“I love you.” I snuggled in as close as I could, savoring his knot. “And not just the we had sex and I’m currently feeling euphoria I love you, but a legit, in my soul with all I am love, I love you.”

“Who’s the sap now?”

I tapped his nose playfully before capturing my lips with his in an all too brief, yet very satisfying kiss.

“I never pretended not to be.”

He smiled at me as I caught my breath.

“I’m sorry. I promise to never act that irrationally and selfishly again,” I vowed.

“Oh, my omega, you don’t need to apologize anymore.” He squeezed me tightly. “We both messed up. That is what people who love each other do. We will mess up again and again. The important thing is that we remember to never give up, even when one of us is being a dumbass.”

“Cause that’s definitely going to happen,” I conceded. We were both going to mess up. It was okay, as long as we remembered what was important instead of freaking out and running away. And by we, I meant me.

“It is,” he agreed, the guilt of our near catastrophe still settled in his eyes.

“So…” If we allowed ourselves, we would ruin the rest of our knot time shrouded in guilt. Well deserved, but not at all useful, guilt. “I need to give you my notice.”

“Notice of what?” It was adorable the way his nose scrunched up in confusion.

“Quitting, obviously.” I cupped his cheek with my hand, needing to feel as much of him pressed against me as possible, still partially convincing myself this was all real and that he was mine. “You don’t need a nanny anymore.”

“Are you okay with that?” His head tilted, putting more pressure on my hand and sending warmth straight to my heart.

“What, not getting paid for doing the same work?” There was no way I should be getting paid for being his omega. We both knew that, but it still needed to be said.

“Yeah, that.” He laughed at the ridiculousness of the entire thing.

“I’m more than okay.” I lifted my face to meet his, our foreheads touching. “It means this is real and we are a family.” Family. Just saying the word was everything. I was his. He was mine. And together with Chloe and the little one growing inside me, we were family. An honest to goodness family. One built on love, not on expectations.

“We were a family long before this. Chloe could see it. We knew it too, even if we didn’t admit it to ourselves.” He was such a smart man–most of the time.

“Family,” I repeated again, letting the word echo in my head. “I love the sound of that.”

“I love you.” Wyatt sealed his words with a kiss.

“And I love you.”

“And I love our little boy.” Wyatt settled his hand on my belly. “I can’t wait to see you grow as our baby grows inside of you.

“You think boy?” I placed my hand on his. I thought boy too, mostly because Chloe was so adamant for a girl. I would be happy either way. I had wasted so much time believing I was barren that it still wasn’t completely real to me.

“I do. Chloe is going to be mad.”

“No, she’s going to love him as much as we do.” I downplayed what we both knew would be her initial reaction. She would love him or her, it was true, but if and when she found out it was a boy–whoa nelly. “She’s a pretty amazing kid.”

“She’s a lot like her mama.”

“You still miss her.” I wasn’t jealous or even uncomfortable with it.

“And I always will, but that doesn’t make me love you less.”

Wyatt was with me because he loved me. His love for her didn’t detract from that at all. We each held a place in his heart, one of significance. I just happened to be the one lucky enough to be here to enjoy it now.

“This I know.” I squeezed his hand, still nestled on my belly. “I’m glad you miss her. It means your love was real. I wish you didn’t hurt, but never once did it cross my mind that I wanted you to have loved her less. Your love made Chloe, and my life is exponentially better with her in it.”

I meant every last word. We laid there enjoying the last few minutes of his knot. There was something magical about that time, the time after sex but before we separated. I’d never had that before. Before it was always from behind and we would lay on our side, asshole alpha falling asleep until his knot was down enough to disentangle our bodies. I had no idea how amazing this anatomically forced together time could actually be. It was pretty freaking amazing.

“I want to show you something.” Wyatt was the one who started speaking first. He sounded almost nervous, but cute. “It’s kind of a weird thing to show you right after make-up sex, but I think it is important.”

“What is it?”

He sat up, taking me with him.

“A video. Of Jen. For our little girl.” He looked at me, almost as if waiting for reassurance which I offered with a smile. “I feel like it will show you who she was and why she will forever hold a place in my heart.”

“It’s going to make me cry, isn’t it?”

“Like you never have before,” he admitted.