“You don’t ever have to face fear alone again, you hear me?”
“I hear you.”
They were quiet again, the soft sounds of R&B playing from Rylee’s Bluetooth speaker that sat on her night table to their right.
“I’mma be there foreverything,” Xander said low. “And I’mma love every part of you.”
Rylee’s eyes grew heavy and she smiled as she closed them.
“Love you through the grief, joy, flaws, and fears, of course.”
Xander shifted in his position, his fingers steady now, hand resting on her stomach.
“I’m gonna be there for every late-night craving, every doctor’s appointment,” Xander continued. “Teach Nova and LJ how to be brave and soft at the same time. ‘Cause you know you could be both, right?”
All Rylee did was nod.
“I’mma teach Nova and LJ how to box,” he added. “Yeah. ‘Cause girls should know how to fight, too. Protect themselves at all times. Yeah.”
She snickered, tiredly.
“They should have a backyard, Snoop,” Xander said low, sounding like he was saying that mostly to himself. “More space. A place to run and continue to grow.”
His promises sounded like lullabies to her—so sweet she hadn’t quite registered what he was suggesting. All Rylee knew in that moment was that any fear she had was melting away with each word he decreed.
“I’ll never try to fill Lennox’s shoes,” Xander promised. “I’mma just… walk beside the path he helped lay and always make sure things are getting better and never worse. Not on my watch.”
Rylee was seconds away from drifting off to sleep when she heard Xander say, “Our baby already has the strongest mama on the planet… and the fullest village. Believe that.”
And as Xander continued speaking behind her, Rylee released all her weight onto him, her smile fixed on her lips as she drifted off to sleep.
fourteen
XANDER - 4 MONTHS LATER…
The SUV’sspeakers were turned all the way up, bass vibrating through the floor as Xander’s chief, Chief Logan, told a wild story about a family dinner gone sideways. Xander loved when the chief spent time with them, which was rare. Logan used to be captain at Xander’s firehouse before the promotion but still came around when he needed a break from the brass upstairs, like that day.
Xander laughed along with the crew, but his eyes were fixed on the GPS. Half a mile until Greene Gardens.
Logan had requested a few firefighters make themselves available to visit a site in Greene Gardens the week before.
Xander had volunteered, genuinely curious about finally seeing the village he’d been viewing in brochures and that all of New York City seemed to be talking about lately. At least, that’s what it seemed like.
It also seemed like every other week, someone he knew was talking about possibly buying a house in the emerging village upstate.
As they passed theWelcome to Greene Gardenssign, Xander took a slow sip of his coffee, eyes scanning ahead.
To his knowledge, the town was brand new, but people had already started living there and opening businesses.
It was the reason he and his crew were traveling from Brooklyn to visit on assignment.
It was late morning in the village. Xander and the other firefighters were there to collaborate with the developers to ensure safety compliance and proper fire-response infrastructure for their new local firehouse that would serve the area.
As soon as they crossed the first half mile past the welcome sign, Xander sat up in his seat, tuning out the conversation in the SUV.
He and his crew from the Park Slope station were temporarily assigned to assist with reviewing blueprints with project architects and engineers, making sure the design supported response times and, of course, safety codes.
But that kind of went out the window when he realized how beautiful and developed the village already was.
