Chapter 9 Ralph #2
They both turned at the sound of my voice. Rogan gasped, Reagan squealed, and the puppy barked. Sloane joined me, placing her hand in the middle of my back.
“He’s going to need a name,” she said.
“You’re a boy?” Ro rubbed his new friend’s head.
“He is, and you two are responsible for him now. That means you’ve got to feed him, help walk him, and clean up his messes.”
“You mean his poops?” Reagan scrunched her nose up.
“Yeah, Love. His poop.”
“Eww.”
Her disgust turned to a fit of giggles as the pup decided he’d found ten new chew toys.
He bounced back and forth between all the kids, jumping on their laps, nipping at their chins, and even playing tug-of-war with one of Ro's shoelaces. However, when he tried to lick Reagan’s face, I intervened, lifting her into my arms and settling her on my hip.
“Daddy, he was giving me kisses.”
“I know, baby girl.” I bopped her nose. “But I know where his mouth’s been.”
The customary parts of the birthday party––cutting the cake, singing “Happy Birthday”––were completed. Now the kids, and the majority of my team were chasing the puppy around the yard. I was tossing paper plates with half-eaten pieces of cake on them in a trash bag when Finn approached me.
“Do you remember a while back when you pulled me into your office?”
“Get on with it, Finn. I’ve been expecting this conversation for some time.”
“Fine.” He crossed his arms over his chest, feet spread wide. “What are your intentions with my sister?”
Sloane caught my eye from where she and the women were cleaning up the tables.
She raised her eyebrows, silently asking if I wanted help with her brother.
I shook my head, dismissing her concern, then returned my attention to the man who’d earned my respect.
He loved and protected my family when I wasn’t there. For that alone, he’d get his answer.
“I’m going to marry her.”
“She deserves a good life, Duncan. Make sure she gets it.”
“That’s the plan.”
“Excellent. Do you know if our father has tried to contact her?”
“Not to my knowledge. Why?” His question was worrisome.
“His company is about to take a huge hit in the stock market.”
“How huge?”
“Catastrophic.”
The slow grin that spread across his face said it all. Finn was a thousand-percent responsible for whatever was happening with their father’s business, and if I had to guess, this was only the beginning of the havoc he planned to wreak.
“As long as there’s no blowback on Sloane, I don’t give two shits.”
“What do you take me for, a feckin’ amateur? That bastard won’t know what hit him until it’s too late.”
“Are you gonna warn either of your sisters?”
I’d only met Shannon in person briefly, however I knew the three siblings had become very close. Anything that concerned their father would affect all of them. None more than Sloane though. She’d maintained a relationship with him the longest.
He shook his head. “Plausible deniability. If they don’t know the details, they won’t have to lie to protect me.”
“Should I be worried?”
“Nothing illegal has taken place.”
“Let’s keep it that way.”
He slapped me on the shoulder, whistling as he walked away. I stumbled, grabbing the edge of the closest table to keep from falling on my ass.
Fucking fuck.
The tune wasn’t the same, but the memory it invoked was crystal clear.
The person who shot me whistled when they walked away, leaving me to bleed out on the forest floor.
But what had my blood running cold was the fact I’d heard it more recently, I just hadn’t recognized the meaning.
That smug fucker thought they’d got away with trying to kill me and Sloane.
Well, fuck that. There was no statute of limitations on attempted murder, and I was about to rip their world apart, piece by piece.
We had to play it smart. The one thing we couldn’t do was let my would-be executioner know that…
I knew his name.
Sloane
It was rude to think it, but I couldn’t wait for the party to be over.
The kids were having a blast. The puppy, with his endless energy supply, was enjoying his freedom.
But I was worn-the-heck-out. The sugar rush from the piece of cake I’d inhaled wasn’t doing anything except giving me the jitters.
The only thing I wanted to do was curl up on the sofa with Duncan and the twins and fall asleep watching a movie.
Unfortunately, we had another thirty minutes before parents were set to pick up their offspring.
Lord, save me.
With the cleanup completed and the leftover food put away, I leaned against the fence on the far end of the yard, watching the twins play tag with their friends.
When I’d made the decision to follow Finn to West Virginia, my biggest concern was how the move would affect them.
There wasn’t anything or anyone keeping me in New York, but Rogan and Regan had to say goodbye to their friends and the school they loved.
I should’ve known there was nothing to worry about.
My kids were resilient. They adjusted better than I ever could’ve imagined, even before we discovered their father lived here.
A smile crossed my lips when Reagan skipped across the lawn with her new buddy trailing behind her. In another six months, he’d be as tall as her, maybe taller. Duncan was right. We’d have to find a trainer.
“Mommy.”
“Yes, Love?”
“Can Ralph sleep in my room?”
I laughed out loud. Ralph the puppy. Named for the retching he started after he tore open one of the trash bags and devoured every scrap of food he could find.
Of course Reagan and Rogan hadn’t thought of the name.
That was all Koen. Personally, I thought it was hysterical.
Duncan, on the other hand, threatened to put his young agent on permanent poop patrol for giving his kids the idea.
