Impact (Suncoast Society #32)(21)

“Are you so sure?” Landry asked. “Truly?”

She sniffled. “I think so.”

“Maybe once life settles down a little,” Landry said, “we should look into adoption.”

“Or a surrogate,” Cris said. “That’s an option, too.”

She took a deep breath. “Sorry, guys. I’m just overwhelmed today. I’ll be okay.” She kissed Landry, then Cris. “No, we don’t need to rush out and do something. I just…need to recover from today.”

Once they were snuggled in bed, the lights off, Tilly wedged herself against Landry, who’d spooned against her. Cris, in turn, spooned along Landry’s back.

“I love you guys,” she whispered into the dark.

“Love you, too,” they said in unison, followed by chuckles from them.





Chapter Seven


Tilly was no stranger to nightmares. She’d experienced them the majority of her life, ever since the nighttime visits to her bedroom by her step-father started.

They had, however, come fewer, and farther between since her life had settled into what now passed for normal in their household. Rare was the night she didn’t have one or both of her men in bed with her.

That went a long way toward keeping the nightmares at bay.

No doubt it was the day’s events that triggered this round, the first series of nightmares she’d had in months. Her sleep was plagued with visions of what might have happened had Sofia’s ex showed up while Tilly was trying to rescue her and Katie. What would have happened had Tilly resorted to her makeshift blowtorch.

Had she showed up too late and found Sofia and the baby dead.

Those visions were the worst.

Around four a.m. Thursday morning, Tilly gave up trying to sleep. Soaked to the skin with sweat, she carefully got out of bed, discarded the T-shirt in the hamper, and pulled on a clean one. When she went to check on the baby, she found her lying there, eyes open.

“You’re a quiet one, aren’t you?” Tilly scooped her up and carried her out to the living room. There, she changed her and then got her bottle ready. Sitting on the couch with the early-early morning news show playing at a barely audible level, that’s where Cris found her when he awoke at five.

He settled onto the couch next to her. “I never heard you get up, Redbird.”

“That was kind of my point,” Tilly softly said. “I didn’t want to wake you guys.”

Katie was working on bottle number two. Tilly hoped the pediatrician would give the baby a clean bill of health despite Katie being slightly underweight. Tilly’s instincts told her to let the baby eat as much as she could right now, to catch up.

Cris draped an arm around Tilly’s shoulders and pulled her close, nuzzling the top of her head. “Nightmares?”

She let out a long, deep sigh and nodded.

He kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry, Redbird.”

“Not your fault.”

“She’s my cousin.”

“Still not your fault.”

He rested his head against hers and reached in, stroking the baby’s hand with his. “She’s beautiful.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry I can’t go to the doctor with you today.”

“Well, even if your schedule allowed it, you’d be going with them to the hearing and the probation officer. I can handle the doctor appointment.”

“It’s not fair to dump all this on you.”

“At least we’re in a position to afford it. If you’d seen that shit-hole apartment…” She suppressed a shudder. “This worked out as if it was supposed to work out like this. I got the call, I was able to reach her. Let’s be honest, you would have called the cops.”

“Yeah, I would have.”

“And Katie would be in state care right now, and Sofia would be in jail.”

“She still might go to jail.”

“Better later than before we could step in and help with Katie. Are we really not going to contact her family?”

Time for him to let out a sigh. “I don’t know yet. My gut instinct is no, because it will cause more problems than it will solve. They won’t want Sofia to leave the state with Katie, and might fight us for custody.”

“That’s a moot issue once Sofia designates us guardians, isn’t it?”

“That’s what I hope, but people can sue for anything. I’d rather not drag our private lives through the mud.”

She snorted. “Says the man giving me a hard time about not renting a car.”

He arched an eyebrow at her. “You’re just banking those punishment swats, aren’t you?”

Tilly threw in a little pout. “Landry said he’d talk to you about not punishing me.”

Cris smiled. “I think I’ll need some persuasion on your part.”

She stared up into his brown eyes. Those sweet, handsome eyes she fell in love with what felt like a lifetime ago. Two lifetimes. Hell, three, if she counted their time together, their time apart, and him and Landry coming back into her life.

“If it involves BJs and other…things, I’m in.” She grinned.

A soft chuckle escaped him. “I never could wholeheartedly punish you, baby.”