“Holy shit,” Liam whispered. “We’re geniuses.”
“We’re idiots who got lucky,” I corrected, but I was smiling for the first time in days.
“Same thing,” Gordy said softly, looking down at Rory. We’d all ended up circled around her during our serenade.
That’s when a throat cleared and we all looked up to find Sam standing there with a huge grin on her face. She was wearing a little black dress and heels, her blonde hair still perfectly styled despite whatever sorority chaos she’d been dealing with all night. Her eyes moved from Gordy to Liam to me, still holding my finally sleeping daughter, and she looked suspiciously like she was trying not to laugh.
“Don’t,” I said quietly. “Don’t say a word. She literallyjustfell asleep.”
Sam pressed her lips together, but I could see her shoulders shaking slightly. She set her purse down carefully and kicked off her heels, moving toward us with the kind of exaggerated stealth that suggested she’d had a few drinks at whatever event she’d been at.
“If only the women on this campus knew about you three,” she whispered, shaking her head with a grin that was part amused, part amazed. “You’d never sleep alone again.”
“We’re not sleeping anyway,” Liam muttered, but he was grinning too.
“This is actually kind of sweet,” Sam continued, movingcloser to peer at the baby in my arms. “Look at you guys, all domesticated and?—”
“Don’t get used to it,” Gordy interrupted, but his voice was soft. “This is a one-time thing.”
Sam looked at him, and something passed between them that I was too tired to analyze. She tilted her head slightly, studying his face in the dim light from the lamp.
“Right,” she said with a bit of challenge in her tone. “Because you’re such a badass.”
Gordy raised an eyebrow, his expression somewhere between amused and mildly offended. “I prefer ‘quietly competent.’”
“You’re wearing navy blue flannel pajama pants and looking completely domesticated,” Sam pointed out. “Very intimidating.”
Gordy glanced down at his perfectly coordinated sleepwear—solid navy pants and a matching navy T-shirt—then back up at her. “They’re comfortable and practical.”
“Of course they are. I would expect no less from you, Harry.” There was a fondness in the way she said it, like his predictability was endearing rather than boring.
The look Sam gave him was different from her usual friendly teasing she gave me and Liam.
They stared at each other for a moment longer than necessary, and I felt like I was witnessing something that maybe I shouldn’t be. Liam must have felt it too, because he cleared his throat softly.
“I’m going to bed before she wakes up again,” he announced, already backing toward the stairs. “Good luck, man.”
“Thanks for the help,” I called after him as quietly as I could.
“Anytime,” he said, and disappeared up the stairs.
Gordy lingered for another moment, still looking at Sam with an expression I couldn’t quite read.
Gordy broke their stare off first and looked at me. “You good?”
I nodded and he headed for the stairs. “Night, Drew. Night, Sam.”
“Night,” Sam called softly after him.
And then it was just me and Sam and my sleeping daughter in the quiet living room. Sam moved closer, studying the baby with a gentle smile tugging at her lips.
“She’s really beautiful, Drew,” Sam said quietly.
Rory’s tiny face was finally peaceful, her long eyelashes dark against her cheeks. She had these perfect squishy cheeks and the smallest nose I’d ever seen. Her skin was so soft it looked like it would bruise if I breathed on it wrong.
And yeah, okay, she was pretty fucking cute.
Even sleep-deprived and completely out of my depth, I couldn’t deny that she was the cutest baby I’d ever seen. I wanted to protect her from everything bad in the world, even though I had no clue how to protect her from basic things like hunger and dirty diapers.
