Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 109608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
All but Nora, and obviously, Chloe.
Nora moved to the window, swaying the baby gently side to side, removing herself from the conversation that was to come as best she could with JT in her arms.
Judge tracked her with his eyes like she was a threat.
Oh yes.
He had it bad.
“Judge,” Jamie called.
“Yup,” Judge answered, not taking his gaze from Nora, or more to the point, his boy.
“Judge,” Jamie repeated inflexibly.
His son looked to him and bit, “What, Dad?”
Jamie continued to repeat himself. “Let’s take a walk.”
“Like I said, I’m good here.”
“I think you need—” Jamie began.
“Judge, mon beau,” Chloe interrupted him, raising her hand Judge’s way, and he caught it immediately, like she was weak, and she couldn’t hold it up on her own.
Shit.
“Please, go home,” she continued. “Have a quick shower. Then come back to me. And bring me a donut from Bosa.”
“I can send Gage to Bosa,”
“I don’t want Gage to get me Bosa. I want you to get me Bosa.”
“Chloe—”
“Judge, honey, I want you to go with your dad, now, so you can be back fast.”
Jamie watched helplessly as his son put up an epic struggle to beat back every instinct seizing his body, a feeling Jamie knew all too well.
He won when Chloe whispered, “Please.”
Judge nodded, bent and pressed a hard kiss on Chloe’s mouth.
He straightened directly, looked to Jamie and grunted, “Let’s go.”
Judge then moved. Fast.
Jamie glanced at Chloe, who nodded to him, to Nora, who gave him an across-the-room air kiss, and he hustled after his boy.
Judge didn’t speak all the way to his and Chloe’s townhouse, but he drove like they had a trunk full of loot and the police were in hot pursuit.
Jamie didn’t speak because he needed his son to concentrate on driving and not killing them.
But when they got upstairs to the kitchen from the garage, and Judge was jogging to the next flight of stairs, completely ignoring their two dogs, Zeke and Montana, who were jumping around him, Jamie followed into the living room and stopped him by calling his name.
Judge turned on him. “Not now, Dad.”
“Now, Judge. You need to get this shit out before you go back to your family.”
“I don’t have any shit,” Judge lied. “I need to shower, get Chloe her donut, and get back to her.”
“Judge—”
“Not now!” Judge roared.
Jamie didn’t flinch.
But he did ask, “What happened?”
For a second, Judge just stood there.
Then he bellowed, “Fuck!”
Jamie could tell he needed to let the dogs out, but he didn’t move. He just kept his focus on his boy.
“God, I get it. Christ, I get it,” Judge said as he started pacing.
Both dogs followed him.
He stopped abruptly and swung to Jamie. “I should never have gone along with pulling that shit with you and Nora on that boat.”
“We’re fine. Better than fine,” Jamie assured. “We can talk about that later. Now, tell me what happened yesterday.”
“Everything’s been perfect. Minimal morning sickness at the beginning. She’s had great energy. Fucking glowing since the fucking beginning.”
Jamie nodded. “I know, son.”
Judge threw both of his hands up in agitation. “So how the fuck did that happen?”
“I don’t know.”
His voice was tortured when Judge shared, “They pushed me out of the delivery room.”
Goddamn fuck.
“Come here,” Jamie urged.
Judge shook his head. “No. I can’t. I need to shower. I need to get back to them.”
“Chloe is fine. JT is fine. You need to ground yourself in that fact.”
“How?” Judge clipped. “You didn’t see…you didn’t hear…fuck. Shit!”
Jamie watched his boy as he dropped his ass to the arm of a couch, bent double and wrapped his arms over the back of his head, both dogs worried and snuffling him.
Jamie got close as Judge said to his thighs. “I get it. I didn’t even lose her, and I get how everything can turn to nothing in a flash, and you can’t handle it.”
Jamie crouched by his son and reached to put his hand on his back.
“You’re going to handle this, Judge,” he said quietly.
Judge’s torso shot up, dislodging Jamie’s hand, and he clipped sarcastically. “Doing a bang-up job of that, aren’t I?”
Jamie stayed low and stated, “You’re having an honest reaction to a traumatic situation, and you’re entitled to that.”
“I have a wife and kid to look after.”
“You’re still human.”
“I can’t be human, I’ve gotta be—” he cut himself off.
“Everything?” Jamie filled in for him.
Judge’s eyes were haunted when he looked at Jamie. “God, I get all of it now. Everything you went through.”
“This isn’t about me, it’s about you, but I’ll tell you about me to move this along. When the captain of that ship told us Chloe and JT were in distress, I froze. I was immobile. I might still be standing there if Nora didn’t kickstart me. And I’m not embarrassed about that. I love you. I love Chloe. The fact I was so far away and powerless to help when I heard that news wrecked me. There is nothing wrong with feeling love. It can make us weak, like that, but even if it does, it never ceases to make us strong.”