watched me with her knowing brown eyes before turning her attention to her sleeping daughter.
A few minutes later I found Ric sitting in the conversation-pit-style sectional with his computer perched on his lap.
“Aren’t you supposed to rest on the weekends?” I teased as I flopped down onto the couch next to him.
Ric grinned sheepishly and shut the computer. “Yeah, but I couldn’t help myself. Don’t tell Ellie.” Eloise had a hard and fast rule about not bringing work home at the end of the day and none of her mates ever wanted to risk her ire.
“I won’t,” I promised, and leaned my head against his shoulder. I didn’t get a lot of chances to just hang out with Ric anymore, now that I was an adult. I couldn’t remember the last time that we had sat together on the couch without anyone else around. Ric had been by my side ever since I was born, there were pictures of Ric as a little boy sitting next to my big plastic incubator in the NICU. It had always been us against the world, but now that the ‘us’ had grown to include a large family, times like this were becoming increasingly rare.
Ric put his laptop on the coffee table and wrapped an arm around me. “What’s up kiddo?”
I just shook my head. “Nothing, I just realized that I haven’t had any one-on-one time with you lately.”
“That’s true, I feel like I’ve hardly seen you since you left Poleman’s.” This was pretty true. I spent almost everyday during the week up in Sacramento or on the road with Adair. Rio and Marcus had even started to tag along whenever we went on overnight trips. Everyday was filled with helping Adair get ready for events, or helping around the office. When I finally made it home at the end of the night, I usually went right to sleep. Today was the first Saturday in a while that I had any kind of break, and I was determined to make the best of it.
“Sorry, things have been really busy lately.” I felt guilty, especially since I couldn’t even promise to be around more. At least, not until the election was over.
“I’m not mad, Madeline. Proud is the better word for it. I just worry about you a lot.” What he didn’t say waswhathe was so worried about. I could tell that he still didn’t fully trust Pack Carter with me. It had been obvious this morning when Rio had dropped me off and my older brother had disappeared into the house rather than say hello. His behavior wasn’t entirely new. Ric rarely liked any of my boyfriends, and I had never pushed the issue before. Instead, I usually just shrugged and apologized to those boyfriends, telling them that he would come around eventually. None of my boyfriends had ever lasted long enough to be ‘eventually’ though, and I never pushed Ric to be any nicer to them.
But now I wanted to push.
“They take care of me, Ric.” I gave him a little nudge with my shoulder. “They’re good guys and you would see that if you would just give them a chance.”
“Even Whitlock? The perpetual beta hater?” Ric said, fixing me with a look.
I was filled with the need to defend Marcus, probably spurred on by the fact that I didn't know where he stood when it came to me anymore. “He’s not so bad.”
“Hmph. I’ll believe it when I see it.” Ric’s jaw clenched stubbornly, and he gave my shoulder one last squeeze. “Either way, just know that if they mess with you, I’ll kick their asses.”
I rolled my eyes at his words, if they messed with meIwould kick their asses. “Okay, tough guy.” I said, but my chest still warmed with the sentiment of his words. Ric, the rest of Pack Russo, and Pack Simmons would always have my back, which made jumping into a relationship head-first, not as scary as it could have been.
After a few minutes of comfortable silence I finally snuggled in close to my brother. “Thank you Ric,” I said.
“Anytime, kiddo.”
