Page 188 of Mended Hearts

“Elders,” Kaia snickered like she hadn’t heard the same joke her entire life. “Lean back.”

She fluffed a pillow into place, letting Leighton sink into it. And I just… watched. Really watched.

My bride tilted her face toward the morning sun pouring in through the window, her eyes closed, her features relaxed—like a tulip in bloom. Mom had loved tulips. She would’ve adored Leighton.

She’d always been beautiful, but there was something transcendent about witnessing her surrender to something so much bigger than us. About seeing her trust our medical team—trust me—when she couldn’t even form words anymore. It magnified everything.

She was radiant. Magnificent.

And glowing with that exhausted, new-mommy bliss that stole the air from my lungs.

Her hands still rested over her swollen belly, my ring already back on her finger, glinting in the light.

The baby whimpered and squirmed in his uncle’s arms.

Paxton smiled gently. Revered like a god on the football field, he was just an enormous teddy bear in person. Stiff from training, he stood and lumbered over, carefully settling on the edge of the bed with tears in his eyes.

“I think he’s hungry,” he said, grinning as he ran his knuckle over the baby’s cheek. The little guy turned instinctively toward him.

“Two hours on the dot,” I observed.

“Your child would eat on a schedule,” Leighton teased as she nervously accepted the bundle.

Pax stepped back toward the window as she worked to get him latched, her hands shaking slightly with focused, clumsy tenderness. I smiled, even as the bridge of my nose started to burn.

None of this was easy—not even close—but I was already convinced she’d take to it so naturally that in a few days we wouldn’t even remember how scared we’d been.

“There you go, little prince,” she cooed.

All I could do was watch.

She rolled her bottom lip between her teeth, uncertain if she was doing it right, and I was floored.

“You’re perfect,” I promised.

“Yeah?”

She looked up from our son’s sweet face and dark, thick hair, gifting me a watery smile.

“Yeah, Trouble.”

Months ago, I’d been terrified I was walking into a repeat of the past. That I’d stumbled into another train wreck, destined to go up in flames.

But sitting here with two of her infinite siblings, with my girl completely at peace—watching our son at her breast—I knew how wrong I’d been.

This woman was everything.

My best friend. The lover I’d spent years dreaming of.

She was where my life both began and ended.

The space between breaths where the world fell away and I could just exist.

And somehow, somewhere along the way, she’d become mine.

A knock on the door pulled me from my thoughts. I turned, breath catching, just as Tillie collided with my chest, burying her face in my hoodie.

“Hey, babygirl.”

---