Until Cobi (Until Him 3)

Hadley

Years, and years, and years later . . .

“You’re the one who decided she should get a car for her seventeenth birthday,” I remind Cobi, as he shoves his fingers through his hair and stomps past the front window for the thousandth time in the last three hours. He started pacing approximately thirty seconds after Chloe left to go out on a double date.

“You agreed with me.” He stops long enough to look at where I’m currently sitting on our couch, watching the TV and him.

“I was under the influence of your penis. I don’t think that counts.” He grins, but then it slips away and his eyes move over me then back to the window. “She’s okay, honey. It’s not even time for her curfew,” I remind him as he goes back to pacing.

“I just want to know she’s home safe.”

“And she’ll be home soon, but your pacing is not going to magically make her appear,” I say, and he glares at me. “Come sit down.” I pat the cushion next to me.

“If she didn’t look like you, I wouldn’t worry so much, but she looks just like you.”

She doesn’t look like me. She has my hair and build, but she has her dad’s beautiful eyes and sweet personality. Really, I think she looks a lot like her grandma Liz.

“I see Daddy’s still pacing,” Briana, our fifteen-year-old daughter, comments as she comes into the living room, plopping down on the couch next to me. I giggle when she gives me a surprised look and then smiles. Our middle girl looks a lot like a mixture of Cobi and me, with her daddy’s hair and my eyes.

“Is Chloe home yet?” Jace, our fourteen-year-old mini alpha, shouts from his bedroom upstairs, and Briana shouts back “No” before I hear his bare feet hit the hardwoods upstairs. I listen as he jumps down the stairs—I’m sure skipping three or four at a time. Something I tell him not to do all the time, something he does anyway, because apparently he can’t help himself. Thankfully though, he’s never broken anything doing it.

“You shouldn’t have let her go, Dad,” he says to Cobi as soon as he hits the living room.

Briana hisses, “Shut up, Jace.”

“You shut up,” he returns, glaring at his sister.

“Both of you, stop it,” Cobi cuts in on a growl, and both of them clamp their mouths shut and look at their dad with wide eyes. “Do not tell each other to shut up. Got it?” He looks between the two of them.

“Yeah, Dad,” Jace mumbles.

“Yes, Daddy,” Briana says softly.

I fight back a smile and wrap my arm around Briana then touch my boy’s face when he sits close to me on my other side.

“Can I make popcorn?” Jace asks after a few minutes of watching TV.

“Sure, honey,” I reply, and he gets off the couch, walking past his father, who reaches out and pulls him into a hug that he returns instantly.

Jace is the spitting image of his dad from head to toe, but he will probably be taller, since he’s already touching the top of his head to Cobi’s chin, and so tall I have to look up at him even now.

“Bring me a beer on your way back, kid,” Cobi orders, and Jace smiles at him before disappearing through the door.

“I cannot wait to start dating,” Briana states, and her dad stops pacing long enough to give her a look that has us both cracking up.

Jace comes back in with a bowl of popcorn, handing his dad his beer before taking the seat next to me again. Briana and I both dig in, ignoring his comments about us eating it all. I watch my husband out of the corner of my eye, and when I see his broad shoulders relax, I know my oldest baby is home.

“Scoot, kid,” he orders Jace, standing over where he’s still sitting next to me.

“What?” Jace asks through a mouthful of popcorn.

Instead of repeating himself, he sits down between Jace and me, taking the bowl of popcorn and placing it on his lap.

“So you’re going to pretend like you haven’t been standing at the window since she left?” I guess, rolling my eyes at my husband while both kids on the couch with us laugh at him.

“Just act normal.” He wraps his arm around my shoulders, pulling me firmly into his side.

I look up at him as he tips his head down, and announce, “You’re crazy.”

His response is to kiss me, and when he pulls away, I’m smiling.

“Hey, guys,” Chloe says as soon as she walks into the room. I look at my beautiful girl, who’s looking at her dad while shrugging off her coat. “I’m home, so you can stop worrying now.”

“I wasn’t worried,” he lies, and I let out a laugh, feeling his arm tighten around me.