“He drank all three bottles you left us, but didn’t sleep much, so hopefully you’ll get a restful night tonight.”
I nodded, hoping that was true. I needed time to recover from the night with Brandon. When we walked out into the living room, my future husband’s smile made my heart skip a beat. I loved this man so much, and I couldn’t believe he was mine. He walked over to us and lightly ran his hand over Liam’s head before kissing him.
Liam yawned and blinked his eyes open to look at Brandon, “Hey little man. We missed you.” After another yawn Liam’s eyes slowly shut again, his mouth popping open slightly. “You ready to take him home Harper?”
I nodded and accepted kisses from Mom and Dad “Are you guys still coming over Sunday?” In order to carry on family day, once a week everyone gathered at either Mom’s, Carrie’s or our house to have family time, and though they’d been skipping our place so I wouldn’t have to worry about cleaning or playing hostess while trying to be a mom, I’d made them promise to let us have our week again.
“We’ll be there, you two have fun until then” Mom said with a smile and a wink. Dad laughed out loud and Brandon actually blushed. I’d never seen him blush before, and I couldn’t help but laugh too.
We got Liam fed, changed and asleep in his crib in record time. Crawling into bed, we kissed soft and slow, clinging to each other.
Brandon brought his lips to my ear, his deep voice making my body burn, “Harper…”
“Round four?” I asked with a grin.
His smile matched mine as he pulled me on top of him.
18
“Brandon?” I asked roughly. His side of the bed was empty, and cold. Glancing around I noted I’d slept for six and a half hours and should probably go check on my little one.
I grabbed Brandon’s shirt off the floor and slid it over my head before padding down the cool hallway. When I got closer I heard Brandon’s warm animated voice and slowed, trying to hear whatever he was telling our son. I was already smiling to myself when I peeked around the slightly ajar door, he was talking to him about one of his surfing days. No…he was talking to him about one of Chase’s surfing days. And he had the scrapbook of Chase’s life on the dresser below them, pointing to one of the pictures. A soft gasp escaped my chest and I tried to slow my breathing so I could continue to listen without Brandon knowing I was here.
“…he was always doing crazy stuff like that, it’s why everyone loved him, but it got him in trouble more times than not. No one else would have continued to surf after that, and we were all trying to get him to come in. Brad and I rode out to force him to, since he had this huge cut on his eyebrow from where that guy punched him, but by the time we got out there he was already catching another wave and riding it in. I swear he knew how to piss us off too, because those guys weren’t happy we started coming back out. Your dad could out-surf those guys, and I could fight them, but just a warning son, don’t ever try to fight someone while on your surfboard out in the ocean. It doesn’t really work out for anyone, and you look stupid trying to throw punches while treading water. We ended up laughing too hard and inviting them to the party that night, calling a truce.”
Brandon flipped to the next page and chuckled lightly, pointing at one of the pictures again, “Like I said, he was crazy and always doing stupid crap,” flipping the page again he pointed to one and said softly, “but your mom changed that.”