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“No way.” She shook her head as she placed him between us. He squirmed and made an unhappy noise but settled after a second. We tried to mostly keep him out of our bed, but he was happiest snuggled between us—we both noticed it right away. Still, we put him in his crib most nights for the privacy and safety combination. If he woke up? That was different, according to his mother.
She stroked his tiny face with a fingertip before her lovely eyes lifted to meet mine as I took my spot on the other side of our boy. “What woke you?”
“You weren’t breathing next to me.” It was the absolute truth. Hearing her breathe gave me peace. She took my hand, holding it.
“We really are lucky, aren’t we?”
“I am.”
Bridget swatted at me, and we both laughed as Eric yawned.
I didn’t know what I did to be so lucky, but I would hold onto them with both hands.
As tightly as was humanly possible.
Forever.
“I hate this.”Zeke complained for the fifth time. “Whydo we have to see him?”
Max groaned. “Because he’s their brother, and they want to see him.”
I’d visited Justin a couple of times since his admittance, but mostly over a screen. He looked much better, but he wasn’t back to himself quite yet although he was much, much healthier.
Vastly improved from when I thought we’d have to bury him, too.
The girls sat in front of him in the most awkward greeting I ever saw. My mother watched Eric, Zeke and Layla’s nanny had their three boys, and Hope’s mother-in-law took their girls for the day. We’d all brought help for this specific purpose. Otherwise, I couldn’t imagine traveling with my mother. Ever. Although she loved Bridget and Eric. My wife and mother got along better than I ever saw my mother get along with anyone.
The guys had been griping about Justin. They didn’t trust him or want him around, but it was different for me. I’d known Justin since he was a seventeen-year-old kid. He kept our wives alive as infants. There was more to Justin than his addiction, and the same trauma that he tried to fight off with drugs? Our wives faced without them. He’d always been sensitive and lost.
If he could be saved…I wanted that for him. He deserved a fair chance.
What was more, Bridget wanted that.
“What little I remember about that night…” Justin bit his lower lip. “Is that he was going to kill me. He took out his gun to do it. He was furious. We ended up in Venezuela because he got tricked into going. It was…confusing. I wasn’t clear, ever. Onwhat happened. But he was going to kill me. It sounds cliché but that’s what happened. Somehow, I won. I shot him.” He stared at his sisters. “I’m sorry for many things…so many things…and I am…” He stopped talking. “Sometimes my head gets full, and then it’s like I can’t really think. It’s always been like that for me. Give me a second.”
Bridget reached across and squeezed his knee. “It happens to me, too.”
Her sisters stared at her, questions in their gazes.
She continued. “It can be so difficult. I’m sorry that it happens to you, too. Finish whenever you want to, there’s no rush. We’re glad that you’re alive, Justin. He was a terrible man. It’s so complicated to feel that way about your dad, but there it is. Talk when you can. We’re just glad to be here with you again.”
I was so proud of her. Every day, loving her was such a gift. The love of my life.My redhead. My forever.
