He leans in, placing a soft, lingering kiss on my mouth and I cup his jaw, smiling up at him.
“I love you, angel. Thank you,” he whispers against my mouth.
“I love you, too,” I breathe, getting lost in his grey-blue pools. “But I didn’t do anything.”
“You did a lot more than you think.”
A throat clears, shattering the moment we had fallen into and we pull apart. Every eye in the room is on us as we turn back to the group and Bella practically bounces in her chair.
“So, um… what’s going on here?” Noah asks, waving a hand between Killian and me.
“We haven’t discussed it,” I say at the same time as Killian says, “We’re back together.”
His head swings to me, that frown back on his handsome face. “We’re back together.”
My cheeks heat at the authority in his tone, but my heart softens when I see the genuine fear evident on his face.
It’s understandable that he would be afraid. I don’t exactly have a great track record for sticking around. There’s also a lot still hanging between us that needs to be addressed, but as I look at my husband, at the way he blinks at me as he waits for me to offer him some kind of reassurance, none of that matters.
I lean over, pressing my mouth against his before turning back to the room. “We’re back together.”
“It’s about fucking time.” Noah bangs a hand against the table.
“I’m so happy for you two,” Savannah says.
“Will we finally get an Ashby wedding?” Bella asks and everyone else dissolves into laughter.
“One thing at a time, yeah, Bells?” Killian says wrapping his arm around his baby sister and pulling her into him.
She returns his embrace, smiling at me over his shoulder. “I’m really happy for you.”
Yeah. I’mreally happy for me, too.
CHAPTER 47
KILLIAN
The exhaustion from the last twenty-four hours hit at around dinner time, and after the eight of us ate our body weight in pizza, we said our good-byes to the rest of the group.
Daisy is sprawled out across my sofa, her feet resting in my lap as a movie plays softly in the background. My thumbs work in gentle circles against the arches of her bare feet as I stare mindlessly at the TV, not really paying attention.
My thoughts have been preoccupied all day with Jaxon and Juliet. If they’re okay and how they’re coping with the loss of their mother.
Granted, she wasn’t much of a mother to them at all, but they lost her all the same.
I haven’t been able to get the fact that Jax is only sixteen out of my head, either. I was so sure that he was older, maybe eighteen or nineteen, and I’m pissed at myself for not doing more to confirm that. As a business owner, it’s my responsibility to know everything there is toknow about the people I’m employing, but when Jax came to me in the street and all-but begged me for a job, it didn’t even cross my mind that he was still a minor. He should still be in high school, for fuck’s sake.
I’ve had this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach since last night. That feeling grew when I witnessed the horror that those kids called home. And it’s only continued to grow as the hours pass with no word from CPS.
The only thing that is keeping me from spiralling out of control is the small glimmer of hope Noah gave me when he told me what his parents plan to do.
If the Calloway’s foster Jax and Juliet, I know they’ll be safe. I will be able to rest easy knowing that the two of them are being taken care of the way they should have been all along.
I can’t even begin to imagine how scared they must be feeling right now.
No sixteen-year-old child should ever have to find their mom overdosed on the living room floor. No three-year-old girl should have to watch as her big brother gives their mom CPR while begging for help from 911.
Fuck, I can’t stop my mind from running wild with thoughts of the scrawny, malnourished boy and his baby sister with the unruly curls so much like the woman next to me.
