Snapping around, Delaney spied a plate on the counter. Sure enough, steaming eggs and toast sat beside the stove. Seth saw, too—and lunged.
The platinum knockout caught him before he squirmed headfirst out of Del’s grasp. She scooped him right up against her chest and took him over to the eggs, calling over her shoulder, “I’m Alyssa, Tyler’s boss. I’ve got a little girl just about the same age as your boy. I probably won’t have more children, so I’d love the opportunity to spoil your son. Come on, Tara. Grab a spoon.” She tickled Seth’s cheek. “You hungry?”
“Wait!” Del reached for Seth. “I’ll do that. He’s—”
“No need,” Tara chimed back, then giggled. “Gosh, Tyler. He looks so much like you. Except I actually like him.”
“Funny.” Tyler rolled his eyes. “You’ve met Alyssa and Tara over there.” He pointed at the two women fussing over Seth—who looked to be eating it up, along with the eggs. “This is Kata, Kimber, and Morgan.”
After nodding a greeting, Kata, the Latina brunette, took out her phone and started texting. Kimber, the auburn beauty next to her, got the same idea and whipped out her cell, too.
“Hold up there, girls. C’mon . . . Don’t do this.”
They both looked up with big Cheshire cat grins. Kimber tapped out a few more keys, then hit send. “That should have Deke here in . . .” She glanced at her watch. “About five minutes. Less, if there’s no traffic.”
“Oh, good. He’ll tell Jack for me.” Morgan, the pregnant redhead, smiled. “I need to recharge my phone.”
“I’m sure Deke will be happy to tell Jack,” Tyler drawled. “Isn’t that great?”
He said it sarcastically but looked relatively pleased. Del didn’t know who Deke or Jack were, but she got the quick idea that, despite his protests, Tyler had orchestrated this scene for some reason.
“What’s going on?” she demanded. “Who are these men you’re talking about?”
“Just my friends, who will hopefully come collect their wives so that we can talk privately.”
“My husband isn’t coming for me until the navy gives him leave again in a few months. I can stay.” Kata grinned.
“I’m in the same boat,” Tara added, nodding.
“But Hunter and Logan did give you a place to stay until they returned home. Do you need help remembering where it is?”
Though the women looked completely different, they wore identical pouts. “We’re trying to be helpful.”
“You’re trying to cause trouble.” Tyler turned to Del. “They’re married to the Edgington brothers. Navy SEALs . . . who will spank both your asses red when I tell them what pains in my ass you’ve been.”
“That’s it. I’m bringing over New Moon and Eclipse,” Kata insisted. “I’m tying you to a chair and forcing you to watch them. Hunter has taught me some interesting knots.”
What kind of people were they, openly discussing spanking and bondage? She sent Tyler a questioning glance. He just smiled in a way that didn’t give her any comfort.
A moment later, a booming growl sounded from the front part of the house. “What the hell is going on?”
A big hulk of a blond man bounded into the kitchen, holding a little boy just a bit older than Seth very comfortably in one beefy arm. Lord, at nearly thirty pounds, lugging her baby around took a lot of her strength. Yet this man didn’t seem to require any effort to cradle his son, a veritable mini-me of the man himself.
“Check this out, Deke.” Kimber sent a meaningful glance at Seth, still being fed and cooed by Alyssa and Tara.
The big, blond man’s gaze followed Kimber’s, then his jaw dropped. “Holy shit! Um . . . shoot.”
Tyler crossed his arms over his chest, looking more pleased by the second. What was up with that?
“He looks just like you, man.” Deke motioned to Seth.
“The way our son looks like you?” Kimber rushed over to pick up the boy in Deke’s arms. “Hi, Caleb. Miss Mommy? I missed you.”
The little boy just smiled at the gorgeous woman, then giggled when she lifted his little race-car T-shirt and kissed his belly.
“Well, isn’t this an interesting turn of events?” came a voice from the doorway.
Del whipped around to face another man who’d sauntered into the room and propped himself against the wall. Dark hair, equally dark eyes, a serious sense of leashed power. He wasn’t someone to fuck with. She got that instantly.
“Isn’t it, Jack?” Tyler agreed.
“Can’t wait to hear these details.”
She didn’t know who all these nosy strangers in Tyler’s business were, but she didn’t like the feeling that he suddenly had a whole team of people on his side—a virtual family at his back—while she had no one. As usual.
Since the whole room seemed focused on Jack, as if waiting for a cue, she decided to nip this in the bud now.
“I’m Delaney Catalano.” She approached Jack with hand outstretched. “The boy is my son, Seth. It’s great to meet you. I really have to talk to Tyler privately. Not to be rude, but would you mind leaving and taking everyone with you?”
Jack took her hand and shook it. “Nice to meet you, too. Tyler, you good here?”
Tyler sent her an unreadable gaze. “Maybe you could hang here for just a minute.”
“No sweat.” Jack approached the pregnant redhead, dropped a kiss on her forehead as he stroked her little baby bump. “How are my two favorite people today?”
Their mutual love and devotion was so painfully obvious, even ten feet away. Envy lashed through Del, and she looked away. So many times as her body had been expanding and changing during her pregnancy, she’d wished for Tyler’s comfort. Some sense of his approval or caring. Instead, she’d been lugging boxes, wading into depressing divorce decrees . . . It had all turned out for the best, but welcoming a new life into hers should have been a happy time. Without Tyler, it had been bittersweet.
“Is someone going to tell me what the hell is going on?” Deke demanded. “Y’all texted me for a reason.”
Every eye in the room turned to her. Every face held an expectant expression. Delaney sighed. They weren’t going to leave, and this was some kind of gang-up-on-the-stranger thing. Fine.
“I have a dirtbag in L.A. trying to kill me. Really, the fewer people who know this the better, but since you’re all standing here, waiting for me to spill my junk, there it is.”
Jack raised a brow, then glanced at Tyler. “Did you bring us here so she could hire us?”