Page 77 of Hunted in the Silence

Cole stood beside her and didn't say anything, because he didn’t need to.

She reached over and took his hand. He squeezed it once, letting her know he understood everything that didn't need saying either.

He thought about the lists he’d made. About a crib that had taken three hours and a bookshelf already half full. About a baby girl they'd agreed to name after nobody in particular, because they wanted her name to be only hers.

Hope.

He thought it was all, improbably and exactly, right.

***

December came fast. Brynn stood in her kitchen at four in the afternoon and looked at a house that had somehow become the place their people gathered, for good things and hard things and the ordinary things in between. Tonight was just a good thing. No occasion. She'd looked around at her life over coffee one morning and wanted everyone in it, in one room.

Carson and Nora arrived first, Mae between them in a coat with a hood that had ears on it. Mae surveyed the house with the frank appraisal Brynn had come to adore. "You have a baby now." She looked at Brynn's belly. "Not in there anymore?"

"Not in there anymore," Brynn said, and Mae seemed satisfied and went to find the living room.

Nora set a dish on the counter. "You cooked."

"Cole cooked," Brynn said. "I supervised."

"I did both," Cole said from the doorway.

Carson eyed the amount of food on the counter. "This is too much food."

"You make too much every time you have people over."

"That's different."

Cole chuckled. "How?"

Carson opened his mouth, closed it, and gave up, going to find somewhere to put his coat. Cole shook his head.

Dax and Quinn came next, Quinn with a bottle of wine and the warmth she carried into every room, Dax unhurried and comfortable the way he always was. Quinn looked at Brynn. "You look good."

"I feel good,” Brynn said as they embraced.

Silas and Harper arrived ten minutes later. Harper went straight to the bassinet in the corner where Hope was sleeping and stood over it a long moment, hands clasped under her chin, just looking. Then she found Brynn across the room. "She has your hair."

"She has Cole's eyes."

"Dangerous combination," Harper said, and winked.

Olivia came last, coat half off, already assessing the parking situation and finding it lacking. She handed Brynn a bottle of something expensive. "Don't ask me to hold the baby," she said, and found her chair.

Cole caught Brynn's eye across the room and lifted his chin, checking in the way he did. She gave him a small nod back. She was fine. More than fine.

The evening was alive with warmth and love. Carson and Dax pulled Cole into a conversation about a case the firm had taken on, something with regional connections that needed more hands. Quinn and Brynn talked in the corner for nearly an hour, starting with the piece Quinn was working on and ending up somewhere more personal. Mae fell asleep on the couch at seven-thirty, coat still on, and Carson covered her with a blanket from the basket by the door without breaking stride in his conversation with Dax.

Silas spent some time with Hope when she woke, which surprised everyone including him, holding her with the careful attention he'd earned the hard way. "She's considering something," he announced.

"She's always considering something," Cole said.

"Smart. She'll be trouble."

"She'll be wonderful," Harper called from across the room, not looking up.

Brynn watched from the kitchen doorway, a glass of water in her hand, the warmth of the house settling around her like something earned rather than stumbled into. Because that's what it was. None of it had come free. Every person in this room had shown up at the right moment, and the sum of those moments was what a life actually was. Not the big things. The accumulation.