“Maybe it has,” Drake stated as he placed the French toast platter onto the table.
I wandered over to the table unable to deny my stomach any longer. “I can understand if I were given seven gifts. My gift and then yours. When Greg said he saw those gifts warring in me, did he mean I already had them and the other six were dormant? That when I made the connection with you all, then they truly manifested? That doesn’t even make sense if I have eight. I have my own and then yours.”
“Not if we’ve been reading our mark wrong the whole time. Maybe we never should have counted ourselves in the mark. Maybe the mark meant that our nucleus had seven connections,” Drake spoke carefully.
“Bullshit,” Remy muttered as he angrily stabbed a sausage link.
“What happens if her seventh connection had the ability to make people stronger? Like a catalyst. Like Sierra, but more intricate, like a magnet. She can pull the full potential of someone, especially her connections. It doesn’t go away once the catalyst is taken away,” Drake added vehemently.
“Think about it. We have all grown in our gifts beyond our expectations. Beyond anything a normal nucleus would have been capable of giving us. I can protect buildings now. Whole buildings. Not just a small group of people.
“Jace can feel people from buildings miles away, if he so chose to. He can push his feelings onto an audience.” We all looked over at Jace in surprise.
“It was when we went to the hockey arena,” he said hesitantly. “I had a packed stadium laughing and they had no clue why.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” I asked in a small voice.
Jace frowned. “When we went Christmas shopping, I told you we took the boys to a hockey game. I guess I didn’t want to believe I did it.”
I nodded although I wasn’t happy that he hadn’t told me. I would think that was important information to share with me.
“So, the moral of the story is we’re all exceeding our expectations,” Drake said as he poured his syrup onto his French toast.
I looked around the table; everyone seemed to be digesting the new theory. “That is preposterous. There’s no way I have another connection out there!”
“There’s no way in hell I’m sharing Blake with an outsider.” Remy growled.
“I agree. Can we not talk about something that may not even come to fruition?” Troy insisted as he took a bite of his French toast.
“I just don’t want us all to be blind sided if Greg supports the current theory,” Drake shrugged before he took a drink from his cup of milk.
“Can we just eat breakfast and then watch our movie?” Noah grumbled.
“Yes, please,” I said staidly.
I really didn’t want to think there was someone else out there that could be my connection. I had six men that I loved, and I already felt our road was a long one. I really didn’t need anything else to complicate my life any further.
We were in our second movie when there was knocking on the door. Noah jumped up from the chair he had been reclining in. The moment he opened the door, I heard a loud squeal.
“Noah!” It was Ella’s distinct voice.
I sat up from Troy’s lap and looked up in time to see Alex and Ella come barreling into the room, followed by a more deliberate pace of Micah and Kade.
“Jaxson!” Alex came running into the room and hurled himself into Jaxson’s lap.
Jaxson let out a big oomph. “Hey buddy! Did you miss me?”
“Yes!” Alex exclaimed before continuing his room around the room. He landed in my lap , and Troy reached over and tousled his curls with a smile.
“We got a surprise,” Ella stated as she made her rounds around the room, welcoming the guys back before climbing up next to me and Jace.
“It’s not a surprise if you tell them,” Kade said with a gentle smile.
I had already texted him earlier to see how he was doing. He seemed to be taking it in stride. He seemed more worried about Micah and Alex and admitted to feeling leery about Miranda (his words, not mine) but he was trying to go into it with an open mind.
“How was the trampoline park?” I asked Alex as I hugged him close.
“It was amazing,” he enthused. “I did a flip into the foam pit.”