I reluctantly pried my eyes away from my sleeping angel’s face when Austin walked in with Mr. and Mrs. Landon. Even though I had my issues with them, they were Josh's parents—and our son's grandparents. And the fact that they'd waited here throughout my delivery and until I'd been settled into a private room spoke volumes. Maybe they weren't as bad as I’d thought? Only time would tell.

My mind was still racing with random thoughts and mixed emotions when Mrs. Landon walked a little closer to the bed, holding her hands to her heart as she bent to look at her grandson for the first time. "What's his name?" she asked softly, her eyes fixed on his little face.

"Here, Mrs. Landon—why don't you hold him." As I carefully passed the baby into her arms, she turned to me with a hesitant smile.

"I realize that we haven't always been on the best terms, Owen. I feel like I need to apologize for that. I'd like for us to start fresh. And please, call me Brenda." She cradled my son in her arms, staring at him with a radiant smile as she spoke. "What did you say his name was, dear?"

It took me a few seconds to process the one-hundred-and-eighty degree turn her attitude had taken. "Sure, Brenda. I'd like to start over. Let's begin with introducing you to your grandson—Joshua Landon Logan, or Jay, as we plan to call him."

Mr. Landon—I should probably get used to calling him Bradford, I supposed—turned to Austin. "You've allowed your husband to name our grandson after our son? You do realize that as an alpha, the child is rightfully yours by marriage since his sire is deceased, don't you?"

Austin twitched uncomfortably in his seat beside my bed. "No, we aren't… I mean, really we just—"

I interrupted and put him out of his misery. "What my husband means to say is that we aren't old-school like that. Austin respects the fact that Joshua is Jay's sire, and we will certainly raise him to know about his father… if he survives," I added with a hitch in my voice when I looked at my son and realized that he might not have all that long of a lifespan ahead of him.

Austin was on my bed in a flash, sitting at my side and taking my hand in his. "You can't think like that, Owen. You have to have faith that everything will be okay. Remember what the Landons told us? If even one of them hadn't been a carrier, the chances would've been so much lower. Josh only had a fifty percent chance of being a carrier, so let's not put the cart before the horse."

"But like I said at home, I don't know my genetics and that's the problem. I was a fire station baby who grew up in the foster system, remember? Who knows where I came from?" I blushed when Brenda's eyebrows shot to her hairline. I hadn't realized that Josh had never told her my history.

Mrs. Landon—Brenda—passed Jay to Bradford and motioned toward my bed. "May I sit with you for a moment?" At my nod, she gingerly sat at the foot of the bed, her posture perfectly erect as she sat with her hands folded in her lap like a well-trained debutante as she turned to look at me. "I owe you an apology—so many, many apologies, if I'm to be honest. I'm sorry that I never gave you a chance when Joshua was alive, and I can never forgive myself for putting you out on the streets after he passed. But I'm sorrier than I can ever tell you for waiting so long to warn you about the Tay-Sachs, and for frightening you so badly that your water broke when I finally found the courage to do so."

I winced when my sore abdomen twinged as I leaned forward, reaching for her hand. She immediately complied, slipping her hand in mine with a small smile.

"Brenda, I forgive you for all of that, and even for not telling me. I would've had him anyway. By delaying the news, all you did was spare me months of worry." Glancing over at Jay, I couldn't help but smile. My heart felt so full of warmth right now that I honestly thought if I looked down, I’d probably find that my chest was glowing. I looked back at Brenda. "Let me ask you a question. Would you have carried Heath to term if you'd known that you’d lose him so soon? Or would you have wanted every moment that you had with him?"

She gave my hand a squeeze, a tear running down her face as she smiled. "You're right. I wouldn't have traded those few short months I had with my baby for anything." She pulled her hand back and opened her purse to pull out a tissue to dab her eyes. "You're a good man, Owen. I can't help but think that Joshua would've been so ashamed of us for treating you the way we did. I'm sorry I never got to know you better when he was alive. He spoke of you often, you know. You were like a brother to him. Well, maybe not a brother, I suppose, if you two…" She trailed off with a blush as she watched Bradford rocking Jay in his arms.

"Yeah, we definitely weren’t like brothers," I said, wincing at the nervous giggle that accompanied my statement.

She turned back to me, her eyebrows pulled together with concern as she searched my eyes. "Would it be okay if we saw you and Jay again? In all my worries about facing a third heartbreak and loss after you told us that you were pregnant with our son’s child, I was so focused on the specter of Tay-Sachs that I never thought about the fact that you were carrying the only family we have left."

My vision blurred as tears filled my eyes. Wiping them away with the back of my hand, I nodded quickly. "Of course you can see him and be a part of his life. I wouldn't dishonor Josh by doing anything less. Besides, we’ve agreed that we’re starting over and turning a new leaf, right?" I smiled shyly, hoping that this really was the start of a new chapter with this couple. I wanted Jay to have all the family he could have—both the one I'd given him through my marriage of convenience, and the one that was rightfully his by birth.

When they left a few minutes later after promising to visit once I was well enough to receive visitors again, Austin took a turn cuddling Jay. I wasn't sure how to feel; my stomach was turning somersaults from all the emotions that were swirling around inside me.

Austin and I had only meant to be married on paper, and yet somehow over the past few months, we'd come to a place where he was sitting on the hospital bed beside me cuddling Jay. He'd spent the entire labor at my side, never even flinching at all the germs and bacteria that were surely present in the room. Hell, he hadn't even hesitated to cut the cord. When had my fake husband become my friend—and the one person I could count on?

