Page 129 of Billionaire Lumberjack's Bargain

Her little startled cry makes me finally release the sob I’ve been holding back—overflowing with relief, happiness, and something I never thought I would have again.

Dalton wraps her carefully and cradles her against him, turning her so I can see her face as he settles beside the tub again. “What are you going to name her?”

He’s asked before, and I never really had an answer.

Looking at her in Dalton’s arms, there’s only one name that rings true.

A single word that this man has brought back to my life.

“Hope.”

ChapterNineteen

CAMILLE

Davey whimpers slightly where he sleeps along my side in the hospital bed, adjusting his position to snuggle closer, clinging to me the same way he has been for days.

And I can’t blame him for wanting to stay close after what he’s been through.

I adjust the blanket around him and press a kiss to his disheveled hair Pops never bothered to brush before he brought him back to the hospital from the hotel this morning.

“Is he okay?”

Dalton’s concerned question comes from my left, barely a whisper, like he’s worried about waking him even though Davey has managed to nap here with the hustle and bustle of the hospital surrounding him with no problem.

I glance over to where Dalton sits in the same chair he has occupied for the past two days, never leaving my side since we got here.

Hope sleeps on his bare chest, the plaid shirt spread open to allow skin-to-skin contact. One large hand cradles her head while the other rests across her back, as if she might fall if he doesn’t cling to her so tightly.

“He’s fine.” I smile at him. “And so isshe.You can relax a little.”

After the emotional upheaval of the fire and Hope’s early delivery, then finally managing to get to the hospital once the snow stopped, I would have thought learning that both Hope and I were both one hundred percent healthy would have allowed Dalton some space to finally breathe again.

But he’s still tense.

Worry constantly creasing his brow.

Sometimes, I have to remind myself of how young he is, how inexperienced he is when it comes to things like babies. But he’s a natural with both Davey and Hope, if he can just get over the constant hovering.

He leans back farther in the chair, watching me thread my fingers through Davey’s hair. “I know what you’re thinking, you know.”

I smirk at him. “I doubt that.”

“You’re thinking that I worry too much.”

Well, damn.

He sure called me out on that easily.

“Okay. Maybe you’re right…”

Dalton grins, gently gliding his hand across Hope’s back. “Is it wrong for me to worry about you and them?”

I shake my head. “No, but you can’t let it consume you.”

He nods slowly, considering the parenting advice. “Right…but it’s a little hard not to when we’ve got mobsters setting fires and doing God only knows what else to try to get us to concede, or worse.”

An icy chill as cold as the wind on Davey’s birthday returns to my blood at the reminder of what we still face when we return to the mountain.

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