Rooted (Pagano Family #3)(95)

Now, Carmen leaned over and saw her daughter sucking lustily on her hand. Her sunglasses were askew on her little face. “You hungry again, little miss? You’re a piggy.” She felt her milk let down as she reached in and brought Teresa to her chest. She opened her shirt and bra and got her settled, then eased back into the chair and looked out over the quiet lake.

She understood why some women breastfed their children until they were two or three years old. No feeling in the world was comparable to the feeling of her child nursing from her body. She couldn’t describe it well, to herself or to Theo, but it was as if they were linked by a physical bond stronger than merely Teresa’s mouth at her breast, stronger even than the umbilical cord that had once connected them. It enveloped her, every time, in an embrace of love and happiness so complete and keen that she spent every nurse near tears.

And the sounds Teresa had begun to make as she fed—tiny, happy moans that made Carmen grin until her cheeks ached.

Looking over the water to the shore across their little cove, Carmen saw a moose with a calf come out of the woods and walk to the water’s edge for a drink. She watched, feeling ridiculous as tears topped over her eyes because she felt a sisterly bond of motherhood with the beast.

Her emotions were still just all over the place, obviously. But she loved it.

She was happy.



oOo



She woke that night with a start as Theo slid into bed behind her. “Hey. You’re not supposed to be home until tomorrow.”

“It is tomorrow.” He kissed her cheek. He smelled of several different colognes, but she wasn’t jealous. A Fifth Avenue cocktail party meant lots of hugs and cheek kisses from well-heeled old broads. Even the well-heeled young broads didn’t intimidate her. Her man was hers.

She looked up at the clock on her nightstand. “It’s three-thirty. What did you do, come straight from Hunter’s party?”

“Yep. Even left early. I missed my beautiful girls.” He rolled her to her back and pushed his hand between her legs. Her body responded instantly, her hips rising up as if they had will of their own.

“We shouldn’t. She’s going to wake up any second looking to nurse.”

“Nope. I just fed her. She went right back down.”

“Theo—that milk in the fridge is for tomorrow.” She had a doctor’s appointment and errands to run in Lewiston, and Marijean was going to watch Teresa. Carmen still didn’t really like their neighbor, but Theo was right—she was nice and eager and helpful, and she absolutely doted on Teresa. Carmen felt like a bitch for staying a bit aloof. But the woman was just so cheerful.

“It is tomorrow.” He chuckled and kissed her as his fingers pushed her underwear to the side and slid in. She moaned, unable to get mad. She was happy to have him home.

Home.

He was home.

She was home.

This was home.

He was sucking on her neck as his fingers probed and explored her. But her attention was not, for this moment, on his hands or his mouth or her body. She cradled his head in her hands and made him look at her. The light from the hallway through their open bedroom door made a halo around him. “Theo.”

He smiled down at her. “Yes?”

“Ask me.”

She could see that he knew exactly what she meant, and he knew it right away. A light entered his eyes that had nothing to do with the hallway sconce or even the moonlight coming through the window. He took his hand from between her legs and held her hand instead.

“Carmen Pagano, my beautiful, beautiful girl, will you marry me?”

“Yes.”


THE END