Kaleidoscope (Colorado Mountain #6)(71)

“Shit goes south for Chace.”

Her eyes warmed, she leaned closer and lifted a hand to rest light on his cheek. “It’s going to be okay.”

“She’s past due.”

“That happens.”

“She was buried alive, baby.”

“Almost two years ago, honey.”

Deck fell silent.

Emme moved closer, touched her mouth to his and pulled back an inch before she teased, “I find it fascinating, and indescribably hot, that the most intelligent, most logical man I know totally loses perspective when his best friend’s wife is having a baby.”

He felt his lips twitch before he replied, “This does not bode well for you, Emme, we find a time when we’re in the same room and you’re pushin’ out my kid.”

Her eyes flashed, her head jerking and it wasn’t the usual flash of fire he got.

It was something different.

Before he could ask, they heard announced, “Faye’s fine. Jacob’s fine. Everything’s good.”

At hearing Chace’s voice, Deck straightened, feeling Emme come up beside him.

Chace was smiling huge, relief and joy plain on his face.

Deck held back, Emme sticking close, while Silas, Sondra and Liza rushed him for handshakes, hugs and happy tears. They received murmured encouragement from Chace to go to Faye’s room and in unison took off like a shot.

Only then did Deck approach his friend, Emme coming with but this time not sticking close. She was giving the men space.

Deck did not go for the handshake. He lifted his hand and wrapped his fingers in a firm grip around the side of Chace’s neck.

They locked eyes.

“Happy for you, man,” he whispered.

Chace lifted his hand and reciprocated Deck’s gesture. “Yeah.”

“Fuckin’ beside myself, Chace,” Deck went on.

Chace nodded.

“Bottom of my soul,” Chace stated, voice thick.

“Same,” Deck replied.

They held each other’s eyes until Deck rocked Chace back, let go and stepped away. Emme moved in for a hug but she let him go quickly so he could get back to his wife.

Chace didn’t delay.

“I’m going to go get coffees,” Emme told him. He felt her fingers curl around his and looked down at her. “Do you want to come with, give them some time and crash the party later?”

He didn’t answer. He pulled his hand from hers, caught her on either side of her neck and yanked her to him, moving her head at the last second so she hit his chest cheek first.

Her arms instantly slid around him.

Holding her cheek to his heart with one hand, Deck curled his other arm around her.

Both of them held tight.

* * *

One hour later…

It was Deck’s turn and he was hogging the action.

He just didn’t give a shit.

“You wanna let my wife hold her new baby?” Chace called from his place stretched out beside a tired but grinning Faye in her hospital bed.

But something made him turn his head.

When he did, he saw Emme, shoulders to the wall, removed from the folks in the room, likely because she didn’t know most of them and those she did she didn’t know well. But she had a grin playing at her mouth and her eyes on him.

No. Her eyes—warm, sweet, the look in them she gave him when she told him she really liked him but slightly unfocused as if her thoughts were a million miles away—were on Deck holding little Jacob in his arms.

His blood started running hot.

“Deck, my son?” Chace prompted, his voice vibrating with humor.

Such was her concentration, Deck watched Emme’s body jump with surprise and her head swung toward the hospital bed.

Deck looked there too.

“My namesake,” he reminded Chace.

“Yeah. We gave him your name but that doesn’t mean you get to keep him,” Chace replied.

Faye giggled.

Deck smiled and started walking toward the bed.

He was waylaid with a hand on his arm and he looked down to see Emme suddenly close.

She was looking at Chace and Faye.

“Two seconds,” she said softly. “I just want a snuggle. Do you mind?”

“Of course not,” Faye replied.

Her head tipped back to Deck and she held out her arms.

Carefully, he transferred little Jacob into them.

She curled him close, dropped her head to peer at the bundle she carried and murmured, “Hey, little man.”

When she did, Deck’s blood already hot, he felt his heart start pumping hard, his gut clench, his chest get tight and his throat closed.

But somehow, none of this felt bad. Instead, it all felt really f**king good.

Fuck, was that what she felt when she was watching him?

He didn’t get near as long to watch even though she didn’t take two seconds. She took more like twenty but then she moved toward the bed, bent in and gave Faye her son. But she touched little Jacob’s cheek before she moved away.

“Right,” Sondra started. “My daughter needs a rest. Visiting hours are over.”

“The matriarch has spoken,” Liza muttered, giving her sister big eyes and a bigger smile.

Chace slid off the bed for more hugs and handshakes as all said good night.