As soon as I left the office, I headed straight for Rex and Rynna’s house. After spending the day meeting some of my new patients, I had this itchy feeling.

Needing to hold my godbabies in my arms. Feel them whole and healthy and strong.

Which was crazy, considering the day had left me feeling more fulfilled than I’d ever imagined and entirely wrecked at the same time.

I pulled into the gravel drive of the family’s little house. The larger house across the street that Rynna had inherited from her grandmother was currently undergoing a full renovation. As soon as it was finished, they’d sell this place and move over there since they needed the room.

I bounded up the porch steps, Milo barking like crazy as he hopped up and pawed at the window.

The door flew open before I even made it there, Frankie Leigh barreling out. The kid was wearing the black tutu I’d given her for her birthday over a pair of shorts and a sweater, her brown hair just as wild and free as her spirit. “Uncle Kale, Uncle Kale! Yous came to see me. What you been doing? I’ve been missing you!”

I scooped her off her feet, tossed her in the air as she squealed with delight. I hugged her close. “I’ve been missing you, too. How’s big girl school?”

“It’s so, so fun! I learned all my letters, and I can write my name. You want to see?”

“You know I do.”

I set her on her feet, and Frankie was rounding the couch and flying down the hall before I closed the door. Rynna was bouncing Ryland by the dining room table, looking a little frazzled, the tiny baby boy facing out and releasing all these tiny, gurgled cries as he attempted to stuff his whole fist into his mouth.

Rex was in the kitchen making dinner.

I grinned at him. “About time you made yourself useful . . . what are you making me? Just don’t burn it because it actually smells delicious. I mean, seriously, what miracle is this? Last time I checked, your specialty was pizza from a box.”

He tossed me a middle finger with his hand still wrapped around the paring knife he was dicing potatoes with. “Don’t even start, man. My family needs a good dinner, and the last thing my Rynna needs is to go worrying about making dinner after she’s been taking care of the kids all day.”

With an exaggerated sigh, she kissed the top of Ryland’s head. “Who would have thought taking care of an infant would be a hundred times harder than running a diner all day? I’m not complaining, but I think I could sleep for a week straight. Thank God Nikki decided to take the general manager position. I don’t even know what I’d do right now if I had to go in and oversee things.”

Nikki hadn’t been in love with her previous job and had jumped on the opportunity when Rynna had suggested she come work at Pepper’s Pies.

Rynna knew she wouldn’t be able to devote as much time to the diner once she had Ryland, and she wanted someone she could trust to handle the little diner that had been her dream, her grandmother’s legacy.

It had been a good transition for both of them.

I approached her, dropped a kiss to her forehead, and ran a tender hand over Ryland’s head. He leaned into it, the kid loving the contact, a sweet coo coming from his mouth. “No one until they’re standing right in your shoes, that’s who.” I lifted my hands for Ryland. “Here, let me take him for a while. Looks like you could use a break.”

She beamed at me as she shifted Ryland into my hold. “You’re a godsend.”

I quirked a brow. “You mean a god?”

“You wish, asshole.” Rex was eager to supply. “And it’s about time you showed up for Uncle duty.”

“Hey, I’ve been busy, man.” I held Ryland’s teeny body against my chest, bouncing him lightly.

Affection went sliding through my veins. Was crazy how much I adored these kids.

“Oh, I bet you’ve been busy. What’s her name?”

“Is there ever a name?”

Of course, there was one dancing at the tip of my tongue.

Hope.

What the hell it was about her, I didn’t know. But all day, she’d been taking possession of my thoughts without my permission, my mind continually traipsing back to the heat lighting on her cheeks, that sweet shyness I wanted to dip my fingers into, desperate for a taste.

Rynna grinned at me as she headed into the kitchen to help Rex. “Oh, I’m sure there are plenty of names. You just forget them before you’re on to the next one.” She washed her hands, looking back at me. “And that baby looks good on you, by the way.”

“Only because I get to give him back when he starts crying.” I shot her a wink. “And, well, I always look good. It’s kind of impossible for me not to.”

Rex’s expression was nothing but adoration when he gazed over at her, amusement playing around his mouth. “Can you believe this guy?”

She giggled with a shake of her head. “He’s your friend. You’re the one who decided to keep him around all this time.”

“Hey,” I drew out, fighting the laughter. “Don’t be knocking my presence. Doubt very much the two of you would be together if it weren’t for me. I was the one who knocked some sense into his stubborn ass.”

