Page 108 of Forbidden Dark Vows

“Someone wise once said you can never give the woman in your life too many flowers.”

“Someone wise?”

“My mom.”

“Oh, Harry.” I swallow the lump in my throat. “She knew what she was doing because she raised the best husband in the entire world.” Hot tears well in my eyes and I sniff loudly. “Sorry, hormones.”

“I’ll take as many hormones as you want to throw my way, Ruby.”

Setting the bouquet down on the mobile tray, he reaches into the bassinet and picks up the baby. Our baby. Our beautiful baby boy.

Cradling him in his arms, he sits on the edge of the bed and nuzzles the baby’s nose. “I could stare at him all day.”

I know how he feels. Every time I look at the baby, I can’t help thinking that we created a little miracle when we were falling in love with each other. He’s so perfect, so … Harry.

“He looks just like you.”

Harry shakes his head, still gazing at his son with wonder in his eyes. “He’s going to have your eyes.”

“How can you tell?”

“Because that’s what I used to whisper to him every morning when he was inside your belly.”

He kisses the tip of the baby’s nose, and I can’t help thinking that Harry is going to be the best father ever. He will protect him—protect both of us—with his life, but his son has already brought out a gentle side of Harry that I’ve never seen before.

I mean, he was gentle with me when I was pregnant, pre-empting my needs, rushing out in the middle of the night to find whatever crazy food I was craving, stroking my back whenever it was aching. But the way he is with the baby is another level.

And just when I think I couldn’t love him more, I realize that my love for Harry is constantly growing, evolving, learning.

“It’s true.” Harry is watching me, a wide grin on his face. “You’ve made me the happiest man in the world, Ruby.”

“You might not be saying that when he’s screaming to be fed in the middle of the night, and you have to be up early for a meeting.”

“I promise you that I will be saying it until I draw my last breath.”

I study the baby’s face, the tiny button nose, the eyelids that are almost transparent, crisscrossed with delicate veins, the perfect pink lips. “I’ve been thinking about what we should call him. I like Brandon.” It’s Harry’s middle name.

“Brandon.” Harry tries it out, caressing the sleeping baby’s cheek with his fingertip.

The baby’s eyes flicker open, his gaze settling on his dad as a smile twitches the corners of his mouth.

“He’s smiling at me.” Harry turns wide gleaming eyes my way, before directing them back to the baby.

“It’s wind.”

“No, it isn’t wind, is it?” Harry kisses the baby’s forehead. “You’re smiling at your dad, aren’t you?”

I chuckle. The two men in my life. How can it ever get better than this?

“I like it,” Harry says. “Brandon Graham. What do you think?”

Fresh tears spill over my bottom lashes. “You want to name him after my dad?”

“I can’t think of anyone better. Can you?”

Karl Weiss disappeared around the same time as my mom. I don’t know if they’re together; neither Harry nor I have heard from them since, and I’ve stopped trying to imagine them playing happy families in another city where no one knows them.

For a while, it made me sad to think that my mom would never be a part of our baby’s life, but I’ve made peace with it now. Her loss, as Harry would say. My baby will have all the love that he needs from his parents. When he was placed in my arms shortly after he was born, I made a silent vow to make sure that he would never grow up to be like them. Brandon Weiss will fall in love one day and care for his family the way Harry cares for us.

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