A teenager? Was Kade serious about sticking with us? Then, as I stared down at her, my sweet little girl opened her eyes, revealing gorgeous amber orbs flecked with blue and green. Eyes that looked so familiar my heart jumped. Even knowing that Kade wasn’t her father, I could have sworn she had his eyes.
“Belle, huh?” I swear her little bow lips pulled up in a tiny smile. “Then maybe we should just name her Bella?”
“Yeah?” Kade’s voice was rough, but the finger he brought over to stroke the baby’s cheek was gentle. “You’re sure?”
I nodded. “Absolutely.” I snuggled against Kade’s shoulder until he lifted his arm and slid it behind my back, bringing me to rest against his chest while I held Bella to mine.
Kade’s lips brushed my hair. When he stroked Bella’s soft cheek again, her tiny fist came up out of the blanket and wrapped around his finger, holding it tight.
I laughed.
“What?” Kade asked, bemused.
I just shook my head. “Only a few hours old, and she’s already a daddy’s girl.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Kade
Once Jeremy was released from the infirmary, he and Bella were settled in with me in the little cottage. We spent the first two weeks snuggled up in our own little world as we began to learn how our family was going to work.
It wasn’t until Tuesday of the third week that reality crashed in on our little paradise when Chuck knocked on the door, a brightly wrapped gift in his hand.
He ooh’d and ahh’d over our beauty, then smiled at Jeremy’s delight when he unwrapped an unbelievably soft stuffed gazelle and a DVD with a blank label.
“How sweet!” Jem snuggled the toy under Bella’s chin, making her giggle, before holding up the DVD. “What’s this?”
Chuck grinned broadly. “Well, since you happened to go into labor and deliver in a public room, there was security footage of sweet Bella’s birth. I thought you might like it.”
“Oh!” Jeremy’s eyes misted and he rushed over to hug my old friend. “Thank you!”
“My pleasure,” Chuck squeezed him back carefully. “And that is the original, so don’t worry about your privacy.”
Jeremy wiped a tear away and waved the DVD at me. “Movie night?”
Before I could answer, Chuck caught my eye, angling his head toward the door.
“Um, great,” I agreed. “Why don’t you get us set up while I walk Chuck out?” With Jeremy agreeing, I walked out to the front steps and waited for Chuck to speak.
“We have a situation,” he said frankly. “We’ve been contacted by COPSD with regards to Jeremy. The family says they tracked him here and are claiming he was kidnapped.”
I had to stifle the snarl building in my throat. “I’ll call Rafe,” I huffed.
“Good idea,” Chuck agreed. “I already texted Colby, but that isn’t the problem. Since he went into labor right after arriving, Jeremy isn’t technically enrolled in our program. If COPSD shows up, we won’t have a legal right to intervene.”
“Got it,” I sighed. “Did he ever even get the list of class options?”
Chuck shook his head and pulled a small square of folded paper from his pocket. “Do you want to talk to him about it?”
“Yeah,” I agreed, stuffing the paper in my pocket. “I’ll text you later when we’ve had a chance to talk.”
“The sooner the better,” Chuck agreed. “We need to get him on the rolls as a student ASAP.”
I turned back inside, determined to tackle the issue before we lost any more time, but, when I walked back into the house, Jeremy was standing next to the couch watching me with tears dripping down his cheeks.
“Baby? What’s wrong? Is Bella okay?”
Jeremy sniffled and nodded. “She fell asleep so I tucked her in.”
