Page 133 of Tulips and Lost Time

“She sure does. Have you been…” I tip my chin toward the closed door. “Have you been in there today?”

He nods. One short, sharp movement of his head that neither brings me comfort, nor does it erase the dread settled in my belly. “Yeah, I’ve been in. A couple of times, actually.”

Marcus scowls. “You were supposed to wait.”

Alex only chuckles, lifting his shoulders in a shrug. “According to the department shrink, I sometimes lack impulse control, especially when emotions are high. But hey, at least I didn’t beat my best friend almost to death.”

“Right,” Marcus drawls. “But I’m pretty sure I saw you pull your gun at dinner that time, so…”

“Let’s go,” Kane admonishes. “We’re not here for a hallway party. We came for one reason.”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Nerves swim in my veins and lance across my belly until I feel like I want to puke. But even if I could turn my feet around and run away, Kane opens the door and guides me in with a hand on my shoulder.

“Time to suck it up,” he murmurs, low and serious. “It’s gonna be okay.”

“But what if it’s not? What if she—” I lose my words when he tears the curtain aside and reveals not only a friendly face, Blake, checking Kari’s files and grinning when our eyes meet, but I’m awarded the perfect view of Kari in her bed, half inclined, and little baby Dom suckling at her breast.

She glances up, surprised at our arrival, then thrilled, beaming when our eyes meet. “Hey, handsome.” Her eyes drop to the sleeping Billy and well up with thick tears. “And my baby girl, too. Hey.”

“How are you feeling?” I break away from Kane and make a beeline for Kari’s bed, coming up on her left and looking down at Dom, who is almost half the size of his sister.

It won’t be forever.

And it won’t hurt him long term.

But for right now, for the next few months, he just needs a little extra time.

“You look so fucking beautiful, Bear.” I lean in and press a kiss to her brow, before pulling back and setting the bouquet in a vase on the bedside table. “How was your night?”

“Tiring,” she sighs, reaching out one-handed for Billy. So I maneuver the baby and settle her in the gap between her hip and the rails. Just like on the ambulance stretcher. “Dom’s cluster feeding,” she mumbles lazily, stroking Billy’s puffy cheeks and sniffling as her hormones continue to wrack through her body. “And the doctors check my incision a million times a day. They keep waking me up.”

“Are you glad to be coming home today?” Hesitantly, I lower into the chair beside her bed and rest my elbows on the sides. “Excited to be back in your own bed?”

“With you?” She drags her eyes away from Billy and meets mine instead. “After nearly two weeks in hell and a couple of really crappy surgeries?”

“You had to have a hysterectomy, Bear.” I swallow to lubricate my painfully dry throat. “That’s not a small deal. And it could have been avoided if I wasn’t such a dick.”

She shakes her head. Softly. Sweetly. Side to side. “I’ve told you already, you were not a dick. And I’m not mad at you.”

“You should be.” My eyes burn, itching to spill over and make me look more a fool. “You should be furious.”

“Because we went for a drive that day? That’s hardly something you should be sorry for.”

“Yeah, but?—”

She reaches across, grimacing at the movement, and yet, places her fingertips over my lips. “I will forever and always choose you, Luca. Now, can you please take me home? I wanna sleep under the stars with my family.”

The End

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