Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 71880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
She’d bawled her eyes out when she’d talked to Piper on the phone earlier. I hadn’t been far behind, because it was beginning to sink in. My girl was back with me. We’d managed to save her.
“Where’s Shay?” she asked. “I wanna sit with him and Uncle Ellie.”
“We’ll sit close to them,” I promised.
She’d been so relieved when she’d seen Shay again. They’d shared a hug that’d gotten me all choked up. River and Reese too.
“And Marisa?” Blake pressed.
“We’re gonna give her some space so she can rest up properly,” I reminded her gently. Marisa was…not doing well. “She’ll be in the back with Javier.”
Blake bit her bottom lip and nodded.
I picked a random row near the middle of the plane. Both rows had three seats on each side of the aisle, and I was gonna ask the Tenleys to sit nearby. With Elliott, I had no plans on asking. He simply had to. He and the boys could take the row in front of ours or the one behind.
“There’s Shay!” Blake pointed. “Shay, over here!” She turned to me. “Did you know he has two boyfriends?”
I grinned. “I did. Nuts, huh?”
“Yeah,” she laughed. “Freaking cooties all over the place.”
God, I loved her so much. I savored every smile, every ounce of her goofball sense of humor, every smartass comment. They filled me with hope and gave me strength to get through her meltdowns.
Reese came up the aisle first, and he held out his fist for Blake, who bumped it with hers. “How you doin’, shortcake?”
She grinned shyly. “That’s what Uncle Ellie calls me also.”
“Well, it fits, doesn’t it?” He winked and waited for River and Shay to slide into the row across the aisle. “I reckon these seats are good, eh?”
“Yup.” Shay sent Blake a smile.
My girl was smitten.
I was more smitten with the tall drink of water coming up the aisle with Nicolas, Mattie, and Julian. The latter still refused to let Elliott go for more than a few seconds. Whenever Elliott had to go to the bathroom, or when he’d showered, Julian had waited right outside the door, visibly restless. I’d been allowed to hold his hand for about a minute, and then he’d knocked on the bathroom door till Elliott had reappeared.
“Can Mattie see, Daddy?” Blake whispered.
“Yeah, a bit more today than yesterday,” I murmured. The boy’s hearing was returning too, as the swelling in his ears went down.
It hurt to look at those boys. To witness what they’d been put through.
But if I didn’t already know I loved Elliott Jones, finding out he’d offered to be the temporary foster parent for all three would’ve done me in. He acted a little awkward around the logistics of caring for a toddler, but he was a natural around older kids.
“Right here, buddy.” Elliott slowed down Mattie, who was holding Nicolas’s hand. The elder brother made sure the younger got seated in front of us. Elliott sent me a tired smile before he sank down into the aisle seat with Julian on his lap.
I shifted to the aisle seat too, and while two nurses from the Navy boarded the plane with the remaining people we’d rescued—who weren’t currently on their way to Mexico—I tucked a blanket under Blake so she could sprawl out across two seats and hopefully get some rest.
“Don’t tell me to sleep, okay?”
“I’m not telling you anything.” I gripped her chin and kissed her nose. “But when you fall asleep, I will be right here. You can use my leg as a pillow.”
She chewed on the inside of her cheek, struggling with problems that didn’t belong in her sweet head. She wasn’t supposed to fear falling asleep—or the light being off. She wasn’t supposed to want three rounds of bath time in one day either, but here we were. She’d scrubbed at her arms till I’d had to intervene. I fucking hated it.
Elliott reached a hand over the headrest of his seat, and I grabbed it, leaned forward, and kissed his hand. The slightest contact was more than welcome—I craved it. Felt like he did too.
“Are you and Uncle Ellie friends now?” Blake asked.
We’d expected this.
Because she’d grown up with Elliott and me avoiding each other, that had always been status quo, something she’d only started questioning the last couple of years—and not frequently. She just hadn’t understood, and she’d grown bored and impatient with us, separately, trying to explain that we didn’t get along well.
“We’re the best friends you can be,” I replied, brushing my thumb over Elliott’s finger. I wasn’t ready to let go yet. “I guess you can say that finding you brought us together.”
“Huh.” She tilted her head and eyed our hands. “Mom said you and Uncle Ellie are fighting over who gets to spend the most time with me, and I tell her every time I can stop going to school and just be with you two.”