Chapter Forty-six
Regan
It’s eight pm and I’m exhausted. Being at the hospital is more than a full-time job. But I’m not complaining. I’ll never complain about getting to spend time with our son.
“Are you sure your parents don’t mind doing the night shift?” I ask in the elevator.
“They’re happy to do it. Between our four parents, M&M gets a lot of overnight company.”
The elevator dings and the doors open to the penthouse level. I step off, but before we go inside, Lucas holds a key out to me.
“Why do I need that thing?” I ask. “I still know the code.” I punch in the numbers and the door clicks open.
He laughs but shoves the key into my hand anyway. “Take it. And tomorrow I’ll call the security company and put you on the list. By the way, my security password is Fruit Bomb. Just in case the alarm ever trips accidentally, and they call you.”
I giggle. “Only you would have a password like that.” I step across the threshold and stop. “Lucas, are you one hundred percent sure this is what you want?”
He pins me to the wall. “One hundred and ten.”
I smile as he kisses me, and I can’t mistake the feel of his erection against my thigh. “Hold on there, Wine Boy. You know Dr. Russo said at least four weeks.”
“It’s a perfectly natural reaction, Regan. Besides, I’m not with you for your body.” His eyes roll. “Okay, not just for your body.”
I’m not sure how this man can make me feel sexy when I’m only five days postpartum. But it’s one of the reasons I know this is right. I don’t care what my parents think. What the rumors will be. What anyone says. This thing between us is real. I think my heart knew it even before my head did.
“We probably should have stopped at my place to pack up a few things.”
“No need,” he says, motioning to the living room.
Tucked into a bright, cozy corner is my favorite reading chair. The one I kept by the window in my apartment. The one you can sink into and get lost in a book.
“My chair.” I stare at it in wonder. “How did it get here?”
“Along with everything else,” he says, gesturing toward the dining room where Joey is cowering behind the leg of his table.
“Joey!” I go over to pick him up and smile back at Lucas. “You did all this?”
“My brothers, Ryder, and your dad moved everything.”
“All of it?” I feel my cheeks flush.
“Don’t worry. I told them not to go in any bedroom drawers if they didn’t want to be traumatized for life. I had Maddie and Ava pack all that shit. Along with your clothes.”
I put Joey down and press myself against Lucas’s back, wrapping my arms around him. “Thank you.”
He turns in my arms and kisses my forehead. “Anything for you.”
“They left most of your furniture in the apartment for Ryder. But anything else you really want, I’ll get moved.”
“I don’t need anything else. Just the chair.” I lean into him. “How did you know?”
“Because I know you , Ray.”
I gaze up at him. “I think you really do. And you’re one of the only ones who does.”
“Come on.” He takes my hand. “Let me give you a tour.”
“I have been here before,” I say. “I know it’s been a while. Not since Sylvia Franco interviewed us. But I’m sure nothing’s changed other than my clothes.” I do a little jig, excited about getting to share his massive closet.
“Oh, there may be one or two things that are different.”
He drags me down the hallway and stops at one of the rooms I never looked in. When he opens the door, my eyes completely bug out of my head. It’s a nursery. Complete with professionally painted light-blue walls with white paneling, the most beautiful baby furniture, baby contraptions I didn’t even know existed, and toys upon toys upon more toys.
“Oh my god. You did all this? Today?”
He shakes his head. “This was done weeks ago.”
My jaw hangs open. “Weeks ago?”
He shrugs. “Even with him only being here every other weekend, I still wanted it to feel like home.”
I slip a hand into his. “It is home. And it’s incredible.”
“You haven’t seen the best part.”
He grins and motions to the closet.
I smile in anticipation and then race over to open the sliding door. I’m bowled over in surprise for the umpteenth time today when I take in a walk-in closet full of baby clothes. This closet is a fraction of the master bedroom one, but there are still rows and rows of rods, a large bank of drawers, and a wall of cubbies. Every nook and cranny of drawer and cubby space is filled, as is every inch of the hanging rods.
I open each and every drawer. They are filled with onesies, rompers, matching sets of shirts and pants—clothes for all seasons and in sizes up to toddler. Never in a million years would I have expected him to be so completely immersed in our child that he would do this.
I turn. “You couldn’t have possibly done all this yourself.”
“My mom was in heaven when I asked her to help me. Allie helped too. She wasn’t quite so enthusiastic, though.” His brows knit together. “In fact, it was strange. She seemed almost sad every time she was here setting up the room. She’s always been so great with Maisy and Charlie. I thought she’d be thrilled to be getting another nephew.”
I shrug. “They were both older when they came into her life. Maybe babies scare her. She’ll get used to him and love him just as much as his cousins.”
