Page 13 of Make Your Save

Holding Lucy against my chest, I murmur softly to her, my body turning as I watch Rowan disappear into the kitchen before exiting through the back door.

It doesn’t take me long to change Lucy’s diaper before I settle back down on the couch with her again to give her a bottle. As she lays in my arms sucking down formula, I pull out my phone using my free hand, immediately going to my text thread with Cole, and open it up.

Hadley

Call me when you can, I need your help with something.

He immediately calls me. I’m not surprised since he just got off work a few hours ago. Night shift is weird like that and I’m like Cole—it’s hard to adjust bouncing back and forth between night shift and day shift.

“Hello?”

“Hey. What happened to you last night?” Cole questions me, not missing a beat. “Is everything okay?”

I’m silent for a moment. “I need your help, but I need you to promise me you won’t ask any questions. I can’t tell you what is going on right now, but I promise I will as soon as I can.”

Now Cole is silent. “What the fuck is going on, Hadley?”

“Can you help me or not?”

He mutters something under his breath that sounds like a string of curses before his voice is clear. “Yes, of course.” He pauses for a second. “Unless it involves digging a hole. I am not cut out for that shit.”

I snort, my cheeks puffing out as I try to hold back my laugh. It’s impossible and my entire face cracks as laughter spills from me. Tears spring to my eyes and I hastily wipe them away, refusing to let the exhaustion make me emotional. “Thank you for that. I needed that.”

“What do you need from me?”

There is an endless list of things I need from him. For starters, my car would be helpful, but I already know I’m going to be asking more from him than I should. Not only am I involving Cole in this mess, but his boyfriend is undoubtedly going to be a key piece in this plan.

“I’m going to send you an address. Can Damien get a paternity test and run it without anyone knowing?”

Cole is quiet again. “What the hell kind of mess did you get yourself into, Hadley?” He lets out a breath. “Send me the address and let me talk to Damien. He’s not going to be happy with me.”

Honestly, I’m shocked that it didn’t take more to get him on board. This is a huge risk for everyone involved right now and I wouldn’t blame him if he told me no.

“I love you and I owe you.”

“Hell yeah, you do.” He snorts, a chuckle coming from him. “Do you need anything else? A human sacrifice? The head of a goat?”

I giggle, shaking my head as I pop the bottle from Lucy’s mouth and hold her up to burp her. “You’re two steps ahead of me.”

“See you in a little bit,” Cole says before ending the call.

I don’t know how I’m going to repay him and Damien for helping me, but it’s definitely going to have to be something big. Something grand. I have no one else close to me, no one else I can ask for help, yet Cole is ready to do anything he can, other than bury a body.

Thankfully, it’s not that.

Cole sits in front of me, Damien directly beside him with his arm draped over the back of the couch. They’re both staring at me, neither of them speaking as their gazes travel from Lucy and back to me. I watch them as Cole slowly turns his head to look at his boyfriend, the both of them sharing a knowing look before Damien bobs his head.

Cole looks back at me. “Hadley...we are on board with helping you, but I need a little more information to know what we’re dealing with.”

I hear something in the kitchen and I glance over my shoulder at the room, hearing what sounds like a door shutting, but there’s no other sound. I look back at Cole, my lips parting as I try to figure out where the hell to begin.

“I’m just going to go ahead and ask,” Damien chimes in. “Did you kidnap a baby?” He purses his lip. “We know she’s not yours and honestly, all of this is really strange.”

“She’s mine.”

My heart stops in my chest at the sound of his voice. I look back, finding Rowan as he walks into the room. His hair is damp, most likely from the shower at the rink, and he’s wearing black sweatpants and a gray hoodie. His dark blue eyes land on me at first before he looks past me to Cole and Damien.

“I found her on my doorstep in the middle of the night and I called Hadley for help.”

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