Chapter 25

Every corpse on Mount Everest was once an extremely motivated individual. That’s why I love my couch. A couch has never killed anybody.

-Krisney to Hennessy

Krisney

Both of the babies were in slings—one on my chest and the other on my back—while we waited for Reed’s flight to land.

He’d been gone for three months, and our babies had changed so much.

I was practically giddy to tell him my answer.

He’d left, and I’d been here, burning to tell him yes.

When he’d been informed that he was being deployed to replace a doctor that was hurt it’d been with only one week of notice.

Before I’d had time to come to terms with him leaving, only six and a half days after our wedding, he was boarding the plane that would take him to a layover. Which would then take him to Germany.

Now, two months and eighteen days later, he was on his way back.

I wouldn’t lie and say that the last two months and eighteen days had been easy, because they certainly hadn’t.

Not only did I have to deal with two babies who were young and in need of so much attention, I had to sell my parents’ house.

Luckily, I’d made quite a whack off the money since a new development was coming to Hostel, meaning that they gave me top dollar for my parents’ house, only to have them tear it down a week after I sold it to them. With the extra money that I’d made, I’d told the dentist whose practice I’d previously been about to work for to go ahead and move on without me, and I stayed at home with my children and enjoyed their first two months of life without multiple things attached to various parts of their bodies.

Another thing I’d also had to do that was in no way easy for me was to testify in a court of law about what I’d seen that day that Crazy Caria had tried to shoot me in the stairwell of the hospital. The day that she’d also stolen two babies straight out of the nursery in the hospital.

There, I’d learned that Caria had planned on doing much more than just stealing two babies. She’d planned on “taking care” of mine, killing me, and then replacing me and the babies with herself and two random babies she’d stolen.

Caria had pled guilty by reason of insanity and had tried to have herself sentenced to a facility where she’d spend the next eighteen months under the care of a doctor who would ‘make her all better.’

Only the judge had surprised everyone by denying her plea for insanity.

The jury had then found her guilty of attempted murder as well as two counts of kidnapping.

She’d sat there, in her wheelchair, looking for all the world like she was dumbfounded.

But her eyes, when they turned to me, had told the entire truth.

She’d thought that she’d get away with what she’d done by pleading insanity, and she’d been completely thunderstruck that she hadn’t gotten what she wanted.

After leaving with Travis and Baylor at my side that day, I’d immediately sent an e-mail to Reed on my phone explaining all that had happened.

I hadn’t received an e-mail from him since I’d told him, but he’d called only two days ago and said he was coming home. After a quick explanation and flight number exchange, he’d had to go, and I’d been left feeling both nervous and saddened that I hadn’t gotten to talk to him longer.

Which led me to now.

I was probably going to hell for this, but I hadn’t relayed the information to his family.

So, sue me, I wanted to spend time with him, just us, and didn’t think I could accomplish that with his family at my back. All eighteen million of them.

Not that I didn’t love all eighteen million of them, but they’d had him for a long time. I’d had him for a short time.

I wanted him to myself.

The first couple of people started to trickle off the plane, likely the first-class passengers, which was where I knew for a fact Reed had been seated when he’d sent me his itinerary.

Frowning, I looked around me to see if I’d missed him and came face to face with Rafe.

“What are you doing here?”

He grinned. “I got off the plane.”

“When?”

“Just a second ago.”

“Why?”

“Because I was doing something.”

“What?”

He grinned. “Noneya.”

“Noneya?”

“None ya business.”

I snorted.

“Why are you standing right here?”

He looked back toward the terminal. “I want to see your face when you see him.”

“Why…”

And then I saw him.

He came off the plane looking pissed off as all get out.

At first, he didn’t see me, so I had to leave my perch at Rafe’s side and hurry toward him.

Reed’s eyes started moving around, and the moment they locked on me, his anger transformed to excitement.

He started hurrying toward me and would’ve barreled into me had he not stopped at the last second.

“Shit,” he said, stopping a few heartbeats short of throwing his arms around me. “This is awkward.”

I chuckled and leaned forward, giving him a side hug as I buried my face into his neck.

He smelled like sun, his deodorant, and sweat.

Everything that I loved about him.

“I’m so glad you’re home,” I whispered.

“Me, too.”

“What took you so long to get off the plane?”

“Nothing,” he muttered, sounding almost angry again.

“Actually,” Rafe said. “He got banished to the back of the plane because some chick kept trying to put her hands down his pants, and he wasn’t liking that all that much.”

I took a step back, eyes wide, and stared at him.

“What?”

At my angrily exclaimed word, the babies, who’d both been sleeping comfortably in their carriers, woke up with a vengeance.

Honestly, I was surprised they’d been sleeping that long.

They’d been at it all morning—crying, screaming and carrying on.

The doctor said that they were likely about to start teething, and since I had absolutely zero experience with kids, I’d had to take her word for it.

Which led us to the single hour that they’d been asleep in their carriers snuggled close to my body.

I don’t know what I expected. They always woke up at the same time.

This time being no different.

Reed being there, however, was.

He was excited as he reached into the carrier wrapped around my back and lifted our son, Dash, out.

Over the two months that Reed had been away, both boys had put on well over six pounds apiece. Now, they were an even eleven pounds for Dash, and twelve pounds one ounce for Baxter.

The minute that Reed brought Dash up to his face and inhaled his sweet baby scent, I fell in love with him all over again.

Dash didn’t stop crying, but Reed didn’t care. He just hugged him and closed his eyes, memorizing everything about him all over again.

“Y’all have fun with that.”

Rafe left after those few short words, and I shook my head. “Did you know he was over there with you?”

Reed nodded. “I saw him a few times, but I never figured out why he was there,” he explained, holding his arm out for me.

I took his hand that wasn’t cradled around Dash’s booty, and started out of the airport hand in hand with my man.

We made it to the car before I got Baxter out, who was still just as pissed now as he was when I’d woken him up.

The moment we were in the truck—Reed’s truck—we switched babies.

I smiled when he did the same thing to Baxter as he did to Dash.

“So, tell me about this woman,” I ordered.

Reed’s eyes went wired.

“I told her if she didn’t leave me alone, that I would have my wife kick her ass.”

“Oh, really?”

He nodded. “Really.”

“Point her out, I’ll take care of her sorry ass.”

Reed laughed. “Let’s get these boys strapped in and head home. I’m dying to be inside of you.”

I blushed profusely.

“Reed,” I whispered. “You can’t say stuff like that in front of those delicate ears.”

He snickered. “Didn’t you tell me that we needed to fix the insulation between our room and the nursery?”

I nodded.

“Then these words won’t be the only thing they hear tonight, unfortunately.”

I just shook my head.

“Let’s go.”

But when we got home, Reed didn’t take me to our room.

He stopped dead in the middle of our living room and stared at the mess.

“What…”

Then a dog—who looked exactly like our Pepé—stepped out from behind the recliner.

“So, about that…”

He looked over to me.

“You’re in so much trouble.”