Page 43 of The Doctor

Dom’s sarcastic tone pulled me back to him. “If I ever have that dreamy look on my face, please shoot me.” He rolled his eyes. “You are the most badass woman I have ever met and still you’re going gaga over a man carrying a baby.”

“Well, when it's the right man…” I smiled at Dom.

He made gagging noises and went to the front door to help Logan with the kids. My heart melted even further. What I didn’t tell him was that when it was the right man with your own children, then ‘gaga’ was an understatement.

As they walked into our new dining room, Dom holding Vicky’s car seat and Logan carrying Landy in his arms, my world shifted into place. These were my people and we were in my home. And to hell with the assholes who were trying to take it away from me. I would fight tooth and nail to hold onto these people.

I smiled as I whispered. “Are they both asleep?”

“She’s out like a light.” Dom smiled, and it was beautiful. “I think she likes spending time with Grandma…” His face dropped. “I mean…”

Logan’s lips twitched as he put his free arm around Dom. “No, you got it absolutely right.” He turned to the kid. “If that’s okay with you?”

Dom nodded. “I want it, it will just take time to get used to it.”

“Fair enough.” He eyed the sling on Logan’s other arm. “How’s the arm?”

“Uncomfortable.”

I couldn’t resist chiming in. “The meds have done nothing for his mood.”

It was more than an hour later before all the kids were down for the night. Dom was no doubt reading in bed.

Logan walked out of the bedroom, hair wet and freshly showered. “We need to sit down and have a formal chat about the kids.”

I nodded but I was barely focused on his words. In high school, Logan without his shirt was always a sight. Seeing him with just sweatpants and nothing else, I could easily tell that High School Logan was clearly just a boy. The man in front of me was… well… a man. He wasn’t as tall as my brothers, but then again, very few people were. Still. Broad shoulders and a sculpted chest told me he spent a fair amount of time in the gym. Ridges at his abdomen and then that all too sexy V accompanied by a happy trail that led into his sweatpants.

“Bex.”

I looked up at him. The smirk told me he knew I was checking him out. I plastered on my innocent look when I answered him. “Yes. I think as soon as this shitshow of an investigation is over, we should look to formalizing this family. I mean, we could put in a petition sooner.”

Logan knelt in front of me, his face serious. “I want nothing more than to go where your thoughts led you a moment ago. But…”

“But what?” He sounded so serious. “Just tell me.”

“Bex, you watched our child get shot today, that couldn’t have been easy.” He took my hands in his. “I was here. Hearingabout it and I knew Dom was alright, and I still freaked out. I had to listen to your brother mumble about leaks and plan Bs.”

“Yeah, he can get a bit intense when he’s figuring out all the angles.” I stood and pulled him up with me. “It's worse when it involves people he loves.”

“And what about the people you love, Bex?”

I shook my head trying to push away the images in my head. “I’m fine. I’m used to this, remember. Yeah, it was a whole lot scarier because it was Dom, but I’ll be fine. I thought I might need a good cry in the shower but I really am good.” I stepped back. “Right now, I am going to use that new tub and make myself smell as nice as you do, and then I want to make good on the promise I made to the sexiest man I know.”

“I hope you mean me.”

I winked and headed for the attached bathroom in the master bedroom. We were using Logan’s bedding and the furniture came with the house. I would need to do some shopping to make it look less like a bachelor’s room. But it would do for now. Same with the kids’ rooms, really.

It had been an interesting few hours and I just needed some time to relax. Once we had both kids taking a nap, we unpacked the car. Logan couldn’t get everything packed, but he brought most of our clothes and all of the baby's things. He also remembered to bring all the devices and Dom’s school and sports things.

Without much thought, we placed the toddlers into the same room and Dom got his own room. Logan mentioned he had put in an offer to buy the house from Salinger Security, who currently had a holding company on the paperwork for Dom’s protection. Once it was all sorted, he would buy the house from the company. He didn’t want the kids to move again. All the shuffling around had already played havoc on them. Landon would start to talk to us and Logan didn’t want anything tojeopardize that. Which was also why he asked Dom and I not to speak about what had happened while Landon was around.

I was happy to comply. Dom had already spoken to me and I had a good idea where his head was at. The kid was scared but he was not going to let the assholes win. He was pissed he needed to stay off school for a bit but he did understand the logic.

The bathroom would need updating as well. The beige tiles with white finishings were not going to work for me. I looked forward to redecorating the entire house once things settle down. Once I turned on the water and ran the bath, I stripped out of my clothes while I waited for it to fill. It had been a long and stressful day and I wanted nothing more than to allow the warm water to flow over my body. I actually needed it.

The thing that surprised me was that there was still no crying. I didn't get that burn at the back of my throat and I didn’t feel the need to shed tears. Maybe I was broken. That wouldn’t surprise me. There was only so much a single human being could take and my family had been through a lot over the last few years. From the time Debbie was killed five years ago until Dom had been shot a few hours ago, it had been one drama after another.

Intellectually, I knew we were not cursed. But it was hard not to buy into that when once again someone in my family was under threat and needed to be in hiding.

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