Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 120838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 604(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 604(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
“How far along are you?” Genny asked when they settled back down.
“About ten weeks,” Alex told her. “It’s a little early to share, but we thought everyone could use some good news.”
“Och aye, and that’s the best news ever,” his mum called out.
“This deserves champagne,” Blake decreed, pushing out of her seat. “I’ll go talk to Christine.”
And off she went to do that.
This left Dair sitting on a sofa with Ned.
He scooted into the spot Blake left and said, “I ken ye didnae miss it, but she’s worried about ye. And she’s keen to meet Marlo.”
“No, I haven’t missed it. She hasn’t made a secret of it either,” Ned said on a sigh.
“You’re correct, now isn’t the right time. But I think she’ll settle having met the woman.”
“This isn’t Helena’s place anymore, it’s Blake’s,” Ned replied. “And Helena is put to rest. Marlo is in Paris. I’ll see if she wants to swing a trip to the UK before heading home.”
“I think that’ll be good for all of you.”
Ned nodded.
Blake came back.
Champagne was served.
Ned’s attention was taken with something Elsa was saying.
“Everybody is going to start leaving tomorrow, and that sucks,” Blake complained in between sips of champagne.
“We can stay as long as ye like.”
“But you have matches to call,” she reminded him.
“Aye, and I can journey to them from here just as easily as I can do it from Edinburgh.”
That statement was as profound for her to hear as it was for him to say, and she didn’t hide it. She just added a kiss to the hinge of his jaw to punctuate how it made her feel.
When she sat back, Chloe was there with JT.
“Can you take him?” she asked Dair.
“Absolutely,” Dair replied instantly, setting his glass aside and laying claim to the precious wean.
He vaguely noticed Chloe smirking knowingly at Blake, but he was mostly busy bopping the baby’s nose so he’d giggle.
“I want two,” Blake announced.
Knowing what she was referring to, a tidal of warm goodness washed through him as he looked to her. “Aye?”
“You?” she pushed.
“Two is good.”
She reached in and stroked JT’s cheek.
He giggled at that too.
“You don’t sound convinced,” she noted.
He looked to her. “That I want weans?”
“That you want two of them.”
“Prefer three.”
Her brows drifted up.
“But I won’t be carrying them around in my body,” he carried on. “So if my woman wants only two, I’ll settle for two.”
Her expression turned triumphant.
He bent to her and kissed her curved lips.
JT landed a baby smack on his jaw while he did, and that meant they were both smiling when they broke.
“I’m visiting a voodoo practitioner to make sure they’re girls,” she warned.
He burst out laughing, and that made JT giggle too.
“Do you want boys?” she asked through it.
“I want healthy weans and a healthy woman when it’s all said and done. Dinnae give a shite what they come out as.”
She frowned. “Don’t say the s-word in front of a baby.”
“Lass, his vocabulary consists of gurgles and whatever sound comes from drooling.”
Her gaze moved to the baby. “Who knows what they soak in at this juncture?”
“Safe to say, with as much research as there’s been put into it, a lot of people ken that at this age, they dinnae understand a thing.” He lifted the baby to bounce him. “If JT starts speaking with a Scottish brogue, we’ll know they’re all wrong.”
“Whatever,” she muttered, then stole the baby from him.
In the last days, it hadn’t been lost on him she enjoyed children. He had to admit, it was a bit of a surprise. She didn’t seem like the hang-with-kids type. Though she talked gibberish to them, and took every chance she could to hold and play with them, she wasn’t the gushing, ooing and ahhing type. It was more she just enjoyed their company.
And he enjoyed that one fuck of a lot.
“Is it freaking you out how easy things are with us?” she asked JT a question aimed at Dair, the gravity in her voice communicating itself to the baby, who in turn assumed an expression like he was trying to understand her.
It was bloody adorable.
“No. Why would it?” he answered.
She turned to him. “It’s a little freaky.”
“It’s not.”
She went back to JT, bounced him, and in a baby voice said, “It is. It so is, my sweet little JT. Things don’t usually come this easy to Auntie Blake.”
“Darling,” he called.
She looked again at him.
“We’re older. We ken what we want. We also ken what we dinnae want. We ken what we like, and dinnae. We ken what’s important. So we can identify all of that when we find it.”
She cuddled JT to her chest in a manner that should have been a warning to him, but he was so struck by how beautiful she looked cuddling a baby, he missed it.
“What I’m trying to say is…I appreciate how amazing you’ve been since Mum died, Dair. The latest being you rescuing me from Chad. And I’ll add, I appreciate how hot that was too.”