ME:No. I’ve got it. Just take care of Niall.
I switched to Niall’s message thread.
NIALL:I’m fine. Love you too, Pinecone.
My chest cramped. Not because I didn’t think Niall loved me. I knew he did. But my brother would’ve shot back something humorously discourteous, which led me to suspect he wasn’t feeling like himself.
ME:I’ll see you as soon as Liam comes back.
I waited and waited for his answer. Finally, two words appeared:Don’t worry.
Yeah. Like it was something I could control. When you loved, you worried.
I was about to text Adalyn to see if she wanted to come hang out when a soft cry resounded through the silent cabin. I set my phone down and removed my boots. I’d never visited the place when Alex Morgan had been alive. Although larger than the other pondside cabins, it possessed a similar floorplan—open kitchen and living area, then a corridor that led to the bedrooms. Unlike at Niall’s, this one had a third bedroom.
I trailed the sound of Storm’s cries into the smaller of the three rooms where a wooden crib abutted the foot of a queen-sized bed. I was worried that when he’d see me, his cries would intensify—I mean, he was surely expecting his father or Lucas—but instead, his little lips pressed shut. I reached into the crib and gently pushed back a lock of hair that had curled and caught on his wet lashes.
“I know, I know. Me again.”
He didn’t make a peep, just gazed at me, tiny fists unclenching at his sides.
“Your sleep sack looks real cozy. Wish they came in my size.” I flicked another lock of hair off his scrunched forehead. “So, how does this go? Do we chat a little, and you fall back asleep? Should I sing?” The few times I’d gotten him to nap was after his milk, and since Liam had told me Storm didn’t drink at night, I wasn’t sure what to do.
Stroking the frame of his face, I sangTwinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, my repertoire a tad limited. Instead of putting him to sleep, his eyes remained wide.
“This isn’t a concert, little man. You’re supposed to sleep.”
He squeaked and then flapped his legs and arms.
I laughed, then hummed him another song, and his state of wakefulness grew more pronounced. I tapped his nose. “Thank you for being such a great audience, but you really need to close those beautiful eyes of yours and relax.”
He squealed.
I grinned. I didn’t speak baby, but I was pretty sure that was a negative on my shutting-eyes counsel. Sensing he wasn’t ready to doze off, I looked around the room to find a chair to sit on. The room wasn’t equipped with one so I started toward the door to grab one from the kitchen. The second I was out of sight, Storm released a cry so shrill his father probably heard it from the woods.
“I’m right here, Storm.”
He kept wringing the life out of his lungs. I returned to him and plucked him up. He stopped crying instantly.
“You know exactly how to get what you want, huh?”
He just stared at me, and then simultaneously lifted his thumb to his mouth and gripped a lock of my hair. I tried to wrangle it from his fist, but he held on, and then he did the strangest thing. He brought the curled tip to his nose and rubbed it against his flaring nostrils. His lids dropped and dropped as though Adalyn had soaked my hair in melatonin instead of serum. When his lower lashes tangled with his top ones, his fingers began to loosen. I tried to free my hair, but his fingers clenched, and his lids lifted.
“Fine. Keep my hair. I have so much of it anyway.” I pressed a kiss onto his forehead. And then I walked around the cabin, humming under my breath until his fingers unclenched and his cheeks stopped dimpling from sucking his thumb.
I lowered him carefully back into his bed. After letting go, I didn’t dare move, worried that a mere shift in the air would startle him back awake. I started to turn when a little sob bubbled out of him.
I abandoned any idea of leaving the room and curled up on the foot of the bed, then reached my index through the crib’s bar to stroke his open palm. He gripped my finger and flipped onto his side in spite of his cumbersome blanket.
Slowly, his lids grew heavy. This time, when he let go, I didn’t. I held on to this tiny, temperamental creature, feeling so protective of him even though he was only mine to protect for the night.
“What are you Kolane men doing to me?” I murmured, watching his sleep sack puff and collapse with his quiet breaths.
His fingers cinched mine as though to make sure I hadn’t abandoned him, then spread again once he’d ascertained I hadn’t.
“I won’t let go until your daddy comes home.”
And I didn’t. My index was still nestled in his fist when a warm breath fanned over my forehead and jerked me from sleep.