“Yeah. I’m sure she will.”
I walk back out into the nursery. “I love it. All of it. Except maybe this.” I pick up a hideous-looking stuffed… something. “What is this?”
“It’s a groundhog. You do know our kid was born on February second, right?”
A hand covers my laugh. “I hadn’t even thought of that.”
He chuckles. “I fear our son may be cursed by many more of these to come in his lifetime. I figured we better get him used to it now.”
“You thought of everything.” Tears pool in my eyes. “What could I ever give him that you haven’t thought of?”
He wraps his arms around me. “The one thing nobody else can give him. You . You can give him you . You’re already the best mom to him.”
“I miss him so much. Even though we only left thirty minutes ago, I miss him like it’s been days. Weeks. I want to be with him all the time.”
“I know.” He kisses my head. “Me too.”
“Lucas?”
“Yeah?”
I extricate myself from his arms, sit in the glider-rocker in the corner, and pull a nearby stuffed animal into my lap. “What if… what if I told you I never want to be apart from him? Would you call me crazy?”
“Of course not. I just told you I get it.”
I shake my head. “That’s not what I mean.” I blow out a stress-filled breath.
He gets on his knees next to me. “What is it, Ray?”
“I know you just asked me to live here, and this is all so new and who knows what the future will bring. But Ryder wants to open a pot shop and even my mom and dad think it would be a good idea and he’s going to live there and I’ll be here and I don’t want to work at a pot shop and then again I don’t really want to work at Booktique and be away from Mitchell so—”
Lucas puts a finger to my lips. “Regan, you’re all over the place. Just spit it out.”
“I want—” I hide my eyes behind my hands. “I know it will be a huge imposition and maybe it’s totally stupid and I’ll end up hating it but—”
“Ray?” He chuckles. “Are you saying you want to be a stay-at-home mom?”
I dare to look at him. “Is it a terrible idea?”
“Are you kidding?” His face lights up. “It’s an incredible idea.”
“But the financial burden would fall completely on you.”
He looks at me like I’m crazy.
I hold up a hand. “I know, I know, you’re rich. But I’d feel really guilty about not being able to contribute.”
He traps my hand against his chest. “Regan, I was going to pay an arm and a leg to get Mitchell the best goddamn nanny in the country. Believe me, this is actually a win-win situation.”
“It is?”
He sighs heavily. “Is this what’s been eating at you all afternoon? Jesus, Ray, I thought you were having second thoughts.”
“I’m not. I’ve wanted this… us … for a while now.”
“Tell me.” He looks into my eyes. “Tell me how long you’ve wanted it.”
“Come here.” I scoot to the edge of the chair. “And I’ll show you.”
He gifts me with one of his huge luminous smiles—the one I hope Mitchell inherits—and he crashes his lips onto mine.
~ ~ ~
I wake up and look at the clock. It’s four am. I watch Lucas, wondering how long I can stand to let him sleep before I poke him and demand he take me to Mitchell.
But I don’t have to poke him. It’s like there’s this tether between us. One that pulls at him, letting him know what I’m thinking.
“Good morning,” he says, kissing me.
“Mmm.” I pull back slightly. “My lips are sore from all the kissing.”
“Believe me,” he says. “My balls are sorer.”
I laugh.
“You want to go see him, don’t you?”
I nod. “I can survive on far less than six hours’ sleep.”
“Me, too. But first, I need you to clear something up for me. Last night, during your rambling, you said your parents are in favor of the pot shop, er… cannabis dispensary?”
I tuck an arm under my pillow and face him. “Turns out my dad has been using medical marijuana for years down in Florida.” I shrug. “For his glaucoma.” I snicker. “And apparently my mom partakes upon occasion.”
Lucas sits up, stunned. “Wow. Strait-laced Joyce and Darrin smoking weed. Who’d have thought? And they’re being supportive of Ryder’s divorce?”
“Wait. I didn’t tell you that.”
“Your dad and I talked yesterday after you went back to the NICU. We had a great conversation. Came to an understanding.”
“What understanding?”
“Well… he understands I won’t hurt you. And I understand he’ll cut off my balls and serve them to me for dinner if I ever do.”
I laugh so hard my stomach hurts.
“Are you and my dad becoming friends?”
“I think we are.” He gets out of bed and offers me a hand. “Now let’s go see our son, shall we?”
At the mention of Mitchell, my boobs leak, soaking my sleeping shirt. I cup them to try and stop the waterworks.
“Wait here,” Lucas says. “I’ll go get the pump. We need to catch every last drop for the amazing Comeback Kid.”
I smile as I watch my… boyfriend? ... race out of the room.
And for the first time, I honestly feel like all this might turn out exactly as he has planned.