Page 24 of His Omega Bear
Shep rolled his eyes at me. “Don’t complicate things, Jax. Follow you gut. If you spend time with him, it’ll get clearer one way or the other. And I’m guessing he’s met our little princess.”
I nodded as a smile took over my stupid face. “You should see him with her. I swear he has the magic touch. And babies apparently can tell good people. She literally goes right to sleep when he holds her. Even I fell asleep with him in the house while he was here.”
He knew what that meant.
Shep held my gaze. “Call him?—”
Emilia’s babbling had him pausing. His grin was ear to ear.
“She sounds happy.”
I nodded. “She is. And who knew the magical powers of a baby swing.”
Pushing off the wall, I made my way back to her.
“Don’t look for problems. Have a little faith in yourself that you know how the fuck to handle things. Trust yourself, and give yourself a fucking break .”
Emilia swung back and forth, and her eyes brightened when she saw me. I stood there for a moment, gazing down at her cherubic face, legs kicking as she moved.
“Yeah, you’re right.”
Lost in the sweet moment with Emilia, my thoughts inevitably drifted to Rhys—the man was an enigma, and somehow he’d managed to unravel layers of emotions within me. I wish he could see her now.
I found her pacifier when she began to grunt. Emilia’s face turned pink and a familiar foul odor of baby poop filled the air.
“I know what that means, baby-girl.” I said to her. Shep chuckled in the background.
“Don’t laugh, buddy. Your day is coming,” I scolded. “Next time I see you, I’ll let you do the changing of the diaper.”
“I’ll let you go take care of business. Talk soon, Jax.”
I smiled at my best friend. “Yeah, thanks Shep. Talk soon.”
He nodded, but before he ended the call, he pointed at me. “Call him. And trust yourself to know what to do. It’s okay.”
Shep ended the call without giving me time to respond. I grinned and stuffed my phone in my back pocket. Lifting Emilia out of the swing, I took her in my arms and carried her up the stairs to change her diaper.
“You like him, don’t you?” I asked as she stared me in the eyes and released a gassy fart.
The moment took me by surprise, and I couldn’t help but laugh. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d laughed like this.
“I’m going to take that as a yes.”
I worked her out of her onesie and removed the offending diaper. The smell of baby poop had become familiar, and I no longer gagged at the odor.
“We’re getting the hang of this, baby girl. I’m not as much of a rookie as Rhys claims. I can do all the baby stuff. He has nothing on me,” I boasted, knowing that was bullshit. My girl must have disagreed because she released another gas cloud.
“Yeah, okay. You’re right. He’s better at all of this.”
Emilia gifted me with a sweet baby squeal that made me smile. She kicked her legs as I wrapped the new diaper snuggly and worked her into a new onesie. Once she was dressed and happy, I disposed of the nuclear waste of a diaper and took her back downstairs. It wasn’t quite time for a bottle, so I placed her back in the swing and set it to gently rock. Emilia went back to kicking her feet.
“Maybe you’re going to be a soccer player with those fast feet,” I mused as I placed kisses on the bottom of her bare feet. She squealed again, making me smile.
My phone pinged with an incoming text. I stood and fished it from my pocket.
Sheperd: Call him, set up a date, don’t complicate it.
Me: Okay, Dad. I will.