Impact (Suncoast Society #32)(36)

“I say you’re stubborn.”

“I concur,” Lucas added. “Going to side with Landry on this one. You didn’t make Sofia’s bad choices for her.”

Tilly headed to her office. “If you want to be helpful, Lucas, you can come unbox this portable crib for me.”

“I think you hit a nerve,” Leigh said.

He laughed. “I know I did. We Doms are pretty predictable. Even the switchy ones.”





Tilly was still playing catch-up at lunch time. Lucas went out and grabbed them all lunch and brought it back to the office for them. They ate in Tilly’s office with Lily on the floor on a blanket. Other than needing changing or fed, Katie had slept through the rest of the morning.

And Tilly had already taken dozens of pictures of Katie with her phone and posted them to her private Facebook account.

Ironically, most of her friends were in the Suncoast Society, and using their vanilla profiles. The comments rolled in about how adorable she was.

Eva Crawford, a friend of theirs who also worked part-time for them in their Florida office, called her after lunch.

“So when do we get to meet the newest addition? Kenny wants a girlfriend.”

“Kenny’s not even a year old yet, and he’d better keep his grabby little mitts off my…”

Tilly faltered. She didn’t know exactly what to call Katie. Technically not her daughter.

“Ward” sounded too much like she was Bruce Wayne hiding the fact that she was really Batman. And Katie was too damn young to be Robin.

“He’d better keep his grabby little mitts off her,” Tilly finally said.

“How are you doing?” Eva asked.

Working with Eva, and the emotional mess Tilly had lived through with her and her men, she felt a little less reluctant to open up to her than she might to other friends.

“I’m working through some stuff.”

“Well, we finally get a chance to reciprocate with the babysitting,” Eva said. “I’m not happy how the situation happened, but I’m happy for you right now.”

“Thanks.” She stared at the sleeping infant. What she really wanted to do, instead of being cooped up in the office, was go shopping and buy up every last adorable girlie outfit she could find for the baby.

It was nearly three in the afternoon before Landry called Tilly with an update. “Her court date is a week from next Wednesday. That was the earliest date Dale could get.”

At least it was an answer. “And her chances for getting out?”

“He won’t venture a guess. He’s in talks with the state attorney’s office now. She’s already been questioned once this morning.”

“Can we go visit her?”

“Cris will handle that, love. I’d rather you didn’t go.”

She bristled. “Why the hell not?”

“Because you’re already upset enough over all of this.”

“Are they going to press charges against her?”

“Dale doesn’t know. They’re still investigating the gang. If she fully cooperates, they might not. It depends on what they decide. It’s out of our hands.”

She stared at the sleeping infant.

“It’s not your fault.”

“That’s f*cking spooky, Lan.”

“Language, dear. And it wasn’t hard to guess where your mind was drifting. How about I pick up Chinese for dinner and bring it home?”

“That sounds like a plan.”

She made it home less than twenty minutes before Cris walked in the door. In fact, she’d just started bathing Katie when Cris walked in.

“Oh, man. You’re hogging all the fun.” He put down his computer bag and grabbed his phone, taking a video of Tilly bathing the infant. “We need to start her a baby book.”

“Good idea. I hadn’t even thought of that.” Surprisingly, one of the things in the bag of paperwork Tilly had salvaged from the old diaper bag was the hospital bracelet Katie had worn when she was born. As well as an infant picture, and footprints.

“This is the little angel, just over two weeks old,” Cris narrated. “Getting a bath.”

Tilly couldn’t help but smile at Cris’ tone of voice. He was adorable.

Parental.

She shoved back the wave of melancholy threatening to overwash her mental defenses once more. She would enjoy this time with Katie and not think about the “what ifs” that weren’t even reality yet.

For all she knew, Sofia might get out of jail and live with them for several years. The mother likely wouldn’t get a job where she could take Katie to work with her, so it’d be easy for Tilly to take care of her.

Once the infant was dried and changed and working on a bottle, Cris stopped filming. “I was thinking, let’s move the bed out of the guest room and—”

“Not yet,” she said. “Please? I don’t want to jinx it.”

He draped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “She’s my cousin, Redbird. And frankly, I think the baby deserves a room to herself. Based on what you said, and now her spending time in jail, Fi will just be happy to have a bedroom when she gets out. I doubt she’ll argue. We need the larger room for the baby.”

“Damn you and your devil logic.”