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The nurse came out of the bathroom just as there was another firm knock on the door.
“That’s probably Liam,” Chris said. “He said he’d stop by on his way out for the team flight.”
My smile dropped immediately.
Amie caught the instant change on my face. “What is it?”
I shook my head. “Just ... haven’t seen him since ...” I paused, wiggling my empty ring finger.
“Come in,” Chris said.
When the door pushed open andhewalked in, I just knew my cheeks flushed pink. “He’s going to be obnoxious about it,” I whispered to Amie.
“I will punch him in the balls if he is,” she whispered back. “And no one will mess with me today, because I just pushed an eight-and-a-half-pound human out of my hoo-ha.”
Liam’s eyes tracked the room quickly, stopping first on Chris holding Mira. His face softened, maybe as much as I’d ever seen it soften. But in the next heartbeat, his gaze landed on mine.
And it held for a long beat—until those eyes of his darted down to my frickin’ ring finger.
My chin lifted.
I dare you,I thought. As I did, my heart hammered away in my chest. It had a horrible tendency to do that whenever I interacted with Liam Davies for too long.
Maybe he had a stronger sense of self-preservation than I’d originally thought, because he didn’t say a word about my freshly finalized divorce, my newly single status, or the horrible, horrible truth that he had every right to gloat.
While I waited for him to say something, the nurse broke through the growing cloud of antagonism in the air.
“Amie, just let me know the next time you need to use the bathroom. I want to watch for more blood clots, okay? That last one was about the size of a baseball.”
Liam’s eyes closed. “Fucking hell, I do not want to hear this.”
At the sound of his voice, I had to fight a small shiver. He’d always had the most delicious accent I’d ever heard in my life. Ruined, of course, by the fact that he was an absolute prick who couldn’t be nice if his life depended on it. I wasn’t entirely convinced that the man hadn’t come straight from Ebenezer Scrooge’s direct lineage.
Amie laughed, smacking him in the stomach when he leaned in to give her a light peck on the cheek.
“Well done, Mum,” he said gently. “You popped out a human.”
She eased herself into the bed, and I didn’t miss the way Liam stared pointedly at the ceiling.
“What are you looking at?” I asked.
His eyes never wavered. “There’s not a chance in hell that I want to see her bits right now if there’s talk of blood the size of baseballs. I’ll wait until she’s properly covered, thank you.”
I rolled my eyes. “She’s wearing a robe.”
“Those robes don’t cover shit.”
Amie laughed again. “I’ve also got some serious granny panties going on under here. They’re awesome. I’m gonna steal, like, five pairs and take them home with me if I can.”
The baby was quiet now, and Chris approached with a gentle smile on his face. “Who’s next?” he asked.
I didn’t even wait to hear what Liam had to say; I elbowed him out of my way. Hard too. Right in the stomach. He let out a smallumph.
Chris and Amie laughed.
So very carefully, Chris eased the tightly swaddled bundle from his arms into mine. When she was settled against my chest, I sighed contentedly, heart bursting into a million little pieces.
“Hello, sweet girl,” I whispered, leaning down to kiss her forehead. “Happy birthday.”
