As soon as Wyatt went to get Chloe, I sprang into action. I had crushed her with my selfishness. I let my insecurities lead the way and it did nothing but hurt everyone I loved. I needed to make it right and quick. Wyatt would take time. A lot of time. I had inadvertently opened wounds from his first mate’s death and those were going to be between us for a long time. But Chloe, Chloe I could mend faster. I hoped.

I was just about finished setting up when she came bounding into the room, attacking me with the biggest bear hug imaginable.

“Chloe, I’m so sorry.” The words were beyond inadequate, but they were a start.

“You’re back.” She nestled in my neck.

“I had to come back” I pulled back, rubbing our noses together before pointing to the tea party I had been feverishly setting up only moments earlier. “We have a tea party today.”

“You remembered.” And just like that, she broke my heart all over again. I vowed then and there to not only fix things with Chloe, but make it so that she never doubted me again, not my love, not my commitment, not my desire to help her grow into the amazing woman I knew she was going to become.

“Of course I remembered.” I squeezed her hand before turning back to the tea party set up on the floor, making sure everything was set up just so. “I love you, and when you love someone you remember the important things.” And don’t leave them like a dumb-ass, selfish prick. I stared at the tea set, hoping she missed the tears trying to break free. She needed me strong. My weakness had already hurt her enough.

“But you left.” That was my Chloe. Straightforward and to the point.

“I did.” I patted the seat beside me. She chose my lap instead. Sweet, forgiving girl. “And I’m sorry.”

“If you don’t want to be my daddy, it’s ok.” She patted my cheek, her puppy dog eyes saying far more than her words. “You can still be my Oliver.”

“Can I be both?” My voice cracked. I wanted so much to be both, but I deserved to be neither.

“Yes!” She hugged me around the neck, practically knocking me over.

“I love you, Chloe.”

“I love you, Oliver. Promise not to leave.” She spoke the last part almost too quiet for me to hear as if she were afraid I would say no. I was officially the biggest asshole on this planet. I put that fear there. Me.

“I do. I promise.” I hugged her tight. I would follow through on my promise. She deserved it. “Ready for our tea party?” I needed to break away from the heavy before I began sobbing. “Who should we invite today? Mrs. Bear?”

“No.” She climbed off my lap and grabbed an unidentifiable stuffed animal off the bed. I conjectured that at one point it had been a bear of some kind, but it had been mended many times and now more resembled a monster than anything else. She handed it to me. “I think we should invite Wubby Girl and Daddy.”

“I think that’s a brilliant idea.” I placed Wubby Girl on the spot beside me. “Want to get Daddy while I finish setting up?”

“No need.” Wyatt rounded the corner. Of course he had been there, listening. Any good father would be. If it weren’t for all the snot clogging me up, thanks to my sobbing, I would’ve scented him. “I was just stopping by to see how things were going.”

“Just in time, Daddy.” Chloe was practically bouncing. “The tea party is almost ready. You sit here by Daddy.”

And that was awkward.

“We can’t both be the same name, Chloe bug,” Wyatt corrected. Shit, had I overstepped? I couldn’t deny her when she asked with those puppy dog eyes, not that I wanted to. I wanted to be one of her dads more than anything. “It’ll be too confusing.”

“Your dad’s right,” I said. My heart deflated the tiniest of bits. I was still in her life, still had my role as her nanny, the rest could be worked out at another time. Even if she were sixteen and I was still her Oliver, that wouldn’t change how I loved or cared for her. It was only a name. “Why don’t you just call me Oliver?”

“You said you would be both.” Her face dropped.

“It’s true. I did.” I was at a loss at what to do next. In hindsight, Wyatt and I should have had a far more in-depth discussion before I talked to Chloe. Sure, she would have hurt a bit longer, but then we would have been on the same page avoiding further hurt. I turned to my alpha. “Wyatt?”

“Hmmm if I am Daddy…” He rubbed his chin, exaggerating the movement. He already had an answer for this, the glint in his eye gave him away. Thank freaking goodness. “Maybe he could be Papi like your friend Suzy’s omega daddy?”

Papi. I could be a Papi.

“I like Papi.” I placed my hand on Wyatt’s knee as he finally joined us on the floor. We were both going to regret the floor tea party when we got up, but for now, it would have to do. Next time, we were having it the kitchen. Maybe with real tea. Yeah, she would like that and I liked the idea of next time.

“Me too,” Chloe quickly agreed. Crisis averted. “You know Suzy’s daddy and papi only have one bedroom.” And new crisis introduced. If I didn’t know better, I would say our little girl was playing us. Our. I loved the sound of that.

“Is that so.” Wyatt went back to his I’m thinking chin rub. “Maybe Oliver and I should do that too.”

“Yes, Daddy. That’s how Papis work.” She sat down across from me and next to both her dad and Wubby Girl before pouring fake tea into all of our cups and passing around the equally fake cream and sugar. “Her Papi is having a baby. You should do that too. A girl.”

Oh yeah, she was playing us. Wyatt’s chuckle told me he had come to the same conclusion.

“Chloe, think about the puppies and kittens at work. Do I get to decide if they are boy or girl puppies and kitties?”

“No. Their mama does that.” This talk was quickly going into territory I was uncomfortable with. Wyatt was the vet. I was leaving all discussions on how babies came to be to him.

“Actually, no one gets to pick.” He was simply factual and it seemed to be enough for her.

“That’s not fair. Brothers are boring.”

I had to laugh. She had neither a brother or a sister, so how she got this notion was beyond me.

“Have you ever had one?” Wyatt asked and earning him a come on, Dad glare.

“No, but Suzy says her brother is boring.”

Suzy’s brother was a few years older than her and wanted nothing to do with his baby sister. That wasn’t boring, it was being siblings, but Chloe didn’t need to know that. She was going to have plenty of time to figure it out on her own.

“That doesn’t mean all brothers are,” I piped in as I poured her more tea.

“Fine, you can have a boy.” She glared at me as if we had been lying the entire time and were in control of the gender of what for all she knew was a hypothetical sibling.

“Chloe. We had a surprise to tell you, but you probably already guessed it.” Wyatt sounded so happy as he began the reveal. He was happy about this baby. Our family. How had I gotten it so terribly wrong? It was too soon to blame it on hormones. It was just my lack of self-esteem and my fear of rejection. I needed to fix that shit, and soon, because that was no way to role model for a child and within the year I was going to have two.

“I’m going to have a baby. Your brother or sister,” I emphasized.

“Really? Can they come tomorrow?” She launched herself into my arms and Wyatt scootched in behind us to wrap his arms around us both. “I can give them a spot in my bed and everything. I’m a good sharer.”

She was not a good sharer. But we had nine months to work on that.

“That’s not exactly how things work,” Wyatt chuckled before going into the exact baby conversation I was hoping to avoid. At least it was him talking about when a Daddy and a Papi love each other, because I was so not ready for that part of fatherhood just yet… or possibly ever.