Page 72 of Revived

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Three weeks later, we sat around the den that had been converted into a playroom for the babies. There, we watched as Rúna, our daughter, and Torren, our grandson squirmed on the padded floor for tummy time. Torren, or Tor, as Chevy called him, was already nearly twice the size of little Rúna. I was playing with both babies while the men were downstairs in the studio putting the finishing touches on Chasing Car’s second album. It took a moment for me to realize someone was watching me since I was so intent on just taking in every moment the babies were tiny.

I turned to see my husband in the doorway. “You are so beautiful it hurts to witness sometimes,” he told me.

“If that’s your way of asking for another baby, I think you’ll have to do better,” I teased. “You’re already 40 years old and I’m not that far behind. We’ll have to be satisfied with having our beautiful daughter, our son, and grandson.” I knew he understood that it wasn’t a sacrifice on my part. I loved our family. They were my everything, and I’d honestly be sad to see the day when Chevy and Tor moved out into their own place. It was bad enough that they already lived in the pool house out back. He had spoken about more frequently over the past week, about needing to find a place of his own, but I’d put my foot down and told him to give it a solid three months to adjust to having a baby to raise on his own.

“If that’s what you truly want, I’ll see to it that we’re covered and don’t have to worry about accidents happening,” he told me.

“I appreciate your willingness to take care of it.” I smiled over at him then. “Though, you might want to consider getting that done sooner than later. Maybe we’ll both be done healing up at about the same time?” I winked at him then as he made his way to me and groaned while sitting on the floor.

“Shit, when did it start to hurt just to get down here on the floor?”

I laughed. “I don’t know. Sounds like an old man question to me,”

“I’ll show you an old man,” he teased as he gently tickled my sides.

“You can’t show me your manhood for a few more weeks now, maybe a few after that, if you get the snip, snip,” I reminded him as I made a scissor motion with my fingers.

He covered his balls. “That’s cruel and unusual, and I’m going to have to ask you to refrain from traumatizing the babies.”

We laughed together before he leaned in and kissed my lips so sweetly that I damn near swooned right there on the playroom floor. “Will he be all right?” I asked when he pulled away. Gabe turned his attention to our grandson then and smiled. “They’ll both be just fine. As for Chevy, I set him up with my therapist and he finally agreed to go last week.”

“Good,” I told him as I leaned heavily on his arm.

“Why don’t you go upstairs and get a nap while I take over for a bit?”

I yawned before I could manage to actually answer him. “Are you sure?” I finally got out. “Don’t you still have things to do in the studio?”

“John can handle the rest. Go on, sweetheart, get some rest. You’re going to need it once we both get the all clear.” Gabe waggled his brows at me and offered up a smarmy looking grin to go with it.

“How can I argue with that?”

“You can’t,” he agreed easily enough.

My husband helped me up and then pulled me in close, hugging me tightly to his own body. “I love you more today than yesterday,” he whispered in my ear.

“That’s good,” I whispered back. “You didn’t love me nearly enough yesterday,” I teased him. He managed to pinch my ass as I fled from the room.

“I’m keeping score of how many spankings I owe you,” he called out. He couldn’t see that Chevy had been just outside the door though. My poor son looked as though he was about to be sick.

“Oh, shit Dad! I did not need to know that you spank my step-monster!” I almost cried to hear our boy making a joke, multiple jokes in one.

“I love you,” I told him as he started to pass by me to go collect his son.

“I know. You show me all the time, Mel. Thank you for that.”

“You never have to thank me.”

“I love you too,” he returned before going in to offer his father some time to nap with me.

“Are you sure?” I heard Gabe ask him.

“Positive. You have both done so much for me already. The least I can do is offer up some sleep to the two of you. Ford and Dakota will be up any minute. They’ll help me, if I need it.”

“If you’re sure.” Gabe turned the corner to find me still standing there, tears in my eyes. “You knew where to find us, if you need us.”

“Go on, and please, for the love of everything holy, do not let me hear you spanking her.”

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