“Lucy! I’m home!” Neil called in his best Desi Arnaz voice as he closed the door between the kitchen and the garage. There was no answer, but that wasn’t unusual, at least not for the past three months.

He walked back to the nursery and paused in the door. Tanya was sitting in her rocker, her eyes closed and her face at peace as she slowly rocked. Circe, wrapped in a blanket, nursed at her breast. A year ago, when Tanya had told him she was pregnant, he would have sworn he couldn’t love another as much as he loved his wife at that very moment. Now, as he watched the two people most important in his life rock in a leisurely rhythm, he had to admit, he loved his little Bird, his nickname for Circe, as much as he loved his wife. He’d discovered for himself that truism that said love was infinite and your heart grew as large as necessary to hold it.

He stepped into the room as Tanya opened her eyes and held a finger to her lips with a smile. Circe—pronounced SIR-see, was the Latinized form of the Greek word for ‘bird,’ and was also a Greek enchantress—was almost asleep. He kissed his daughter softly on the head, then gave a longer, more intimate one, to her mother. As he slowly pulled back, Tanya nodded, slowly offering Circe to him.

He draped a thick cloth over his shoulder and took Bird as she snuffled and fussed. He draped her over his shoulder as he bounced and cooed, patting her gently on the back. He was the best baby-burper in the business, and Tanya smiled as she tucked herself away.

It had been tough, the past three months. Neil had been endlessly patient with her as they tried to adjust to their new lives. She’d closed Clearview Investigations for a while to concentrate on her family. It didn’t matter if she ever went back. After they’d married, she’d cut way back on her caseload. They didn’t need the money and she could afford to be choosy in the cases she took. No more chasing cheating spouses. Now she took only the cases that interested her, normally some kind of fraud.

Her reputation had skyrocketed after the Harnette case. The sordid affair had first broken in the local newspaper with a long article on how Edward Harnette had set out to destroy Neil’s reputation. That had led to Neil and her appearing on Lunch with Diane, where the story was sensationalized, particularly the part where Ed had broken into Neil’s apartment and they’d fought, if not to the death, at least to Ed’s destruction.

That had been picked up by one of the national tabloid papers, which had spun the tale as a love story of how the hard-bitten private eye had fallen for her client, and how he in turn had risked his life to defend her against the man that had broken into his apartment, intent on killing them both.

That story had gone viral, and her phone began ringing off the hook with clients, people who were being blackmailed or otherwise extorted, and she finally felt she was doing some good in this world.

Circe burped, a wet sounding rumble that made Tanya want to laugh. Neil placed his daughter in her crib and covered her. She fussed and whimpered, the child missing the comforting touch of her father and mother, but they crept out of the room. They knew from experience in five minutes, she’d be asleep.

In the hall, Neil pulled his wife into a more proper kiss. She still looked a little tired, but she positively glowed, and every time he saw her, he felt his love for her grow. Even after almost two years together, he was still falling in love with her.

“How was your day?” he asked as they stepped into the kitchen and away from Circe’s room.

Their house was a split bedroom design, where the master suite was on the opposite side of the house from the other two bedrooms. That detail had been a must. He didn’t want to have to worry about waking up kids later down the road as he and Tanya demonstrated their love. He stopped in the kitchen, intending to start dinner, but Tanya took his hand and pulled him through the kitchen and into their bedroom.

“I’m in the mood for an appetizer before dinner. You?” she asked.

He smiled. “I always love a tasty appetizer.”

“It was a good day. She slept for almost four hours this afternoon, so I got a good nap.”

Like most new parents, their sex life had been drastically reduced, but he knew when Tanya had enough sleep, she was as randy as ever. He’d offered to help with the nighttime feedings, but she preferred to feed Circe at her breast rather than using the pump, so feedings were on her. He helped as much as he could by taking over the other chores. He already did most of the cooking, and running a load of laundry every night was no real chore. The cleaning lady and yard service took care of the rest once a week, so Tanya could nap during the day when Bird was asleep.

Now that Circe was sleeping longer, and Tanya was able to rest more, their love life was coming back, and they stole chances to be intimate whenever possible.

“How was your day?” she asked as she began unbuttoning his shirt.

He nodded, allowing her fingers to work. “We closed another franchise deal today, in Hartford, Connecticut.”

After their story went national, he’d started receiving franchising enquiries. He now had twenty-one franchises in sixteen states, with three more slated to open in the next six months. The synergy between the fitness centers and his website was driving growth in both, and he expected his website to be the number one fitness destination on the web by the end of the year. Ed might have been an asshole, but he’d certainly been good for business.

A year to the day after he’d told Tanya he loved her, he’d surprised her by bringing home takeout pizza from the same place they gotten it when he told her he was falling for her, and then he asked for her hand in marriage. She’d laughed and cried as she accepted, and that story was told endlessly during their engagement and at the wedding.

After she’d accepted his proposal, they’d gone shopping, and when they returned from their honeymoon in Italy, they set about the task of moving out of their apartment and making their new house into a home. She’d moved in with him before he’d proposed and was renting both sides of her duplex.

“That’s good,” she murmured as she kissed him on the chest. “That’s very, very good,” she purred, but he was pretty sure she wasn’t talking about the franchise deal any more. And if she was, he was going to do his best to distract her.

Before Tanya became pregnant, they were making love, on average, nine times a week. Every night, plus mornings on Saturday and Sunday. That had dipped to only once a week, or less, when Circe first came home, but they were back to three to five times a week now. They’d missed yesterday, so his desire for her was bubbling over.

He pulled her lips away from his chest and smiled down at her. “Maybe, but it’s not nearly as good as this,” he rumbled before he picked her up and dumped her on the bed.

She smiled as she kicked back into the bed, her smile calling to him as he followed her into the center. “Nothing ever is.”