Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 154882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
I can’t choose my heart over my daughter. I’m sorry, guys. I’m so sorry.
I turned in my seat, landing on the diaper bag and suitcase open on my bed. It would take some time for me to find an apartment, and it would take money. I’d sell some of the dresses, pants, lingerie, and jackets I made. It’d be enough to keep us going in a hotel until I found a job. The guys would have to understand I wasn’t leaving them because I wanted to.
Sienna too. She’ll want to stay, and she’s old enough that I can’t make the choice for her, but after the warehouse and Genny’s crash landing, she can’t believe we’re safer with the Merchants—
“—babies start walking?” Bane asked.
“Nine months is possible, but early,” Liam replied. “Laurel has plenty of time.”
Laurel?
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Genny said. “See the look in her eyes? She’s ready.”
Pushing away from my station, I padded out in the hall, peering around the corner.
Looked like everyone in the Fairfield was packed in the living room. Liam, Tricky, Bane, Sienna, Shonda, Fuller, Thatcher, Genny, and Sunny’s staff. They all gathered around fixed on the main event: Laurel.
My baby girl clung to the tabletop, keeping herself up on wobbly feet. She gazed curiously at her audience.
“I’m telling you, she’s gonna do it,” Genny said. Her leg propped up on the wheelchair. Arm bound to her chest, someone drew matching red birds on her cast, sling, and the bandage on her shoulder. “She’s about to take her first step.”
“Should we get Miss Blaine?” Thatcher asked.
Fuller clicked her tongue. “Interrupt her rest to get the same puzzled look Laurel is giving us right now? It’s much too soon for her to walk. This is her pull-up-and-stand stage. She’s testing out her legs.”
“Lizzie started walking around ten months.”
“I did, Daddy?”
“You’re my little prodigy, baby girl.” Liam kneeled before Laurel, holding out his hands. “Come on, Laurel, you can do it.”
“Right over here, baby,” Bane said, dropping down next to him. “You like me better than Liam anyway.”
Laurel goggled at them both, letting loose a string of babble their way. Her tiny fists clung firm on the coffee table.
All of a sudden, they were all cooing and cheering on Laurel. Tears filled my eyes, and they had nothing to do with sadness.
“All right, let me at the bite-sized toe-nibbler.” Genny wheeled between her brothers. “She just needs a little incentive.”
My smile froze on my face, picturing Tricky flying off the back of a motorcycle. I did not want to know what Genevieve Hunt’s idea of incentive was. Time to intervene.
I shot out as Genny fished out something wedged between her and the chair. “What do you think about this, Laurel?” Dangling from her fingers was a soft, pink stuffed octopus—its fuzzy tentacles dancing for Laurel. “This was mine when I was a baby. You want it, don’t you?”
Laurel pointed right at it. “Ooh,” she cried.
“You’ll have to come over here and get it.”
As if she heard and understood the challenge, Laurel let go of the table... and stood.
For half a second. Wobbling, my baby fell on her butt without taking a step. Far from discouraged, Laurel flipped over and crawled to Genny—little face determined as her cheerleaders rooted her on. She reached Genny’s chair, pulled herself up, and grabbed a tentacle.
Bane cracked up. “She outsmarted you, sis. You didn’t say she had to walk over here and get it.”
“Damn. Outmaneuvered by an infant. This is a rough week for me.” Smiling, Genny gifted Laurel her prize, tickling her cheek with a tentacle. Everyone clapped and hollered, sending Laurel into a squealing/giggling fit.
I picked her up, holding her close as I kissed her crown. “Good job, baby.”
What about what I wanted for Laurel?
I looked around at all the people who loved her. Who fought for her to be here and kept her safe.
What I wanted was for Laurel to be happy, healthy, and surrounded by love.
And isn’t that exactly what she is? another voice asked.
Sunny said it and maybe it was long past time I accepted it.
“This is home.”
I WENT BACK TO MY ROOM and returned my suitcase and Laurel’s diaper bag to where they belonged. Running away from the first real home I ever had wasn’t the solution. I once lived the picket-fence, mom-and-dad, soccer-on-the-weekends life, and it ended with a bullet. What seemed perfect rarely was. This life with the Cinco City Princes was dangerous, but horrors happened to me long before I met them. If I were to face more, I’d rather do it with the men who made me believe in love, sex, laughter, and life again.
Friday morning, I dressed Laurel in a red floral romper and matching hat. She was the cutest little fashionista and I told her so while I tucked her in the baby carrier and hitched her diaper bag up my shoulder.