Chapter 478

“You’re going to love it –“ I say, grinning at Marigold, who sits up, as intrigued as her dad. “It’s called Mystery Hunk saves –“

“Give me that –“ Jackson snarls, snatching for it. But I burst out laughing, pressing it closer to Marigold instead.

“It’s her present, Jacks, you can’t take away her present –“

“Dad!” Marigold bursts out, desperately pleased, pointing at the image of her father on the front of the magazine.

“Oh my god, Marigold,” Jackson groans, leaning far over and reaching for it. But when his fingers curl around it Marigold gasps, clutching it to her.

“My mystery hunk!” Marigold protests, her eyes going big and round with worry.

“Yeah, Jacks!” I say, cackling a bit with glee, grinning at my mate. “It’s her book!”

Jackson sighs and releases the magazine, letting her have it. “I’m taking that back the moment you learn how to read, Marigold.”

She brushes that point aside, smiling down at the magazine. “Mystery hunk.”

“Yes, that’s daddy!” I say, laughing, a little delighted. “What a great story!”

“You’ll pay for this,” Jackson sighs, turning his eyes to me.

My grin widens as I crawl closer to him, snuggling up and letting him pull me into his lap. “I’d better,” I murmur, passing him a sultry little pulse down the bond. He laughs at that, low and deep, pulling me close to his chest.

“You good?” he murmurs, pressing a kiss to my cheek just below my ear.

“I’m amazing,” I whisper, turning my face and pressing a kiss to his mouth in turn – much more chaste than I’d like it to be, for Marigold’s sake.

I end the kiss quickly, turning my eyes back to the little girl as she flips through the pages of the magazine, fascinated, squeaking happily when she finds more pictures of her dad somewhere in the middle.

“I’ll tell you everything,” I say softly, glancing up at my mate. “But…let’s put her to bed first, okay?”

“Sounds good to me,” Jackson says, giving me a squeeze. Then together we lean forward to Goldie, telling her the story of the Mystery Hunk that we make up as we go, doing our best to make it make sense alongside the pictures and failing pretty astoundingly. But Marigold doesn’t care, laughing softly at us before her eyes slip shut and her cheek rests softly against the pillow, falling quickly asleep, her little hand flat on the open pages of the tabloid.

“She’s so perfect,” I whisper, leaning forward to brush a soft finger across the swell of her lovely little cheek.

“Yeah, she really is,” Jackson sighs. I turn to smile at him, loving how much he loves her already, how easily he’s fallen into his new role. “She’s a miracle.”

“So are you, Jackson,” I whisper, sitting up, reaching for him.

Jackson gives a quiet little snarl, bundling me up in his arms and standing as he grabs the baby monitor, accomplishing it all in one sweeping move. “Come on, Tiny,” he says, nudging his nose against mine. “Food first, then you tell me everything that jackass said to you in the courtyard, then I’m taking you to bed too.”

I bite my lip, swinging my legs a little in anticipation, my stomach fluttering with happiness as my mate carries me from the room.

Jackson carries me through the living room and we give a little wave to the boys who are gathered there, but I murmur him to keep going, wanting privacy tonight. Following my directions, Jackson carries me to one of the dining rooms very close to the family apartments. This dining room is my favorite because it’s so tiny and cozy – really only suitable for two or three people. Mom and dad use it for their date nights, or for one-on-one meals with each of us kids.

I use an intercom to call a request for some simple food down to the kitchens and then settle in close to my mate, filling him in on everything that happened in the courtyard. Jackson listens quietly but intently, nodding along, only snarling softly to vent his anger about Luca’s behavior. But as I tell him everything that happened over the next twenty or so minutes until the food is delivered, keeping absolutely nothing back.

And as we begin to eat the simple but full charcuterie board, I can’t keep my smile from growing. Because even though I can feel that Jackson is unhappy about Luca’s audacity in coming here, trying to start things with me again, he never, not once, directs a single ounce of anger, or distrust, or hesitation towards me.

Instead, my sweetheart mate only listens and trusts, knowing with his whole self that I’d never betray him. Not even for a moment does Jackson begrudging me my right to speak alone to anyone on earth – even Luca or Gabriel - because Jackson trusts in me, believes in us.

And if anything, my love for him only grows richer and deeper in this moment. My Jackson – he’s all warmth and support. I steel my heart again in my determination to do everything I can in this world to deserve him.

