Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 70695 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70695 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
I knew she was seventy-two pounds because I’d had to get on the scale with her.
I also knew that I’d gained ten pounds myself…which I wasn’t happy about.
“Love you too, Jimmy,” I murmured and hung up.
“We’re set for life,” Justice announced once they were both settled and he was heading back to his parents’ once again.
I snorted as I looked at the bag in my lap. “You think?”
The drive was short and sweet, and each time I glanced back at Jane, it was to find her sleeping.
We walked into the house and Bryce immediately rocketed into our direction.
He looked up at his sister and said, with big fat tears in his eyes, “I’m sorry for being mean. I didn’t mean to be mean. I’m not usually so mean.”
I picked Bryce up and cradled him against my chest.
“It was an accident, baby,” I said to him. “We know that you didn’t mean to. And you’re not mean.”
Bryce buried his face into my chest and latched his arms around my neck before bursting out crying.
I looked over to find Loki and Channing standing in the middle of the living room.
“He’s been doing that since you left,” Loki rumbled. “Apologizing over and over.”
I squeezed Bryce just a little bit tighter.
“Bryce, I got Daddy to stop and get us some food. Let’s eat it,” Jane cried.
Bryce lifted his head up, then nodded once.
“Okay,” he said.
Then, that was it.
Jane had forgiven him, and Bryce had forgiven himself.
Justice set the bag of food down onto the counter and helped Jane get into the seat across the bar-height counter. When they were both situated, he came back and looked at his parents.
“Twenty-six stitches,” he said. “Nine were internal, which she says will push through the wound when they’re ‘done,’ and seventeen external, which we have to have out in two weeks.”
Channing let out a shaky breath.
Loki wrapped his hand around his wife.
“That scared the shit out of me,” she admitted.
I felt a tear slip down my cheek. “Me, too.”
Justice picked me up in his arms and led me to the couch where we sat quietly together, me in his lap, and listened to our kids bicker about who got what color Starburst.
It was only after they were happily eating away at their pizza that I turned to look at my husband.
“I’m fairly sure I’m in need of a nap,” I teased. “Oh, and I love you.”
Justice squeezed me tighter, then pressed a kiss to my temple.
“Never knew having kids would freak me out as much as it does.” He laughed. “Jesus, that was fun.”
“Why do you keep saying that?” I snickered.
“Because,” he said. “It’s either I say that, or I cry right along with you.” He swallowed hard. “Never thought I’d have anything that I cared about as much as you and those kids. It scares me when one of those lives are in jeopardy.”
I pressed a kiss to his throat and turned to watch as Loki and Channing came to the couch.
It was only after a long moment of silence that I said, “I’m never having any more kids.”
Justice squeezed me tight as his parents started to laugh.
“Papa!” Jane cried. “Did you see my stitches?”
It was much later, in the dark of night, when Justice was holding me, that I lost control.
I let out all the fear and anxiety that the night had held for me, and I cried into my husband’s chest.
He held me through it all, and not once did he let me go. Not even when I practically used his chest hair as a snot rag.
“That could’ve been so bad,” I whispered.
He tightened his arms around me.
“It wasn’t.”
“But it could’ve been,” I said.
“But it wasn’t,” he repeated. “Kiss me, baby.”
I didn’t bother denying him.
I needed the touch and the reminder that everything was okay, and Justice had always been that for me.
“I love you,” I whispered.
And, like every single time that I said it, he told me what number it was for him.
“12,345,” he rumbled.
Then he kissed me.