I walked into the living room to find a sight that broke my heart. Leo was seated on the couch, and Karla was on his lap, her head resting on his chest. The two boys were on either side of him as he told them a story. It brought tears to my eyes, but it also made me angry because the kids could’ve had this all their life if Leo hadn’t rejected me and them.
I get my emotions under control and walk inside. “Dinner is ready,” I tell them.
“Finally, I’m starving,” Emmett says as he gets up from his spot on the ground and stretches. Emmett loves food, and he eats so much that sometimes I forget he isn’t a shifter.
“Come on, guys, dinner’s ready. And guess what? If you clear your plates and finish your greens, I made chocolate cake for dessert,” I tell them. Liam is the first one off the couch.
“You drive a mean bargain, Mom, but I accept,” he tells me, then runs to the dining room.
“Why does your six-year-old sound like a thirty-year-old?” Zeo asks me.
“It’s the movies he watches with Zoey,” I tell Zeo before he leaves, with Emmett behind him.
“Luke, please go make sure your brother isn’t doing anything to that cake,” I tell him.
“Sure,” he says, then gets up and leaves.
“Come on, baby girl, time for dinner,” I tell Karla, stretching my arms towards her. But she clings to Leo.
“Can boss man take me?” she asks with that sweet voice of hers.
“Of course, sweetie,” I tell her, and she gives me that huge smile of hers. I swear, when she smiles, it’s like sunshine.
The three of us leave the living room and walk to the dining room, Leo still carrying Karla. When we enter the dining room, Zoey doesn’t even try to hide the shocked look on her face when she sees Leo carrying Karla, and I completely understand. Karla is shy, unlike her brothers. It takes time for her to open up and get close to people.
“She sits next to me,” I tell Leo when it’s clear he doesn’t know where to put her.
He gently places her in her chair. “You can take the head of the table,” I tell him, and he nods with a small smile.
I take the chair on the left side, right next to him, with Karla on my side and Emmett on her other side. Zeo sits at the other head of the table with Zoey by his side, and the boys are in the other two chairs.
“This all looks and smells amazing, Lena,” Zeo tells me.
“Thank you, but it’s Zoey you should be thanking. I was just the sous chef; she did most of the cooking. I’m the baker in the house, she’s the chef,” I told him, and the glare Zoey had aimed at me could make a grown man shake in his boots.
“Well then, thank you, Zoey, for this lovely meal,” he said, and she just huffed at him, but he smiled at her.
“That’s not nice, Aunt Zoey. He thanked you, and you’re supposed to say ‘you’re welcome,’” Luke told Zoey, and I’m pretty sure, like me, everyone at the table was holding back a laugh.
Emmett let out his laugh but covered it up with a sneeze.
Zoey glared at him before turning to Zeo. “You’re welcome,” she basically growled at him, but the idiot had a shit-eating grin on his face.
“Who’s gonna carve the chicken, Mommy?” Karla whispered to me. “Leo, would you please help us carve the chicken?” I asked him.
“Of course. Does anyone have any preferences?” he asked.
Immediately, Zoey and I shouted, “Nooool.”
“I want the wings!” Luke and Liam said at the same time.
Leo looked so confused. “What is it?” he asked me.
“Now you’ve started a civil war,” I told him, and I could see the moment it dawned on him.
“Oh, shit.”
“It’s fine, we don’t usually ask the kids, especially the boys, what parts they want because it usually turns into a fight. I’m sorry, it completely slipped my mind. I should’ve told you,” I said, turning to the boys whose eyes were on Leo, waiting to see what he was going to say or do.
“It’s fine, I can handle it,” he told me, and I wanted to snort out laughing and tell him that he couldn’t, but I kept quiet. Like they say, experience is the best teacher.
He turned and faced the boys. “Boys, you know a chicken only has two wings, right?” he asked them.
“Yeah, we know,” they both said.
“You know you’re both growing boys, right? You need to eat a lot to keep up with your fast metabolism. I remember when I was your age, me and Zeo could finish a whole chicken just between the two of us,” Leo said, then looked to Zeo to back him up.
“Yes, that is true,” Zeo said as the kids turned to look at him.
“So how about you both share the wings and take another part of the chicken? How does that sound?” Leo asked the boys.
We all waited to hear their response. I knew there was no way this diplomatic approach was going to work.
“That sounds fine, boss man,” Liam said.
“Yes, I’m good with that,” Luke told Leo.
I looked at my two sons in shock and turned to Zoey, who had the same expression on her face. No, there’s no way. We must’ve entered some kind of alternate universe or something like that. Because what usually happens in a situation like this is Liam throws a huge tantrum, Luke ends up arguing with him, and some days they don’t even eat the chicken that started the bloody argument.
I stayed quiet as Leo cut out the parts and handed everyone their plates before he finally sat down and everyone helped themselves to the side dishes.
“Are you a wizard? Did you just use some kind of spell on my kids?” I whispered to him so the kids wouldn’t hear me. It’s a good thing they don’t know how to use their shifter hearing yet.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he told me, but there was a smirk on his face.
“Oh really? This doesn’t usually work. They’re probably on their best behavior because it’s your first time here. Attend more dinners, and let’s see how they behave then,” I told him.
Then he turned to me with a look of hope in his eyes, and it was then I realized what I’d just said. “So I’m going to be invited to more dinners?” he asked me.
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