“Luca Grant,” Jackson murmurs, reaching across the table for a slice of apple and cheese as he shakes his head with a bit of bafflement. “He should bottle and sell his confidence. He’d make a fortune.”

“If he could,” I sigh, pulling a grape off a stem and popping it into my mouth. “His uncle probably would have already done it.” I pause a moment, looking my mate up and down. “So, you’re okay with all of that? The whole conversation?”

Jackson shrugs. “Rafe said Luca came around and was all contrite when we were in Atalaxia. I don’t like that he was hiding out in the courtyard like a coward. I didn’t like the sight of you standing alone with him after he hurt you –“

“But –“ I protest, sitting straight.

Jackson puts up a hand, smirking at me, silently begging me to let him finish. I grin and sit back. “But,” he says, putting steady emphasis on the word. “You’re a powerful goddess. You can handle yourself. So, yes, Ariel, I’m good with it. As long as you are.”

“Yeah, I am too,” I say quietly, beaming at him.

Jackson leans forward, capturing my hand, pressing a kiss to my knuckles. “The conversation was inevitable. And he’ll try it again. You just let me know if I ever need to come in and smack him. You know I’d only be pleased to so.”

I grin at Jacks and nod, stretching my hands above my head and yawning.

We spend a little more time just like that – quietly talking together, turning over the events of the past few days, adjusting to our new roles. Eventually we find ourselves curled up in the little loveseat in the corner of the room, sitting quietly, passing emotions passively back and forth down the bond as we sort through our thoughts.

I sip my second glass of wine, my mouth turning slightly down in a frown, my eyes distant as I get a bit lost in my thinking.

“What is it?” Jackson murmurs, pressing a kiss to my hair.

“Hmm?” I say, jumping a little, turning my face to him.

“You’re…unsettled,” he murmurs, tightening his arms around me, pulling me more completely into his lap so that we’re face to face again. “You can talk to me about it, if you want to.”

I sigh, thinking that…yes. That I have a question for him, and even if I haven’t figured out quite how to phrase it, I may as well ask. I finish my glass of wine and put the glass on the floor before slinging my arms around Jackson’s neck, looking him steadily in the eye.

“Jacks,” I say, quiet. “I didn’t like it, at all, when Luca suggested that I wouldn’t, or shouldn’t, want to raise Marigold with you because she’s not the result of a goddess-blessed bond. It gave me…a very bad feeling in my stomach.”

Jackson hums, considering it, watching me carefully. “Why didn’t you like it?”

I sigh, my shoulders slumping. “Because it was mean. Because it implied that Marigold is…lesser. Than our other children will be.”

Jackosn quirks an eyebrow. “We’ll have other children?”

My face bursts into a grin. “You think we won’t?”

“Ariel,” he replies, laughing a little and leaning towards me. “I cannot emphasize to you enough how little thought I have given to the question of whether or not you and I will have kids –“

“What!?” I screech, even as I laugh.

He laughs along with me. “It’s not a no, Ariel – I just haven’t thought about it – for heaven’s sake, I just found out how kids are made like eight months ago, after I already had one, apparently. I am…behind on these conversations.”

“Well, we’re having them, Jacks,” I say, a bit of a snarl in my voice, even as I smile at him. “And if you give me any flack about it I’ll go full Midnight and demand eighteen pups –“

Jackson bursts out laughing at this, pulling me close, shaking his head. “Please,” he says. “You’re – you’re trying to kill me with that – I’m still adjusting to one. Hypothetical I can do, but don’t hit me with a number like eighteen right now, okay?”

“Okay,” I whisper, smiling at him and brushing my thumb slow over his cheek, across the soft hair of his beard. “But…I do want more kids, Jacks. Some day. Hypothetical.”

“All right, Ariel,” he murmurs, leaning forward, pressing a kiss to my mouth. “You got it. Are you still upset?”

I sigh, brought back to earth a bit by the question, and nod. I lean back against his arm, dropping my face a bit and biting my lip. “I am,” I say, nodding, sure of it now. “Because I…I hate the idea that people even beyond Luca will think that Marigold will be different than our other kids. Even potentially lesser. And worse, I never, ever want her to think that.”

“So, what do we do?” Jackson asks, his voice genuinely wondering. “She…she will be slightly different, Ariel. She has a different history, a different starting point. We can’t change that.”

“Well,” I say quietly, hesitant, raising my eyes to his. “What…what would you say to the idea that I…that I become her mother?”

Jackson just stares at me, shocked.