“Congrats, brother. I’m so thrilled for you.”
“Thanks, Sean-o. I’m so glad you were here.”
Theo followed up with a huge hug and a kiss for my daughter. “Good job, J. Welcome to the Daddy Club.”
Thank God he’d come down to the locker room to tell me Franky and our baby needed me. Now he looked over my shoulder, inside the owners’ box, which had all the hallmarks of a crime scene.
“Damn, I think they’re going to need to triple-steam clean that floor.”
Chapter Fifty-Two
Franky
* * *
I woke up tired, sore, and a little anxious. My first sight was Jason and our baby sitting in an armchair by the window, a faint nightlight illuminating them like something out of a Rembrandt. My body relaxed. She was safe.
And why wouldn’t she be, asleep in her daddy’s arms? He was awake—which was probably good because he was less likely to drop her—and was whispering to her. I listened in.
“You have the best timing, Super Kid. So we lost the game last night, but we still have a Game 7 to play. And if we win that one, or should I say, when we win that one, it means you were here to see your daddy lift the Cup. Pretty cool, huh? Also, Harper said you’re the first baby born in the Rebels arena. You’re already making history and not even twenty-four hours old.”
He nuzzled his nose against her soft thatch of hair and inhaled her deeply.
“Is she okay?” I asked.
His tired gaze fixed on mine. “Hey, Mama. She’s fine. Got her all checked out and even though she’s a couple of weeks early, her weight’s on the money. Seven pounds, three ounces.”
“I knew she was going to be supersized.” Calling her Super Kid had somehow manifested a giant baby.
She turned her head and opened her mouth, which I knew from my reading was called “rooting,” a sign she was hungry. I had already fed her once after we arrived at the hospital, and while it took a few tries, we figured it out. Now Jason brought her to me and adjusted the bed, so I was sitting up. When he placed her in my arms, my heart burst with all the love I felt for her, and when she latched onto my nipple, the initial pinch soon gave way to warmth and comfort.
“The Rebels lost the game?” I whispered as she suckled away.
“What can I say? I’m indispensable.” He smiled, his tired grin bright in the dark of his beard. “We’ll get ’em next time.”
After she had been fed and burped, he placed her down in the cot beside the bed, then pulled his armchair close to me.
“How are you feeling, Doc?”
“Like I played four back-to-back best-of-seven series and won the Cup. Or at least I imagine this is what that level of tiredness would feel like.” I reached for his hand and squeezed. “I’m ready for that reckoning, if you are.”
“Always, Francesca.”
I blinked away a tear. “Everything you said at the baby shower was right. I’m the weird geek who created a shell, just like my beloved snails, an armor that would keep me safe. From bullies. From mean girls. From the boys I liked and who never liked me. From the mother who never thought I was pretty or worthy. I used my brains to scare off anyone I saw as a threat to my heart. Even though you offered to be her father, a small part of me wondered, why? I doubted your motives. And I especially doubted your attraction to me.”
“For a woman with a genius-level intellect, you’re kind of a dummy.”
I sniffed. “I know. I’m not sure you could ever be that good an actor.”
“Hey now.”
I laughed at his affront. “The thing is, attraction is just that—our bodies telling us another person can make us feel good. Anything more than that requires true chemistry and an alignment of values. You called it mutual respect. Compatibility. You also said that it’s better—all of it—with two.”
He arched an eyebrow.
“Not just sex, Jason.”
“I did say that. Sex, parenthood, love. I meant every word.”
