#Chapter 482 – Growing Family Ella
“What do you mean I made it snow?” Cora frowns at me as she bustles around the kitchen, making mimosas. ” That’s ridiculous – you must have imagined it.”
“It totally snowed!” I protest, laughing and shaking my head at her, turning to Sinclair at the table for support.
“It did,” he says, raising his eyebrows at Cora even as he hands Rafe another slice of apple. “”The news is completely baffled by the sudden cold-snap that immediately disappeared by morning. They’re calling it the duke’s miracle.”
“What!?” Cora gasps, spinning to stare at Sinclair wide-eyed.
“That’s so cool,” Roger says, grinning at baby Jesse in his arms, who peers up at his dad with sleepy eyes.” Mom’s magic, Jesse,” he whispers. ” It’s very cool.”
“You guys are just teasing me,” Cora sighs, leaning against the counter as I turn the knob on the stove, cutting off the fire beneath the pan of eggs, sausage, and bacon that I’ve finished frying up.
“Dominic is dead serious,” I say, nodding to Cora eagerly with raised eyebrows. “Seriously, word got to the media that the nation’s beloved duchess had her baby and that night it snowed unseasonably early – people are freaking out.” I laugh a little as I starting to portion our breakfast out onto plates.
“Oh my god,” Cora says, covering her face with her hands. “I didn’t even mean to do that – do you really think it was me?”
“You tend to affect the weather when you’re emotional,” Roger says, grinning at his magical mate with a happy shrug. “I think it makes a lot of sense.”
“Oh, that’s so weird,” Cora says with a sigh, shaking her head at Roger and then at me. “People are going to start figuring out what we can do, Ella,” she says. “We’re going to need to have some sort of story.”
“I think my secrets kind of already out,” I say, giving a little grimace. ”
And why do we have to tell anyone anything? Just let the rumors fly – it’s not anyone’s business but ours.”
“Yeah,” Cora says, rolling her eyes at me before turning back to her previous task of adding the world’s tiniest amount of orange juice to nearly-full glasses of champagne. “Until they burn us at the stake for being witches or something.”
“We won’t let them do that,” Sinclair murmurs, smirking a little as he focuses his attention on Rafe’s breakfast.
“Plus,” Roger says, shrugging at Cora as if it’s inconsequential, “it’s not like it will work. You can just rain on the fires, Cora.”
I burst out laughing at this and Cora, despite herself, laughs too.
“Well, whatever,” she sighs, carrying a mimosa over to Roger and Sinclair first, who murmur their thanks. “I guess you’re right and it doesn’t really matter at least not until our children develop some weird gifts that end up being dangerous or something. Or make them social pariahs.”
She returns to the counter, handing me a glass of mimosa and taking one for herself, raising it to all of us in a toast. The rest of us raise our glasses as well, toasting baby Jesse and then drinking deeply
Well, they drink deeply. I fake mine, just letting the bubbles of the champagne press against my lips before putting the drink down on the counter, neatly tucked away where Cora can’t see it.
Because as much as I would usually love to toast my nephew’s birth with a festive breakfast beverage…
Well, my reasons for not drinking are so much better. Still, it’s Cora’s day, and I don’t want to steal her thunder just yet. Not that I think she’d mind, just…one happy announcement at a time.
“How did he sleep?” I ask, raising my chin towards Jesse.
“Fitfully,” Cora says, crossing her arms and frowning over at him. “But that’s normal, right?”
I nod, smiling at her a little. “He’ll find his patterns soon, don’t worry. How did you sleep?”
“About the same,” she says, giving me a little smile. “I kept waking up every time he like…moved.”
I grin at her, remembering that habit in the early days of a new baby. “You’ll get used to it too.”
“Well, some people,” Cora says, laughing already and glancing over at Roger, “are already used to it.”
“You cannot begrudge me my sleep, Cora,” Roger says, looking at her completely unashamed of himself. “It is self-care. I will not apologize for it.”
“You have a baby to care for now,” she throws at him, though she smiles. I grin, truly appreciating their teasing relationship. “You need to be a little more self-less.”
“I will care for the baby during the day,” Roger says, gesturing to the baby cradled in his arm. “At night, he’s your son.”
We all laugh again, mostly because we know he’s not serious. Roger, like Sinclair, will certainly do his share of childcare without complaint, day or night. He’ll just tease Cora about it more, mostly because he knows that it makes her laugh.
“How can you take care of the baby all day,” Sinclair asks, turning mischievous eyes on his brother, ”
while you run the military from the palace?”
“I’ll bring him with me,” Roger says, grinning down at Jesse like it’s obvious. “Never too early to get the boy used to a war room.”
I grin, picturing Roger in his admiral’s uniform with a baby asleep on his shoulder, a little barf dribbling down his back. And honestly, I don’t mind it as much as I probably should. These Sinclair dads – I don’t think they’re going to have any hesitation about incorporating their children into the day-to-day activities of their lives.
As I consider it, though, my hand passively drifts over my stomach, because I wonder quietly if the same will be true when there’s a girl in the picture. Would Roger have said the same thing – that it’s never too early for the child to get used to a war room if Jesse had been a girl and not a boy?
I sigh a little, hoping that it’s not true. Because this little girl – she’s going to grow up with two big Alpha boys who are barely a year older than her, and I’m damn well going to have a word with them if they try to cut her out of their activities just because she’s a girl.
You all right? Sinclair says, passing the words discreetly into my mind but keeping his eyes on Rafe as Cora sets out the breakfast plates that I forgot about in my musings.
Yes, I say, letting him see my light worry but also letting him know that it’s not about anything big. Just…mom thoughts.
He nods to me, giving me a little smile as I take my seat next to him.
Our breakfast is lovely, but it goes far too fast. Sooner than I’d like, Sinclair puts a hand on my knee and looks at me with a sad expression, silently letting me know that we really have to get back to the palace. He’s a King after all and while our family comes first and we’ll always make time for them, we do have responsibilities.
“Oh no,” Cora says, pouting as she looks between us. “So soon?”
“I’m sorry,” I say with a sigh. “I mean, if you’d just take me up on my offer to move into the palace while Jesse is a baby
But she just laughs and waves a hand at me as she gets up and clears our plates, dumping them in the sink. “Not a chance – you just gave us this house, we’re not moving again just to have a free nanny.”
“A free auntie,” I say, getting up and moving around the table to say goodbye to Roger and Jesse. “Which is much better. Bye baby Jesse! See you soon!” I leaning down to kiss my baby nephew while Roger holds him safe in his arms.
“Ella,” Cora says, frowning as she holds up my undrunk mimosa, which she has found still sitting by the sink. ”
Why didn’t you drink this?”
At the same moment, just as I’m standing up straight, Roger suddenly grabs my wrist, his eyes flaring wide as he looks up at me. “Wait a second…” he says, his voice suspicious.
I go still, my eyes flicking to Cora, who looks at me in confusion, and then to Sinclair, who starts to grin at me a little bit, shaking his head as he stands with Rafe in his arms.
“Ella,” Roger says, slowly turning my wrist over and giving it a long sniff. ” Oh my god!” he gasps, staring up at me in sudden delight. “You are! You totally are! How did I miss this!?”
“Miss what?” Cora asks, her eyes flicking around at us.
“You were distracted,” Sinclair says, laughing and shrugging.
“Miss what!?” Cora demands again, standing up straight. But then her eyes go wide as she looks at the undrunk mimosa in her hand. “Oh my god!” she gasps.
“Well,” I say, turning to grin at my mate. “Secret’s out now, isn’t it?”