Rynna pushed up onto her toes and pressed a kiss to Rex’s jaw, her voice not meant for me. “I’m pretty sure he would have found me either way. Some people are just meant to be.”

She almost did a double take when she looked back and found Ryland was already conked out in my arms.

“Oh, make it look easy, why don’t you? He hasn’t slept a wink all day.”

“Magic touch right here. Kids love me, and you know I love them.” My brow lifted. “Just as long as they aren’t mine.”

Frankie was suddenly right there at my feet, a box of fat markers in one hand and a frilly pink notebook in the other. A pout pursed her lips. “Uncle Kale, you said I was always gonna be your favorite girl. That means I belongs to you. You don’t want to keep me anymore?”

I looked down at the adorable thing, who was growing way too fast, her sweet lisp starting to sort itself out but still evident enough to fist me right in the heart with the sweetness of it.

Swore, the kid had me wrapped around her little finger.

Rex was grinning as he was rinsing the potatoes in the sink. “Now tell me how your gonna dig yourself out of that one, my friend. And don’t you dare go breaking my Frankie Leigh’s heart.”

“Never.”

I shifted Ryland into the crook of one arm so I could rustle my fingers through Frankie’s hair. “What are you talking about, Sweet Pea Frankie Leigh? Do you have beans growing in your ears? Here, quick, let me take you to the office so I can look in there, because you heard me all wrong. I said you’re always going to be mine, not as long as they’re not mine.”

Giggling, she wiggled all over the place. “I don’t gots any beans growing in my ears, Uncle. I think you’re teasin’ me.”

“And you know I only tease my favorite, favorite girls, right?”

“Uh-huh,” she agreed as she scrambled onto a dining room chair so she could show me how she wrote her name, completely assuaged, not another thought about me leaving her behind.

“Smooth,” Rex said with a shake of his head, dumping the diced potatoes into a pot of boiling water.

“Skilled,” I tossed back.

“So, tell us about this new position. What did you think?” Rynna’s demeanor had shifted, all concern as she looked back at me.

I roughed a hand through my hair.

Didn’t want to tell her I had to come straight from the office because I needed reassurance that Ryland and Frankie were just fine. That something horrible hadn’t crept up in the time I’d been away.

It was funny because, for years, I’d given Rex crap about being too overprotective of Frankie, always rushing her to the ER whenever the slightest things went wrong. I’d continually made light of it and razzed him that he was ridiculous.

Truth was, I’d been in knots while I’d waited for them to arrive, terrified something was seriously wrong.

I saw so much bad shit come through the ER doors every single day.

Had experienced it firsthand.

Had felt death’s claws tear right through my skin to rip my life apart.

Like it was teaching me a lesson.

But the last thing I wanted was to make him worry more than he already had been. He was coming to me for reassurance, not to be launched into some kind of tailspin.

So, I took it upon myself to make sure she was healthy, trying to take some of the burden from his shoulders. I would do the same with Ryland.

I pushed out a sigh, trying to find the right words. “It was amazing. Hard and exhausting and trying, and still the best thing I’ve ever done.”

“It must be incredibly difficult . . . seeing all those sick children. Caring for them. Worrying about them. And still knowing it’s worth it, making the difference that you do.”

I guessed Rynna got it anyway.

Made me so happy she’d found Rex and he’d found her, two of them needing each other more than anyone I knew. She was right. Some people were just meant to be.

“You’re right. It is really difficult. Only thing I can hope for is that I really do make a difference.”

Rynna looked at me seriously. “Kale . . . of course, you make a difference. I think probably more than you know.” She walked up to me and touched her baby’s cheek as her eyes flicked between me and him. “I just want you to promise me one thing . . . no matter what you see or what you deal with . . . don’t lose you. Don’t let it break you. And don’t ever, ever give up on hope. Because it’s always there, no matter how dismal things might seem.”

Emotion clutched my chest, that terror that I was right there, at the ledge I’d stumble and fall over.

Fail all over again.

I refused to ever repeat it. Because I knew that this time there was no chance I’d be able to get back up.

I forced a smirk. “Come now, Rynna, do I really look like I could be broken?”

Her expression said yes, you do. But Frankie Leigh was calling my name, and I was shifting my attention, her little hand scribbling across the page. “That’s ’cause you’re a superhero, too, rights, Uncle Kale? Wonder Woman and Cap’in ’merica, right? We’re the bestest team.”

“Heck yes, we’re the best team.”

And this little team was all I was ever going to need.