“Jax,” I say gently, wiping a streak of flour from his cheek. “There’s something we need to talk to you about.”
He pauses his mixing, blinking up at me. “Am I in trouble?”
“No, baby.” I press a kiss to his head. “You’re not in trouble.”
Ryder steps closer, his deep voice steady but soft. “It’s about Greg.”
Jaxon brightens at the name. “Greg? Is he coming back? Can we make him pizza? It’s his favourite.”
My heart twists. I glance at the others, and Ryder gives me the tiniest nod. We’d rehearsed this. We just need to stick to the plan.
“Honey, Greg’s not going to be around anymore.”
Jax frowns. “Why? Did I do something wrong?”
“No,” I say quickly, cupping his cheek. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Greg made some bad choices that make him not safe to be around.”
“Bad choices?” he repeats, trying to process.
Parker moves to his other side, his voice soft. “You know how in your cartoons, sometimes a character pretends to be the good guy, but really they’re not?”
Jax nods slowly.
“Well, Greg was pretending,” Parker continues. “He isn’t who we thought he was. That doesn’t mean the time you spent with him wasn’t real, but it does mean we can’t trust him anymore.”
Jaxon’s lip trembles, and my chest aches.
Callen gently sets the spoon aside and ruffles his hair. “Sometimes people wear masks, buddy. They act nice, but underneath, they’re not. It’s not because of anything you did, and you don’t need to worry about anything.”
Jaxon glances between us all, looking confused. “But… I liked Greg.”
“I know, sweetheart,” I whisper, pulling him into my arms. “And it’s okay to feel sad about it, but from now on, if you ever see him, you come straight to one of us. No matter what he says. Promise?”
He sniffles against my shoulder. “I promise, Mummy.”
Ryder leans down, his big hand covering Jax’s small back. “You don’t have to worry, son. We’ll always keep you safe.”
Parker clears his throat and gestures at the cookie dough. “How about we finish these cookies, huh? Nothing makes bad news better than warm chocolate chips.”
Jaxon gives a watery giggle, wiping his nose on his sleeve. “Okay, but can get extra chocolate chips?”
“Sure, you can,” Callen says immediately, already reaching for the bag.
Jax dives straight back into baking with a little more seriousness than before. I catch Ryder’s eye over his head, and he gives me a reassuring nod.
I hate it upset him, but I don’t think that could have gone any better. I feel a little safer now, knowing he won’t run straight into the enemy’s arms if he ever sees him again.
** Parker’s POV **
By the time the cookies are cooling on the counter, Jaxon has chocolate smudged across his cheek, flour in his hair, and one of the biggest grins I’ve seen since he came to live here. He’s still buzzing with his usual energy. Either he’s so resilient that he’s already over the whole
Greg thing, or he’s just very good at hiding how he feels. There’s also the possibility that he’s just riding a sugar-high.
We spend the rest of the afternoon making a fuss of him while Paige gets some work done.
When evening comes, Ryder scoops him up for a piggyback ride to the stairs. Jax clings a little tighter than usual. Which makes me think he might have been putting a brave face on all day.
“I’ll take him tonight,” I offer quickly, because usually Ryder or Paige claims bedtime duty before I can blink.
Ryder arches a brow but doesn’t argue. He just hands Jaxon over and ruffles his hair. “Don’t let him trick you into staying up late.”
Jaxon grins, his small arms wrapping around my neck. “I don’t trick people.”
The lie is so obvious we all laugh, and then it’s just me and the little man heading upstairs.
We stop off at Ryder’s room so he can say goodnight to his mum, and then I take him into the room he’s claimed as his own.
He wiggles down onto his bed while I grab the blanket from the end and tuck it around him. It feels natural to be doing this, and every part of me is convinced this is where I belong.
“Can you read me one story?” Jax asks, already reaching for the book on his nightstand.
“We sure can,” I say, settling on the bed beside him. “But no sneaky ‘one more, please’ after.
Deal?”
“Deal.” He sticks out his pinky finger, and I hook mine with his. Then he snuggles up against my side, and I feel like my chest might burst.
I read the book with animated voices for each character, something I learned from years of pack pups climbing onto my lap for stories, but this is different. This isn’t just a pack pup. This is Paige’s pup. This is our pup. I might not have given him my blood, but every instinct in me screams that he’s mine just as much as Ryder’s.
Halfway through, Jax interrupts, whispering, “Parker?”
“Yeah, bud?”
“Do you think Greg misses me?”
The question cuts me deep, and I have to take a breath before I answer.
More Reward
“I think,” I say, pausing to find the right words, “that Greg made choices that mean he can’t be around you anymore. That doesn’t mean you did anything wrong or that he doesn’t miss you. It doesn’t mean you can’t miss him either. It just means Greg isn’t the kind of person you can count on.”
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