She just looked at her beautiful baby sister for a long moment.Markie really did look like Maggie or Nikki right there.No denying the Tyler in this one.
“She’s beautiful.Precious.”
Auggie turned, he was there, holding Maeya and rocking her back to sleep.Like he’d done it a million times.“You are really good at that.”
“I was almost thirteen when the Clancy-creature hatched.I remember rocking her.I remember when Cloe was born when I was eight, but Clancy was different because I was so much older and Mom was starting to get really sick, so I spent more time helping with Clancy.It went too fast.”
“Yes, it does.”Maeya had been two months old when Auggie had gotten her.Now she was crawling and starting solid foods and babbling all the time.“I want to enjoy it, while I can.That one is my only baby-baby.”
“You can have a few more.Maybe…two?Possibly three?”
Was that a hopeful note there?She considered the question, as she settled pillows around her three-year-old.She hadn’t seriously considered more children, not since the moment she’d learned about the girls.“That, I do not know.If I was with a man I trusted enough to shoulder half the load, no matter what.One or two, maybe?If such a man exists.”
“I’m sure he does.And even if there weren’t any more she-devil—or a he-devil—babies, I’d think a man would be blessed to bedaddyto the she-devils you have currently collected.Except Em and Junie, because that would be weird.Considering how old those two are—there is no way someone would get away with grounding them.And I do plan to marry those two off to Zach Lowell and Cadell when I get a chance.Just to see what happens.IfI was the man we are referring to, anyway.”
“Junie and Em with Zach and Cadell?Are you trying to cause a riot or something?Those are just as likely as Claudia and that damned Weatherby who drives her crazy.”Auggie thought a moment.It wasn’t entirely crazy, though.“Except possibly Junie and Zach.He does like to push her buttons.And she gets more fired up with him than she does anyone else.”
“He likes to watch her when she’s not looking, but I don’t thinkherealizes that.That Weatherby asshole has a thing for Claudia, too, you know.He’s just hiding it.I noticed the other day.And Cadell has had a thing for Em for a while, I think.He just won’t ever act on it.”He lowered the baby to the playpen.Then turned back to Auggie, a serious expression on his beautiful face.“Em scares him.What she makes him feel.He’s afraid he’ll end up hurting her like he thinks our father must have hurt our mother.Your sister seriously terrifies him.He’s so afraid he’ll be likehim,he’s closed himself off from life and is wrapping himself up in work.Dad destroyed his trust—not just in our father, but in himself.Cadell’s still working through that.”
And he was worried for his brother.She could see that worry in his eyes.Auggie would think about Em and Cadell together later.Thatwould require some serious thought—and study.Of both of those two.And…she was so going to tell Claudia her brother’s theory about Ransom Weatherby.Claudia would launch into orbit at that one.
She waited until Maeya was settled, and walked right up to him.She pressed her forehead to his chest.His arms went around her instantly.She looked up at him.“Youare a good man, Calloway Ellis.I’m sure you’ll make mistakes, no matter what woman finally captures you, but you have a good heart in there.And that is what matters most.”
“I know the woman I want to catch me.”He just looked at her and waited.
Auggie knew…this, standing there over two of her sleeping children, was their defining moment.“She’s going to.It just might take her time.She has six mini versions that shehasto put first.And it is really too soon to shake up their world again.So…it’ll have to be slow.The man she catches will need to understand that.”
“Well, if she catches this man, she should know…he wouldn’t expect it any other way.Because those mini versions matter so much.And if they don’t ever make more mini versions, he’d be perfectly happy just helping her raise them to be as amazing as she is.”
Her hand was captured in his and he pulled her out of his sister’s bedroom.And led her down the hall.Then they were in the living room and he was pulling her to the couch andholdingher, the way she needed, wanted to be held for a lifetime.
They stayed right where they were.
59
Jacob had grabbeda few beers after he’d left Kameron’s.He’d had a pair of six-packs in the back of his truck.He’d had to have one.To calm himself down.He’d just left his brother there.Kameron was going to die.Then it would just be Jacob.His father would see Jacob for the man he really was, without Kameron clouding the picture.The beer helped him figure out his next steps.He just drove around, thinking about what he’d want now.This would be a good thing for Jacob.It just would.
Kameron had so many houses, properties,assets.Kameron had told him and his dad that he’d left them both things in his will.His thirty-four-year-old brother had awill.
Because Kameron actually had money to leave people.
Well, Jacob would just use Kameron’sassetsto build his own finances back up.Kameron would want him and his father taken care of.And it would be Jacob’s secret forever what he’d done.
Kameron’s death wouldn’t be in vain.
Maybe that would make it better for his dad or something.
But first, he had to make it look like Bruce Tyler had done it.Bruce wouldn’t have a lot of motive with Kameron, except what had happened years ago.Between Bruce and Jacob’s dad.His dad had told him some things, enough to know that Brucecouldhave come after Kameron for revenge.
He just had to make it look good.
It was the only way.
60
Auggie had just beenkissed hotter than she had ever been kissed in her life.And they had somehow been makingplansaround those kisses.Plans she was more than ready to implement.This was the man she wanted to be with.This was the man that feltright.She didn’t know how it would play out long-term, but they were both willing to work to make it…work.
He had just unbuttoned the top of her dress when he pulled back, with a light curse.
