Page 83 of The SEALs' Single Mom Baby Surprise

I’m so fucking happy to have her. To have this.

I cup the side of her face and nuzzle her behind her ear, breathe her in.

Sloane clears her throat. “You guys aren’t upset?”

Without planning it, we all saynosimultaneously.

Her tears fall in earnest now. We surround her, hold her, stroke her arms and legs and back, plant kisses on her.

I press my mouth to her ear as the tears slow again. Words touch my tongue. I can’t hold them back any longer. “I love you.”

Her breath hitches. And a second and third time when Cole and Shep echo my words to her.

She dissolves into sobs again, her forehead leaning into Cole’s shoulder. Her hand grips the front of my shirt, and I hope these tears are happy ones. The stark differences between the event she just went through and her usual life can trigger strong emotions.

But when her grip loosens and she leans back to wipe her face, she mutters, “Hormones.”

I grin at her, take her hand, and lift it to my lips. “It’s more than that. We know.”

Her laugh is half hysterical. “You’re all sure about this? You’re not going to change your minds?”

I frown at her. Shep and Cole do the same.

“No,” Cole says.

Sloane meets each of our gazes for a beat and nods. “Good, because I don’t think I could handle it if you did. Not after this. Not with…”

The way her voice cracks and breaks off pulls a soft grin out of me.

“Come on. You can say the words. It’s not that hard.” Shep nudges her, ever prodding her.

She elbows him good-naturedly. “You make it hard to love you sometimes. But you’re lucky I do.”

He lights up. “See? Wasn’t so hard. Especially since we’ve all said it already.”

She glowers at him, then touches Cole’s face and tells him she loves him. Then, she turns to me, and her stormy eyes are full of lightning strikes. “I love you.”

I’m so warm, so happy, so full. Complete.

“I love you, too.”

The plane jostles, and she leans back, braced. “That being said, you guys are currently in the blast zone. I need a barf bag.”

Cole grabs her one, coaxing her between her knees as we give her the room she needs to breathe.

We need to get her to a hospital, but it’s hours until we make it back home. Sloane spends most of her time with her eyes closed, leaning against one of us until we land and take her for testing.

The moment we mention kidnapping and a baby, she’s admitted right away. Shep gets treated fairly quickly, too, needing stitches in his left arm.

Sloane asks for Reese when I’m let into her room. “They want to do more tests, but I’m not going to be able to settle down until I see my baby.”

Cole steps out to give the sitter a call as I approach to kiss the side of her head. “The boss is taking care of it. What have they told you so far?”

“I’m fine. Everything looks fine.” But she winces as she shifts on the hospital bed.

“Sloane.”

“Bruised ribs. They’re not broken. A bump on the head. They don’t think I have a concussion, but they want to observe me a little longer, and they’re running tests on my blood to confirm… the pregnancy.” Sloane’s eyes close and exhaustion slumps her back.

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