Page 178 of Embracing the Change

Fortunately, there was a lot more to love.

“Of course, you said yes he could stay here,” I noted with mock severity.

That got him chuckling. “I did. Though, I wanted to run it by you the possibility of him staying at the brownstone. Work hasn’t started, it probably won’t for a while, and if it does, they can work around a living space for him. It’ll set my mind at ease, having someone there. And he won’t feel like he’s third wheel to what we have going on here.”

I melted deeper into him, “That’s a lovely thought, Jamie. Feel free to suggest it, and I’ll make sure he knows, if he wants to be home for a while, he’s still welcome here.”

“We have a plan,” Jamie murmured.

I kissed his jaw, then his chin, before I parroted, “We have a plan.”

He rolled us to our sides and tangled our legs together.

“Since we’re taking a break from fucking,” he started.

“A short break,” I put in.

His blue eyes were dancing when he stated, “I’m not a machine, woman.”

“You’re my pleasure machine.”

He burst out laughing.

“Well, you are,” I declared.

He continued laughing and only stopped in order to press a hard kiss on my mouth.

“So, while I recalibrate,” he started again, his lips still twitching.

“Yes?” I urged him to go on.

The residual amusement swept from his features, and he said quietly, “I’m pulling back from AJ.”

I felt my eyes go wide.

“He might get the insurance and live another day,” Jamie continued. “He might not. If he doesn’t, the ranch will be mine, and I can make decisions then, and now I can do it while talking to Morgan about how he feels about it. But at this point, he’s a lost old man, stripped of everything he had, everything he was. His two sons are dead, and he put them in the ground. His daughter can’t stand to be in his presence. I was after vengeance, for Mom, for Judge, for me, and I got it. Continuing to go at him now is just cruel.”

My morally upstanding Jamie.

“I think the same about Paloma,” I admitted. “Seeing her with your father, it was just… pitiful.”

“Yes,” he agreed.

“And you have Morgan now.”

He did.

Since Morgan was clearly hoping to make up for lost time, he called Jamie every day, even if it was simply to share the news they got rain down in Texas.

I loved that for Jamie.

No, I adored it.

As such, Morgan had told his sons. They took it as expected, being Morgan Rawlin’s boys, shock but quick acceptance. They were all discussing when we’d go back at a time when Judge could take Chloe and JT, which wouldn’t be long from now.

And they’d already accepted our invitation to come to the as-yet-unscheduled adoption celebration for Dru and Jamie.

The whole family.

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