Nope. Couldn’t help that, either.
My kids had me all wrapped up, twisted and tied and tangled in baby blue ribbon and pink butterfly bows.
A ripple of gentle laughter floated from Shea. “He’s always good…just as soon as we make it through the two a.m. feeding.”
Hated knowing things got rough for my girl when I was gone. I lifted a brow in question, rocking Connor slowly where he was all tucked up like a frog stuck to my chest. “April hung around while I was gone, yeah?”
After Shea and I’d gotten married and Austin had set out on his own, it didn’t take us all that long to figure out L.A. wasn’t going to be the place we raised our kids. The guys…they were always careful with my girls. Protecting them the way I trusted them to. Cooling shit off and acting like responsible adults while Shea and Kallie were around.
And there was no doubt about it. Shea and I would’ve made a home wherever the world took us. But these old walls called to us, echoing the sounds of Shea’s childhood and shouting out the hope of our future.
Like somehow Shea was made up of Savannah and then Savannah had gone and sank right into me.
This was where we wanted to be.
April had found a place of her own a couple miles away. She was usually all too eager to stay with my family when I had to be out of town.
“Most of the time.” Shea arched a brow, eyes going wide as if she was keeping back all the juicy details, and mouthed, “She met a boy.”
“No?” I countered, incredulous.
“Yes.” She uttered it like was the most scandalous thing trending on Facebook.
Kallie hopped around beside me, tugging at my arm to get my attention. “Yep! Yep! Yep! Auntie April stayed for two whole days and we had a sleepover in my room since Connor sleeps in her old room.”
Her tone got serious. “But she said she didn’t mind. Not at all. At all!” Her prattling shot right back to double time. “It was so super fun! Almost as fun as I had at Marley’s sleepover on Friday. Daddy, did you know I got to ride on Marley’s bus all the way to her house?”
Those words flew from her tongue at warp speed, an adorable tumble of excitement and adventure and country flare. Now that she was in kindergarten, that chatter seemed to come nonstop, her days with her new friends supplying her all kinds of new stories to tell.
Some would ask if someone like me would bore of it.
Get impatient and antsy and irritated.
Hell no.
Every single word was precious.
Never minded getting caught up in the whirlwind that was Kallie Marie Stone.
Well.
Almost.
Stone that is.
Papers were well under way. Ones that would legally make her my child.
Two months ago, the court had finally severed that bastard’s parental rights, finding him unfit to be a parent. As if he would have ever wanted to step up and assume that role, even if he wasn’t going to have his pretty-boy ass locked behind bars for the rest of his miserable life.
Kallie didn’t even slow down, just jumped along at my side when we all wandered inside. She grinned up at me the entire time. “And her mommy helped us make our own pizza and let us have ice cream and we stayed up almost the whole night. Marley says Tommy is her boyfriend, but Momma said I’m too little to have a boyfriend so I don’t have one. Not until I’m thirteen, right Momma?”
I slanted Shea a look that I knew came with a warning. Over my dead body. Hell, I probably wouldn’t even allow it then.
Shea laughed. “Don’t worry, Daddy Bear. That’s a long time away.”
“Not long enough,” I mumbled.
Shea popped up on her toes and brushed a kiss to my mouth. “Why don’t you get these two tucked in while I finish up the dishes?”