Hold (Gentry Boys, #5)(41)
“Cord! You’re home early!”
“Daddy!”
“Daddy’s home!”
I felt their arms and collected their kisses. Cami and Cassie demanded an immediate RSVP to a very important tea party they were hosting in their bedroom and Saylor lit up when she saw the flowers. When the girls scampered down the hall I pulled my wife to me, slipping my arms around her waist and sliding my tongue into her mouth. She responded eagerly, pressing her body close and issuing a small moan that kicked all my senses into high gear. She felt so good. She always felt good.
“Party time!” called Cami.
I pulled back a little. “Party time,” I said with some regret.
Saylor wrapped her arms around my shoulders. “Well Mr. Gentry, allow me to invite you a private party I’ll be hosting later this evening.”
“Oh yeah? What kind of festivities is the hostess planning?”
“Whatever strikes your kinky fancy, since you’re the guest of honor.”
I ran my finger down her cheek and over her lips. “In case I don’t say it enough, I love you, sweetheart.”
“You say it plenty. And I love you too.”
“Mommy! Daddy! Where are you?”
“We’re coming, honey,” Saylor called and then let out a little squeal as I picked her up and carried her in style to the best tea party that any two little girls ever planned.
After dinner we bathed the girls and got them ready for bed. I didn’t have any more great knight stories swimming around my brain at the moment so the girls contented themselves with listening to me read a story about three young bear cubs that wandered through the wilderness, lost and scared, managing to survive on their wits until the day came when they looked at one other and realized they were full grown bears.
They were asleep before I finished the story but I finished reading it anyway. It had a happy ending, as all children’s stories should.
Saylor had promised me a kinky show and I could have made creative use of her body in a dozen different ways. But all I wanted was to lay her down and tenderly slip inside of her. As soon as I felt her come I followed, driving in deep and staying put until every drop was released inside of her. And even though I’d told her I loved her several times today I said it again and stroked her hair as she fell asleep in my arms. I was happy to join her.
There’s something horrible about a ringing phone in the middle of the night. Some suppressed part of your mind rampages to the forefront, seizing your dream self and shrieking with alarm. Even before you open your eyes you are running a mental inventory of all the people who are precious to you and with relief you realize your wife is at your side and your babies are sleeping down the hall. As you sit up in the darkness, red numbers warn you that it is three a.m.
Nothing good ever happens at three a.m. In a panic you start thinking of names.
Chase.
Creed.
Deck.
By the time you reach the buzzing phone your heart is pounding and you don’t even see the caller identification as you touch the screen and swing the phone to your ear because you need to know right f*cking now if something has happened to someone you love.
“Hello?”
“Cordero.” The other voice was sad, vaguely recognizable. “It’s Gaps. Officer Driscoll. I had your cell number handy so I figured I’d call you first.”
Emblem. The news had something to do with someone down in Emblem.
“Gaps.” I was fully awake. My heart was a thudding gong. What happened?”
“Shit, I’m sorry, Cord. Not right to have to tell you like this, but it’s your mother. Maggie is dead.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CREED
I had heard her the first time she said it but I still needed to hear it again. Somehow I’d been expecting this news before I walked through the door this afternoon, knew what was going to happen as I sat across the table from my brother at a greasy diner and told him about the events of the last few days. If Truly had known it all along too she couldn’t bring herself to say so out loud but now there was no hiding from it.
“Tell me again,” I said gently, taking my wife’s trembling hand.
“She’s gone,” Truly repeated in a dull voice, tears still flowing freely. One stalled on her left cheek and I tenderly wiped it away. Baby Jacob slept peacefully in her arms, spared the knowledge that his mother had abandoned him. Someday he would know. Someday it would hurt.
Truly had calmed down by the time she started to tell the story a second time. About an hour after I’d left to go meet Cord for lunch Mia had returned. She picked up the baby, kissed him gently, then returned him to Truly.
“Mia asked me if I loved her. I said of course I did. She asked if I loved Jacob. I told her that was a foolish question and that I adored Jacob. She smiled and said ‘I love you too, Tallulah Lee. When we were kids you were more of a mother to me that our mother ever was. I was lucky to have you. And now Jacob is lucky to have you. I think I knew the day he was born that I would be giving him to you.’ At that point she was starting to scare the living daylights out of me because I didn’t know what she was meaning to do. She’d asked me for some money the other day, five hundred dollars, and I gave it to her. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about that, Creed.”
“Shush, it’s all right,” I said, frowning. Really, what the hell difference did money make right now?