Page 28 of Till Cupid Do Us Part

My eyes burn from the brightness around me as I open them and focus on the hulking man staring down at me. His clothes are the same from yesterday, and his beard is scruffier than usual.

“Did you watch her all night by yourself?”

“You were up a few times to feed her. She nursed you both to sleep.”

I remember now. Niko setting a grumpy newborn on my chest and helping me get her situated. He stayed perched beside the bed the entire time I held her, watching in case I let go of her when I dozed off. I’m pretty sure I broke a million rules doing that, but Niko wouldn’t let anything happen to either of us. The nurses checked on us so many times I was considering making him shove a chair beneath the door handle so they’d leave us alone.

I know it’s their job, but when you’re tired and in pain, none of that matters much.

“Thank you for taking care of us,” I say, reaching for the hand hanging at his side.

It’s so big and warm as it curls around my fingers and squeezes. Something so simple brings such an intense comfort.

“Always,” he swears.

“Hey, Ivy.”

The second voice I heard when I woke up registers more now. Travis isn’t who I expected to see the moment I woke up this morning. I’ve never looked worse than I do right now. Probably never smelled this bad, either. I need to shower and change out of these pyjamas I sweated through last night and brush my teeth.

None of that should matter, considering I just had a baby. It’s easier to pretend you don’t care about those things prior to giving birth. Now, though? I could cry from how disgusting I feel.

Niko doesn’t release my hand. He shifts at my side, allowing me to see the man standing behind him with his back to the hospital window. The baby in his arms shocks me worse than his sudden appearance after so long.

“Hi, Travis.”

His hair isn’t shaggy anymore. It’s cut short and styled in a way that makes him look older and more mature. He’s clean-shaven, but he never was able to grow a proper beard.

Dress slacks and a simple deep green button-down hug his slim frame. He’s even wearing a tie. One that he spent the time knotting properly.

My surprise at his appearance must be obvious.

“New job,” he says shortly.

I nod once. “Right. Doing what?”

“I got my real estate license. I’m working for a small company in the city.”

“Did you miss work for this, then?”

“Would it matter if I did?”

Niko grips my hand a little tighter. “Yeah, it would.”

“To you? Or to Ivy?”

“Does it matter?” I adjust my position in the bed and wince at the instant pain.

My hiss draws the attention of both men, but while Travis stands with my daughter in his arms and watches almost blankly, Niko rushes into action. Water from a pitcher is poured into a cup and handed to me before he reaches for the call button attached to the bed.

“Don’t, Niko. I’m fine for right now,” I rush out.

He frowns. “No, you’re not. You’re in pain.”

“I’ll be in pain for a while, I’m sure.”

“I didn’t think I’d ever have a little sister,” Travis says, cutting through the tense atmosphere that’s tried to grow. “There are a lot of things I didn’t think I’d ever see.”

I accept the shot at the low-hanging fruit without argument. “I’m assuming you mean your father and me?”

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