I snort. “So we’re raising her in a bunker?”
“Obviously.”
“She’s not an ornament, Reid.”
“She’s worse—she’s mine.”
I roll my eyes, but God, I love him. Fiercely. Just like he’ll love her.
“One day, you’re going to have to accept that she’s a person with agency. Who might want to date someone, or get married.”
“She can date when she’s seventy.”
“She’s going to grow up with Meadow, you know that, right? Statistically, she’s going to end up forced into a backyard wedding ceremony with Theo, officiated by his sister in a tutu.”
“I swear to God, if Meadow tries to marry her off to Theo in the backyard, I’m calling a lawyer.”
I laugh, quiet and full. “It’d be adorable, but fine, I’ll let you handle their prenup when Ivy pretends to marry your best friend’s son.”
He stares at me, horrified.
I grin, then lean in and kiss the corner of his mouth. “You’re gonna protect the hell out of her, aren’t you?”
“With my life.”
“Good. Just also let her climb trees and break hearts and do dangerous, beautiful things. She’s allowed to live, caveman.”
His eyes close and his breathing evens. And with our daughter asleep between us, we finally fall still.
Chapter thirty-six
Love. Loss. Both, held close.
Reid
There’s spit-up on my chest, I only have one sock on, and I haven’t slept more than ninety minutes in a row since she arrived.
But I’ve never felt better.
Ivy’s curled against me, warm and heavy and impossibly small, her cheek pressed to my skin like she belongs there. Which—she does. Every single part of her does.
I’ve been around for less than a week of her life, and already, I’m convinced there’s no version of the universe where I don’t end up here. Holding her. Protecting her. Letting her turn me inside out with one tiny sigh.
Carina’s beside us, still half-asleep, and one arm slung across my stomach, her fingers tangled with mine.
And everything’s still. No whistles or horns, no lights, no roaring crowd.
Just my girls.
I once pulled a .972 in the playoffs. Thirty-seven saves, OT shutout.
Didn’t touch this. Couldn’t.
She stirs, lashes fluttering against her cheek, and I shift just enough to kiss the top of her head. Carina lets out a low sound beside me and stretches, blinking her eyes open.
“Hey,” I murmur. “You okay?”
“I’m sore,” she mumbles. “And leaking from places I didn’t know could leak.”
