Impact (Suncoast Society #32)(42)

“Yeah. Real Romeo and Juliet. Without the suicide. And Romeo’s best buddy, Leroy.”

“Leeeeroooy Jenkins,” Loren said with a grin, making them both laugh at the old joke.

“Take every day as it comes,” Loren said when they’d both stopped laughing. “That’s all you can do. And I’ll be here with you, every step of the way.”

“Thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me, kiddo,” Loren said. “That’s what friends do for each other.”





Landry had instructed Tilly to let them know when she was about five minutes away. Cris met them downstairs to help with the luggage.

Loren greeted him with a hug. “Glad she didn’t let me neuter you,” she teased.

He laughed. “That makes two of us.”

The baby was asleep in her crib, but Landry insisted Loren could go in and see her.

“She’s adorable!” Loren whispered, holding onto Tilly.

“I know, right?”

The women stood there for a long moment in silence. Loren tipped her head over onto Tilly’s shoulder. When she spoke, it was a whisper Tilly knew her men, standing in the doorway, couldn’t hear.

“Don’t let her go, babe,” Loren said. “Whatever you do, hold on tight. Whatever I have to do to help, name it. If you need Ross to help find an attorney, or whatever, it’s done.”

“I appreciate that.”

After getting Loren settled in the guest room, Tilly collapsed onto their bed in the master bedroom.

Tonight, the men snuggled her in the middle. Cris would take the next morning shift.

“How long is she staying, love?” Landry asked.

“As long as I can get her to,” Tilly said.

“She’ll end up helping us move.”

“Probably.”

“At least we’ll have plenty of room,” Landry said.

“Time for us to start making play dates when we get back to Florida,” she said.

“Yeah,” Cris said. “I think her calendar book will be filled.”

“Pre-school,” Tilly moaned. “We’ve got to start looking.”

“Too soon,” the men said in unison.

“She’s only two weeks old,” Cris added. “There’s plenty of time for pre-school decisions.”

As Tilly closed her eyes, it didn’t escape her notice that he didn’t add a caveat to that caution.





Tilly didn’t know if her lack of nightmares was due to Loren’s presence or because she was growing used to the situation. But when she awoke a little after seven Sunday morning, she was alone in bed and felt like she’d had the best night’s sleep in days.

Maybe because she had.

She heard voices out in the kitchen and smelled coffee. After using the bathroom and pulling on a robe, she made her way out to the kitchen. There, Loren was holding the baby and feeding her while Landry and Cris sat at the table.

“Ah. That explains the late sleeping.”

“Aunt Loren is still on Florida time,” she said with a smile. “So I was already awake when I heard her wake up. Yes I was.” She leaned in and kissed the baby’s forehead.

Yep. God help Sofia if she got out of jail while Loren was there. Loren would tear her a new one for allowing the situation to go on as long as it did, as well as a long strip out of her hide to remember the lesson by.

Cris started to get up but Tilly patted him on the shoulder. “It’s okay, Sir. I’ll get my own coffee this morning.” With Loren in the house, Tilly knew she needed the day of downtime.

Time spent not being strong.

She knew she’d have countless days ahead of her where she’d have to be strong, maybe stronger than she’d ever had to be before in her life.

And that was saying something, with all the shit she’d survived.

For today, she just wanted to be Redbird, and feel safe with her men and her best friend. To not think about anything. To not ponder the what-ifs.

To not think about a day where Sofia might get her shit together and take this precious little bundle of hope away from her.

And she didn’t want to think about what a shitty person that made her for wanting this to never end.





Landry and Cris still had a changing table to assemble and a home office to rearrange. They could shift the sofa around in the living room and make room to move the desk out there. It would do until their move to the new condo.

A move Tilly dictated they’d handle themselves and not hire movers.

When Loren arched an eyebrow at her, Tilly shrugged. “I don’t want movers pawing through our stuff. Look at how much we have. Honestly. Between us, Lucas, Nick, and a couple of guys from Cris and Landry’s office, we’ve got this handled at a fraction of the cost.”

“And twice the backache,” Loren snarked.

“You don’t understand what the paparazzi are like around here.”

“I know you’re a little obsessive about saving money sometimes. And worrying about things that don’t really matter in the long run.”

The men exchanged a knowing look.

“Oh, don’t give me that,” Tilly said to the men. “You think I’m going to give in because Loren said so, don’t you?”