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)
He.
Judge and Chloe had a boy.
Nora had been right.
Duncan looked over his shoulder, grinned largely, clapped Jamie’s neck and stepped aside.
Through all this, Nora was at his side, clutching his biceps with both hands, but they dropped away when Dru fell into his arms.
He wrapped them tight around his daughter and rested his cheek against her brilliant hair, pulling in her scent, feeling her health and relief and joy seep into him.
She tipped her head back, and he lifted his.
“Let’s go see Judge,” she whispered.
He nodded, needing that like he needed air to breathe, but he let her go and turned to Nora.
She looked like a Ralph Lauren ad. Medium-wash, western-inspired denim shirt, tailored white slacks, tan belt.
Her eyes were soft with relief and bright with tears as she lifted her hand to cup his cheek.
At her tender touch, the beauty in her expression, the memory of her the last few hours, not to mention how she’d been in his life the last few decades, it happened.
What he thought would never happen again.
But he was done.
It was over.
The fight. The denial.
The pain.
All of it.
Though, the instant he heard Castellini was making plays to get her back, and then Jamie saw her in that fucking dress, it had already been over.
She’d been at his side in a plane for the last five hours, holding his hand.
Before that, she’d been at his side in a damned helicopter, also holding his hand.
In fact, she’d been at his side the last nearly two years, and long before, looking after him, taking away his crushing loneliness and going so far as to make him laugh. A lot.
So Jamie took her face in both of his hands, angled his head, and captured her mouth.
She made a soft sound of surprise, but she was Nora. His Nora.
She didn’t pull away.
No, she wrapped her fingers around one of his wrists.
The kiss was hard and long, but closed mouthed, and he hoped it communicated all he felt for her, all she was to him, and all they were going to be in the future.
Jamie only ended it when he felt the wet of her tears on his lips.
He raised his head and looked down at her beautiful face.
The tears were not for what he just gave her, because Nora didn’t think like that. She didn’t think about herself first.
The tears were about what he was about to receive from Chloe and Judge.
“Go,” she whispered.
Yes. He was right.
Those tears were about the gift he was about to receive.
He nodded, pressed his forehead against hers, then let her go and moved to take his daughter’s hand.
Dru was staring up at him, lips parted, even more joy and relief in her eyes, but he couldn’t process that now.
“Show me the way, darlin’,” he prompted.
She squeezed his hand, and he traded chin dips and nods with Harvey’s wife Beth, Mika and Cadence, who, with Tom, had chartered their own plane and beat them there (they’d brought Dru), as well as Sasha, Matt, Gage, Alex, and Mi, Chloe’s best friend, along with Mi’s husband, Jacob. All of whom were in the waiting room.
And now, all of them had eyes to him, there were some smirks, some happy smiles, some expressions of delighted surprise, this because of what they’d witnessed between Jamie and Nora.
He ignored all of that as Dru led him down the hall and to a room. She stuck her head in, turned back to him and graced him with a radiant smile before she pushed through and guided him in.
Tom was standing, looking out the window.
Genny was perched on a chair in a manner she could pop out of it at a second’s notice.
Both of their gazes came to him as Dru backed out and closed the door.
But he only had eyes for what was in the bed.
Chloe lay there on her back, her head having fallen to the side, and incidentally, into the throat of her husband, because Judge was stretched out beside her, turned to his wife, his arm tight around her, his head bent, face in her lustrous dark hair.
They were both fast asleep.
Jamie moved to the bed and couldn’t stop himself from reaching out and smoothing back a lock of hair that had fallen on his son’s forehead.
He’d felt this feeling, once, the day Judge was born.
And Christ, it was the most beautiful feeling in the world.
His gaze darted to Chloe when he heard her sleepy-tired-soft, “He’ll tell you it was his idea, but he lies. It was mine.”
Jamie had no idea what she was talking about, he was just thrilled he’d have the opportunity to find out, but that time wasn’t now.
“Okay,” he whispered, moving his hand to cup the top of her head. He bent and kissed her forehead then lifted up and ordered, “You done good, honey. Now go back to sleep.”