Rigby made a soothing noise as he led me to River’s vacated seat. “Naw, it’s okay. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks for all of us. I’d be worried if you didn’t want to cry.” Somehow, this big blond giant validating my feelings did kind of make me feel better.

A waitress came over as soon as my ass hit the seat, and took my coffee order. Or at least I thought she did; she didn’t actually drag her eyes away from River and Rigby.

Finally, I thought I might actually have myself under control. Then Huey started to fuss. I panicked. This shit didn’t come naturally just because I had boobs and ovaries. It was mostly just winging it and Googling and second-guessing shit.

I held my hands out for him, but Devan just stared me down. “If you have a bottle ready, I can feed him.” Rigby cleared his throat, and Devan glared at him. “Please. If it's okay with you.”

I looked between the three men. The fact they’d obviously been talking about me before I arrived—hell, probably had hour-long discussions about me at some point—made me feel a little self-conscious.

Well, even more so, considering there were still wet patches on Rigby’s shirt from my tears.

I gave Devan a tight smile. “Sure. There's one in the little insulated bottle holder thing.” I rummaged around in the chaos of the diaper bag. Eventually, I’d be better at this; I had to keep telling myself that. I passed the still warm bottle to Devan. “He’s been a bit fussy taking it, though.”

Devan nodded, hitching the baby into the crook of his arm and testing the milk on his own wrist. Happy I wasn’t scalding his nephew from the inside out, he put the bottle to the baby’s lips. Huey took it so easily, I wanted to cry all over again.

Maybe it was just me. Maybe Huey hated me.

The waitress returned with my coffee, and she seemed a little awestruck by the sight of a huge man holding a tiny baby. My animalistic hindbrain had perked up, like look at this specimen with his young. He would make an excellent mate for the season.

No. Just no.

The waitress managed to drag herself away, and I took a fortifying sip of coffee. I made a happy humming moan as the caffeine hit my veins like liquid gold. A throat cleared, and I whipped my gaze away from the man and the baby.

River was looking at me intensely. “Miss Stone—”

“Nova. Please call me Nova.”

His dark, straight eyebrows pulled in tight. “Nova. I just wanted to get one thing straight. I am going to see my nephew. He mightn’t be my flesh and blood, but some things are bigger than that.”