Page 103 of Wicked Brutal

“That’s about what the baby looks like right now.”

“It’s tiny.”

“Very.”

“How tiny?” I show him with my fingers.

His mouth drops open. “That’s all?”

“For now.”

“Can I touch Ally’s tummy?”

Ally’s face softens completely. “Yeah, baby.”

He slides off the couch and moves in front of her. She takes his hand and places it low against her stomach. “You won’t feel anything yet.”

“But it’s there?”

“It’s there.”

Tobias leans closer. “Hi, baby.”

Mom immediately covers her mouth. Dad looks down. I’m fucking done for.

Tobias pats Ally’s stomach gently. “I’m Tobias. I’m six.” Ally lets out a watery laugh. “And I’m your uncle.” Her tears spill over. He looks up. “Good tears?”

She nods. “Very good tears.”

He turns back to her stomach. “I know frogs.” Of fucking course. “I can teach you how to catch them.” Ally laughs harder. “And fishing. I’m really good at fishing.”

“You are,” she whispers.

“And Ryan plays lacrosse.”

“Thank God I brought something to this family.”

Tobias looks at her stomach again. “Dad says lacrosse is stupid.”

I stare at him. “Okay, now Roman has officially crossed a fucking line.”

“Ryan!”

“What? That’s where I draw it.”

Tobias giggles. Dad laughs. Mom groans. Ally reaches for me. I sit beside her, and Tobias immediately wedges himself between us, one little hand still resting on her stomach and my phone balanced on his knee while he studies the app. Ally threads her fingers through mine behind him. She squeezes. Hard. I squeeze back.

No thank-you. She doesn’t need to thank me. No apology. She already gave the one that mattered. She panicked. I caught her. Tobias got scared. I caught him too. That’s what we’re doing now. Together.

Across the room, Dad catches my eye. One small nod. The same one I’ve gotten my entire life. I know exactly where I learned how to do what I just did — how to get quieter when everyone else gets louder, how to tell a kid the truth without handing him more than he can carry, how to let him cry without making him ashamed of it. Dad taught me that. Then I look at Mom, watching Tobias scroll through my phone, that little smile at the corner of her mouth. She taught me the rest. Listen. Don’t attack the answer you’re looking for. Give people somewhere safe to put the truth and they’ll usually hand it to you themselves.

And somehow I became both of them — with enough of myself mixed in to know that Tobias doesn’t need another man telling him what kind of man he’s supposed to become. He needs people who make sure Roman and Victor don’t beat everything soft and good out of him before he’s old enough to realize softness was never the fucking problem.

Ally has spent years trying to be that person for him. She doesn’t have to do it alone anymore.

Tobias leans against my side. Ally leans against the other. And for three stolen hours in my parents’ lake house, there is no Victor waiting to turn Ally into his wife. No Roman teaching Tobias that fear is respect. There’s Ally. There’s our baby. There’s her little brother. There’s my parents. There’s me.

And right now, that’s enough.