Page 57 of Embracing the Change

“They say they’re going to call him JT,” Tom continued. Jamie’s friend’s eyes warmed and he took his hand from JT’s belly. “You can touch him.”

Jamie immediately moved in, bent over the bassinet, and touched a gentle finger, sliding it from between his grandson’s closed eyes along his little forehead, and he whispered, “Hey there, JT.”

JT’s diminutive, pink, bow mouth made sucking motions, and then he settled.

It was the sweetest greeting Jamie had experienced in his life.

Jamie opened his eyes to dark cut through with light that was not the muted glow of the city, or the stark moonlight hitting the sea, but moonlight sifting through trees.

He felt silk on his hands, because tucked tight to his front was a warm body.

And in his nostrils was Nora’s tangy, flowery scent.

He felt her round ass snug in his groin, but that pleasant sensation wasn’t what made him curl his arms stronger around her to pull her even closer.

No, he did it because his mind was filled with recent memories.

Of the crew on the yacht racing around to get them packed, Nora doing it with them.

Of Nora screeching over the whirring helicopter blades “Just leave them!” when they were using the ten seconds it added before their takeoff for the crew to shove her bags into the bird. She did this even though they already knew they’d be waiting at the airstrip for twenty minutes before Hale and Elsa arrived in their jet.

Of Nora’s wide eyes, open surprise, and expressive hope after they left the hospital and went to Duncan and Genny’s sprawling mountain house to have a glass of champagne to celebrate before they crashed, and Genny said, “I’ll run and make up a couple of rooms for you two.”

Whereupon Jamie replied, “We only need one.”

Nora had not said a word. Nor had she made it a thing.

After gifting him with a wondrous expression, she’d simply followed Genny to help her, and Mika went along with them. And when Jamie finally made it to the room, she was in the bathroom, unpacking his dop kit so he didn’t have to go rummaging for his toothpaste.

She’d then futzed around with her own things, her indication she wanted him to get ready for bed first.

The only hesitation she’d shown was when she walked out of the bathroom wearing a stunning nightgown of shimmering, pale pink silk edged in exquisite cream lace that fell to her calves.

“Which side is yours?” she asked.

He was standing in his pajama bottoms at one side of the bed, staring at how gorgeous she was, though he thought his position shared the answer to her question.

Since it hadn’t, his answer was to move to her, herd her to that very side, then hook her at the waist and pull them both into bed.

He’d turned out both lights then situated them as they were now.

With her scent, and her feel, and her nearness, and his son whole, and his son’s wife healthy, and his grandson breathing, Jamie had passed out within seconds.

Now, Jamie was awake.

And he had to make a decision.

That wasn’t quite true. It was mostly made.

But when they woke the next morning, he’d have to make it official, because after the morning, he couldn’t walk it back.

But first, he had to make an admission.

He was scared shitless.

An outsider looking in would think he was born with it all.

He was not.

---