Offering my niece a weak smile, I murmured, “That would be pretty awesome.”
“Alright, kiddos.” Calliope clapped her hands together. “Go upstairs and get ready for bed.”
“But it’s not that late, and we wanted to play with Aunt Trinity and Uncle Damon,” Alena complained, jutting her bottom lip out.
“Yeah,” the other kids cried in agreement, following their older sister’s lead.
“Listen to your mother,” Tane growled, giving his children a look that reminded me so much of our father that I had to hold back a grin.
My nieces and nephew didn’t argue. As they headed toward the stairs, Calliope eased their concern by assuring, “You still have a couple of hours before bedtime, so you’ll have plenty of time to spend with your aunt and uncle.”
Their little footsteps sped up at that news, making me giggle. I loved how excited they were to hang out with me even though I hadn’t spent as much time with them as I should have before now. I hadn’t been that good of an aunt since I mostly saw them when Tane and his family came out to New York for a visit.
“Thank you so, so much for watching the kids tonight. We know that you and Damon would prefer to be alone while you’re in the early stages of mating and would have understood if you hadn’t wanted to come over tonight.” Calliope nudged my brother in the side when he didn’t chime in.
“Can we change the subject?” A muscle jumped in Tane’s jaw. “I don’t want to think about how my sister has been spending her time over the past few days."
Calliope rolled her eyes, and I shook off my guilt and laughed. “As if you have any room to complain when I’m going to be hanging out with your four cubs while you go out to celebrate your anniversary and yet another pregnancy. I know how you’ve been spending your time for the past decade or so, too.”
I finished my statement with a fake gagging noise, and my brother chuckled while shaking his head. “I guess I can’t argue with that since knocking my mate up is my favorite pastime.”
“And practicing, too.” Calliope covered her mouth as she giggled, her cheeks turning pink.
“Luckily for me, it wasn’t just practice, or else I wouldn’t be able to name the next baby.” I rubbed my hands together and grinned. “I’m really hoping it’s a girl so I can make her my namesake.”
Calliope returned my smile. “I’ve always thought Trinity was a beautiful name.”
“Nope. Sorry. It’s not going to happen.” Tane shook his head and lifted his finger to make a circle gesture in the air. “The deal was that you watched our children so Calliope and I could go on our anniversary trip, but that’s not what happened, is it? All I get is a few hours to take my mate out to dinner, which means you didn’t hold up your end of the bargain.”
“C’mon, it’s not my fault I found my mate only a few hours after I got here.” I fisted my hands at my hips. “Are you really going to punish me for the best thing that’s ever happened to me?”
Damon wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me into his side. “It isn’t exactly flattering to have my mate talking about someone being at fault for us finally finding each other.”
I rubbed my cheek against his shoulder, grimacing a little over how I’d worded that part. “You know I didn’t mean it that way.”
“True,” he conceded with a grin. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t tease you about it.”
Tane chuckled. “My sister should be totally fine with that since she’s spent my entire life pushing my buttons.”
“Hey, I was an awesome big sister,” I objected, crossing my arms over my chest.
“I can’t argue with that.” My brother pointed at me. “Just like you can’t say you and Tabara weren’t bossy as fuck even though I’m bigger in both my human and tiger forms than either of you.”
As I came up with the perfect response to push his buttons just like he’d accused me of doing, I grinned. “It isn’t my fault that you’re the baby of the family.”
Damon’s body shook as he laughed and murmured, “Well played, kitten.”
“Kitten?” My brother grinned and rubbed his hands together. “Maybe you should keep your mate’s nickname for you in mind the next time you decide to tease me about being the baby in the family, baby cat.”
“Ugh,” I huffed at how he emphasized the last two words. “I should have known you’d be a jerk about that even though it’s so sweet.”
Damon squeezed me as he glared at Tane. “He’d better not be a jerk to you about anything while I’m around.”
My brother grinned at the threat. “Have I mentioned how much I like the two of you together?”
“Enough to still let me name the baby?” I widened my eyes and puffed my bottom lip out in a pout.
“Yes,” Calliope answered for him as she tugged him over to the door. “But only if you let me provide some input.”
“Deal,” I agreed with a triumphant grin.
She paused to glance over her shoulder at me. “I’m not sure if you’ve considered this already, but I bet you’d make a killing if you opened a restaurant in Timber Ridge.”
“A restaurant?” I echoed softly, surprised by the suggestion.
My sister-in-law turned to face me and smiled. “Just think about how many of them you’ve successfully launched for other people and what you could accomplish with your own place. You could take everything you’ve learned by risking other people’s money and put it to good use for yourself here.”
“But Timber Ridge is so small.” I’d enjoyed myself more than I had expected while Damon showed me all of his favorite spots, but my first instinct was to reject the idea of opening a restaurant here. “I can’t imagine that I’d have enough customers to make a go of it.”
“You are so wrong about that.” Calliope rushed over to take my hands in hers. “Your brother and I aren’t the only ones who are forced to drive an hour to have dinner out at a nice restaurant. Everyone in Timber Ridge has to do the same.”
I gave her hands a squeeze. “You make a good point.”
“And it isn’t just the shifters who have this problem. None of the towns closest to us have anywhere to eat that could be called fancy. You’d probably get more than your fair share of human customers, too,” she added with a smile.
My brother moved to stand next to his mate and jumped on the chance to urge me to move to Timber Ridge. “Your costs would be much lower than running a restaurant in New York City, too. Our pack owns all of the buildings downtown, so you wouldn’t pay rent. And I bet you could get a lot of your ingredients at lower prices from all the nearby farms if you dealt with them directly. And there are members of the pack who’d appreciate having a job close to home, so you wouldn’t need to pay your staff a premium to come work here. As long as you’re willing to train them, they’re already in Timber Ridge.”
The wheels started turning in my head. “That just might work, except for the chef.”
“You’re a genius when it comes to opening restaurants. I’m sure you’d be able to find a highly qualified shifter who would be interested in joining our pack,” Tane pointed out before leading his mate outside so they wouldn’t be late for their reservation. When they returned a few hours later, I was still thinking about what they’d suggested.