The second they placed her in his arms, every ounce of tension vanished from him. He was completely still. Our daughter looked tiny against his massive chest.
Hudson stared down at her with glassy eyes, his entire expression cracked wide open with awe. Then he kissed the top of her head and whispered one rough, wrecked word.
“Mine.”
I fell even more in love with him then because Hudson never loved halfway. Not me, not our daughter, not our family. He loved with everything he had.
“Mommy?”
I blink back into the present to find Ivy staring at me.
“You’re smiling weird.”
Hudson immediately looks alarmed again. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” I promise through a laugh.
I reach for his hand and tug him closer until his body settles against mine. “You’re just reminding me of when I had Ivy.”
His expression softens instantly. “Best and worst day.”
I snort. “Worst?”
“You were in pain,” he explains, tightening his grip on me.
“Yeah, I was having a baby. Remember how you almost passed out when they put in my IV?”
“I did not.”
“Daddy passed out?” Ivy gasps dramatically.
“I did not pass out,” Hudson growls.
“He sat on the floor and looked like he was about to meet Jesus,” I correct.
My daughter dissolves into giggles.
Hudson glares at both of us before pulling me fully into his arms, one hand protectively cradling my belly. The baby kicks hard beneath his palm, and I watch as his entire face changes.
Every single time, like he still can’t believe this is real.
His throat works as he looks down at my stomach. “Hey, little troublemaker.”
My heart melts because this man who terrifies boardrooms of billionaires talks to our babies like they hung the moon.
Ivy climbs onto one of the kitchen stools beside us. “Daddy,” she says seriously. “Mommy’s okay.”
Hudson kisses the top of my head. “I know,” he says, but his arms tighten around me anyway.
I rest my cheek against his chest and smile, listening to the steady beat of his heart beneath my ear.
Some people probably still think Hudson Cole is cold, gruff, and impossible, but they don’t know the man who rubs my feet every night without complaint.
The man who wakes up three times a night just to make sure I’m still comfortable. The man who looks at me now with the same overwhelming love he did five years ago.
Hudson loves fiercely, completely, forever. And honestly?
I wouldn’t have him any other way.