"Am I hogging him?" Austin asked softly. "I don't want to cheat you out of holding him if you want a turn."

"Not at all." I smiled. "You're pretty good at holding babies, you know. Hell, probably better than me. Looks like all that cool uncle training has prepared you for…" My voice trailed off hesitantly. I wasn't quite sure how to finish that statement. Austin and I hadn't really discussed what role he wanted to play in Jay's life. Legally, he was Jay's parent now, by virtue of our marriage. But I didn't want him to feel stuck or…

"Quit thinking so hard," Austin said gently. "I believe the word you’re looking for was parenthood? And yes, I've had a lot of field training to prepare me to be Jay's dad."

"I just didn't want to assume too much," I said thickly. "You've already done above and beyond what anybody would, and…" I glanced up with a teasing grin. "We forgot to cover this subject in the prenup."

"Let me just clear it up for you, then." Austin bent to press a kiss to Jay's forehead before turning back to face me. "You were pregnant when I married you. I was fully cognizant of the fact that I was marrying both of you when I signed that marriage certificate. The two of you came part and parcel, no returns accepted. If you'll allow it, I would like to be Jay's dad—I want to be your family, Owen. Yours and Jay’s. While he'll always know about Josh, I want him to have no doubts that I'm his dad too, and that I’m not going anywhere. And if you want me to have an addendum made to the prenup, or maybe draw up a postnuptial agreement, I'll do whatever it takes to set your mind at ease."

Oh, damn. I fanned my face with my hand, willing away the flood of tears that were about to fall. "You can't just say things like that, Austin. Don't you know that I just gave birth and I'm pretty much a big ball of hormones right now? You’re gonna make me ugly cry all over the place if you keep saying sweet things like that."

I expected Austin to say something snarky or do his usual trick of deflection where he used humor to distract, but instead, he just gazed at me with those luscious, chocolate-brown eyes. "I don't care how we ended up here, but I know one thing—you're my husband now, and Jay is my son. I never intended to get married, I’ve told you that. But what I didn't know was how nice it would be married to someone you genuinely like having around. Besides, you didn’t even freak out at my flu cabinet or food storage systems. I know we still have a lot to figure out and it'll take us a while to get there, but I'm not going anywhere. I’m in this with you—if you’ll have me, Owen."

"Oh, snap. Someone went and broke the tin man because that was the most romantic shit I've ever heard in my life. Damn it to hell, you're gonna make me go home and make Cody put another baby in me after hearing that romantic speech," Houston said dramatically as he walked in the room with the rest of the Logan men right behind him.

Right before he got to the bed, he spun on his heel and pointed at Lukas. "I am so going to win that bet. Did you not just hear that speech? Bitch, please. You might as well pay up now, and I'll buy you a cup of crappy cafeteria coffee with it on our way out."

"Enough about your silly bet," Kyle said with a groan as he brushed past Houston to get a look at Jay. "There he is." Kyle knelt beside the bed, his voice going high as he leaned over Dallas to coo at Jay. "What's your name, baby boy?"

"Gentlemen, I’d like you to meet Joshua Landon Logan, but we’re calling him Jay," Austin answered proudly as he tipped his arm up to give Kyle a better look.

"Oh, that's the sweetest. You've named him after both his dads." Gideon came around the other side of the bed to give me a hug. "Because he’s named Logan for Austin, obviously."

"I'm pretty sure that Logan's his legal name since they're married, angel," Beau said with a chuckle as he set a big teddy bear and a bouquet of flowers on the table at the foot of my bed.

"Semantics, Beaumont," Houston said with a sniff in Gideon's defense. "Logan is Jay's daddy Austin's last name, so technically, he is named after him. Don't be a jerk."

"Yeah, don't be a jerk." Lukas smirked, swatting Beau playfully on the butt before coming around to give me a hug like Gideon had. He flashed me a wink. "Congratulations, Owen. Welcome to the jungle that we call parenthood. Don't worry, if the spawn gets on your nerves, he has plenty of uncles to come scoop him up when you need a break."

I couldn't help it, I started blubbering. I tried to apologize, but Gid just giggled and crawled up onto the bed beside me, snuggling into my side and gently hugging me as if he’d known me forever. "Don't worry about it, Owen. We've all been there. Remember, I just had Rosie a few months ago, I still have all these emotional moments. But we're your family, and we're the ones you're supposed to be able to be yourself around. I know you don't know us all that well yet, but we already love you. So go ahead and cry; I'll even cry with you if it'll make you feel better."

My tears turned to giggles until I was doing this weirdly hysterical mix of laughing and crying with Gideon while Austin simply passed Jay to Uncle Dallas and slid his arm around my shoulders and hugged me to his side. "Listen to Gid, Owen. He's absolutely right. We're the ones you get to let it all hang out with."

"That's what he said," Lukas and Houston said in stereo, making me laugh even harder. I’d never felt this accepted and… loved. My emotions were all over the place, and I felt like maybe I had helium in my veins because if Austin weren’t holding me firmly to his side, I was pretty sure I’d probably float away right about now.

When I’d finally calmed down, I leaned deeper into Austin's strangely comforting embrace and smiled at the guys sitting around the room, lost in their own conversations as they took turns passing Jay around.

We still needed to tell them about our concerns for Jay’s health, but that could wait a few minutes longer. For now, I was just going to relish this moment of happiness. After a lifetime of looking, I couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, I'd found my forever family.