Logan reaches down and brushes his fingers over the top of her curls.“That right?”
She nods very seriously.“You’re always tellin’ Mommy to sit down.”
“That’s because Mommy forgets how to rest.”
I snort.“Excuse you.I know how to rest.”
Both of them look at me with identical expressions of disbelief.
Traitors.
Logan steps closer and leans down to kiss my forehead first, then my mouth.It’s soft and slow and familiar, and even after all these years, it still makes my heart flutter.
“Hey,” he murmurs.
“Hey.”
His hand settles possessively on the curve of my belly for a second, and the baby gives a tiny kick.His whole face changes.Every single time.That rough, grumpy, stoic man melts the second one of his babies reminds him they’re there.
“There you are,” he murmurs to my stomach, a smile tugging at his mouth.
Rosie immediately sits up straighter.“He kicked again?”
“Yep.”
She puts both hands on my belly with great seriousness.“Hi, baby brother.I made a bear.”
Logan huffs out a quiet laugh and crouches in front of us.The porch creaks beneath his weight as he settles one forearm across my knees and looks up at me.“You done working?”
“Almost.”
His eyes flick to the closed laptop on the table beside me, and one dark brow lifts.“Vivian.”
“What?”
“You said you were done an hour ago.”
“I said I was almost done.”
“That was an hour ago.”
I smile sweetly.“Accounting takes time.”
He gives me a look.There was a time when that look would’ve scared me.Now it makes warmth bloom through me because I know exactly what’s behind it.Concern.Devotion.Love so big that he can’t always hold it inside his chest.
I pull the laptop toward me protectively as he reaches for it.“Don’t you dare.”
“Then close it for the day.”
“I just need to finish the Midnight Haven report.”
“It can wait until tomorrow.”
I shake my head.“No, it can’t.Jameson needs the numbers tonight so they can finalize housing for that woman and her little boy coming in from Asheville.”
Logan’s expression changes.Some of the stubbornness leaves him, replaced by understanding.
Midnight Haven started as a sanctuary for people needing safety from the cult, but over the years, it’s become something more.The cult that once terrorized this area is gone, dismantled for good, but trouble didn’t disappear with it.Women still run.Children still need protection.People still arrive in Night Grove Falls bruised, frightened, and desperate for somewhere safe to land.
