Impact (Suncoast Society #32)(22)

She tipped her head onto his shoulder. “And how I loved you for it.”





Of course he’d heard Tilly get up. He just didn’t want her to feel guilty about him waking up.

He was so attuned to Tilly’s moods that he couldn’t not awaken when he heard her leave their bed, change clothes, and get the baby. She’d had a restless night, tossing and turning, and he’d awakened several times, unable to comfort her without awakening Landry in the process.

This was going to be a long, damn day, Cris knew that already. As he gave Tilly one last kiss and rose from the couch to start his usual morning routine, he tried not to think about his uncle.

The last person he wanted to contact was that man.

He damn sure didn’t want Katie raised by anyone in that family. Considering Fi’s poor track record of having an inability to stand up for herself, he feared getting his aunt and uncle and cousins involved in this before they legally had the paperwork filed and finalized would open a can of worms.

Especially if his mother got word of it. She’d most likely jump in on her brother-in-law’s side.

His inclination was to wait until they were all safely back in Florida to track his family down and notify them about Sofia’s whereabouts and new-mother status.

Even if that meant waiting several months to untangle legal paperwork snarls to get Fi moved to Florida.

If then.

There really wasn’t any reason to tell them about the baby. Sofia had reached out to her parents while she was pregnant and didn’t even get much info out before her parents shut her down and threw her out.

Why should he go out of his way to let them know about a baby?

The sadist in him toyed with the idea of waiting, and then maybe when the baby was two or three, sending them a series of pictures of Katie’s landmarks, like her first Christmas, first birthday, all of that.

Torture them with what they missed by shutting Sofia out of their lives.

Once the coffee was burbling, he started scrolling through his phone for any overnight e-mails needing his immediate attention from the Florida office. He hated the split time zones, but it couldn’t be helped.

He’d missed Florida after returning to California to be with Landry. He preferred Florida to Cali, and not just because of Tilly. Because it had actually felt like home in a way Cali never had, even during his first tenure with Landry.

If it wasn’t for the size of their company and their extensive business network, he’d gladly move everything to Florida and be done with California for good. A majority of their clients were along the East Coast now.

Several of their programmers had opted to move to Florida, easing the strain a little, but the bulk of their staff and contractors couldn’t afford to, or didn’t want to. Some of them could telecommute, thankfully, but the bottom line remained they had to keep a physical presence here.

Cris fixed Tilly a mug of coffee and took it to her, then one for Landry. Landry opened his eyes when Cris carried the coffee in to him and set it on the bedside table before he knelt next to the bed. Landry rolled onto his side and rested a hand in Cris’ hair, gently ruffling it.

“Good morning, boy,” he said, his voice still thick with sleep. “I take it our Redbird has been up for a while?”

“Yes, Sir. Nightmares. She finally got up about four. I thought it best to let her have a little alone time.”

“How’s the baby?”

“Already had one bottle, and working on a second.”

Landry sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. Cris leaned in, resting his head against Landry’s legs.

“Sorry our usual routine is disrupted,” Landry said. “I’ll make it up to you at some point.”

“I understand, Sir. Thank you for being so understanding about all of this.”

Landry made him look up. “Cris,” he said, his tone tinged with disbelief, “why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because I know your feelings about my family.”

“That is irrelevant when we’re talking about the health and welfare of a baby.” He stroked Cris’ head again. “Are you really going to punish Redbird?”

Cris let out a playful sigh. “I told her I’d probably be willing to let her…persuade me.”

Landry grinned. “That’s my good boy. Let her sweat a little about it. See? You did learn well.”

“I learned from the best, Sir.”





Despite what his wife and slave might both think, Landry had already decided, as soon as he’d learned about the situation, to toss protocols out the window.

An infant trumped all.

Which was something he never thought he’d ever have to deal with, but it wasn’t exactly an entirely unpleasant situation.

“Let’s go get our shower,” Landry said. “I’m a little too tired this morning to feel playful. Then we can watch the baby while Tilly gets ready, and you can fix us all breakfast.”

Landry stood and held out a hand to Cris. Once they’d finished that, they dressed and emerged to find Tilly dozing on the couch with the baby on her chest and the empty baby bottle on the coffee table.

Landry, who’d grabbed his phone, held out a hand and stopped Cris from waking her up. He took a couple of pictures first, then nodded for Cris to go ahead as he set his mug on the coffee table.