“Not tonight.”
She pouted for half a second before rejoining her friends. Ralph ran between them all, barking his puppy head off. None of them would last until bedtime, not the twins or the dog, which was fine by me.
“Hey.”
Duncan folded his strong arms around my waist from behind, his heat warming my back as he pulled me close, taking some of my weight. His scent consumed me. Sandalwood with a hint of citrus from his favorite bodywash. I breathed him in.
“Hey, yourself.”
“Thank you, Sunshine.”
“For what?”
“For them. For you.” He kissed the side of my neck, right below my ear. “For all of it. The three of you are my whole world. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
“Even when it seemed impossible, I never gave up hope that you’d find us again one day. Finn tried to convince me to move on, but how could I when every time I looked into their eyes, I saw you?”
“It must’ve been hard being a single mom.”
“I wasn’t alone, Duncan.” Turning in his arms, I gazed up into the pale-blue eyes I loved so much. “I had Finn and, believe it or not, Mom helped too. She wasn’t always the selfish person you had the misfortune of meeting.”
“It’ll be different next time.”
“Next time?” I raised a brow.
“I want more babies with you, Sloane.” His voice took on a softer, more reverent tone.
“I want to be there for every part of the journey.
To hear their heartbeat whoosh through the speaker of that machine, whatever it's called. To watch your belly grow. To feel them kick for the first time. I want to experience everything with you.”
“How many do you want?”
“As many as you’ll give me.”
Cue the ovary explosion. Duncan was going to turn me into a blubbering mess. We’d talked about having a big family before our lives imploded, now here he was, offering it to me on a silver platter. How was this my life? It felt like everything was happening at the speed of light.
“What happened to taking things slow?”
“We’ve never been slow. As soon as you let me back inside your delectable body, it was game over. In fact, we should let Waverly know you won’t be needing to rent her house any longer. Honestly, it's a waste to maintain two separate households when you’re living here.”
“Wait. Are you asking us to move in with you?”
He grinned, his shoulders shook with silent laughter. “Sunshine, have you been paying attention?”
“Of course I have,” I scoffed.
“Really? Tell me then, which closet are your clothes hanging in? Whose bathroom sink is piled high with all your girly shit? And let’s not forget Ro and Reagan. Where is all of their stuff?”
Holy crap. How had I not seen it? The extra suitcase he’d packed for me, stating he wanted to make sure I had everything I needed.
The boxes full of the kids’ belongings he said was to make sure they were comfortable.
Was I so completely blinded by love that I didn’t realize what he was doing? The answer was unequivocally yes.
“Oh my God, you already moved us into your house.”
“Our house, Sloane.”
Our house.
He’d called it that from day one, meaning this was his plan all along. I couldn’t even be mad about it. The kids and I were his endgame, just like he was mine. Duncan Palmer was simply a better strategist.
As expected, the kids crashed early. About halfway through watching a movie, they fell asleep on the mounds of blankets I’d spread out for them on the living room floor.
I wasn’t going to be far behind. My exhaustion was bone-deep, to the point my whole body ached, especially my head.
No doubt, the drama from the last few weeks was finally taking its toll.
A decent night’s sleep was all I needed to be right as rain. At least that’s what I told myself.
Our bedroom was pitch-black, except for a speck of light creeping in from the hallway.
I was sitting in the middle of the bed, massaging my temples, when Duncan came in from locking up the house, with Ralph on his heels.
Being mindful not to jostle the mattress too much, he climbed behind me, cradling my hips between his thick thighs.
The pup wasn’t nearly as considerate in his attempts to join us on the bed.
It took him three tries before he finally made it up.
Thankfully, he plopped down near the foot.
His fingers replaced mine, simultaneously massaging both sides of my head and the base of my skull. “Headache?”
“I’ll be okay.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“Fine,” I sighed. “I’ve got a migraine.”
“I hate when you’re in pain. What can I do?”
“There’s a bottle of peppermint oil in my nightstand. Can you get it?”
“Peppermint oil?”
“Yeah. It’s about the size of a tube of chapstick.”
He stretched across the bed, quickly rooting through the drawer before returning with the little glass bottle. The essential oil was my go-to whenever a migraine reared its ugly head. It didn’t get rid of the pain completely, just made it more manageable.
“Okay. What next?”
“Dab a little behind my ears and across the back of my neck.”
“Like this?” he asked, swiping his thumb back and forth, spreading the oil a half an inch below my hair line.
“Mmm. That’s perfect.”
“Is there anything else that’ll help?”
“Sleep.” I yawned. “It’ll be gone by morning.”
“Then close your eyes, Sunshine.” He eased us down onto the bed. “I’ve got you.”
Positioning me on my side, his large body cradled me from behind, with one arm underneath my head, the other rounding my belly.
As I started to drift off, I couldn’t help but think how different our lives might’ve been if we hadn’t been torn apart back then.
Would our love have survived the lies and deceit or would we have crashed and burned tragically?
There was no point in dwelling on the would-haves.
We were in the here and now, moving toward our forever.
Sometimes it felt like a dream. If it was, I never wanted to wake up.