Chapter 82
FINLEY
“Isn’t she perfect?”
The uncontrollable laugh that sputters out of me has my chest constricting tighter. It doesn’t matter how awful the pain is, though. I can’t help chuckling at the way Summer keeps asking me that same question every time she looks down at her daughter.
Persephone is the tiniest being I’ve ever seen. So teeny that she’s all but lost in her doll-sized ruffled romper and matching oversized bow turban. What kills me, though, is the knee-high socks with mini pompoms.
Everything about her is… “Yeah, so dang perfect.” And it’s killing me that I can’t hold her, even though she weighs nothing.
Last time the nurse came in here, and Summer had laid Percy down next to me on the bed, she threatened to move me to a no-visitor ward.
As much as I protested the fancy private room Eli and Jayden insisted on when I was rushed back to the hospital with a pleural infection, I like that it allows me to have the visitors I want, when I want.
I’m never alone. Which is something I’ve never liked before, and ever since Ryker took me, and Presley beat the crap out of me. Since I thought he had killed me…
Being alone terrifies me.
Admitting it is almost as suffocating as the notion of not having someone with me all the time.
“Do you need to rest?” Summer asks, giving my hand a light pat as she gets up and bounces Persephone on her chest. “We can come back later with Christina. I can bring dinner and snacks, and we can watch the game together.”
“No,” I shake my head, internally begging that she doesn’t leave, “don’t go. We still haven’t talked about the High Tea Society, and—”
“Nope, no business talk today!” Summer turns Percy in her arms so that she’s fluttering her eyes at me as her mommy goes on, “It’s the weekend… and besides, you still haven’t given me the answer I want.”
Because becoming her business partner is a lot to consider.
I didn’t go to design school like her, and I know that we can carry on as we are now, but…
I want to be proficient like her so that she’s not doing all the work all the time while I pick up the pieces she inevitably drops with how stacked her workload is.
“I know you have reservations about qualifications and what happens if you have to move because the guys change teams, and…” With a sigh, Summer bounces closer to my side.
“You are great with people. Just look at the way you blew the High Tea Society away! You did most, if not all the work for that presentation, not me. Which brings me to the fact that you have a great eye for design and you’re naturally artistic, so I’d say you are more than qualified. You’re…”
“Passionate and hardworking,” I say the two things she keeps beating into my head since she made me the offer, with Parker enthusiastically backing her.
After Persephone’s early arrival, there’s nothing he wants more than for his wife to be able to take it easy…er.
“Yes, and you bring a whole different product to the business with the murals. So it’s not like I’m handing you half of the company.
You’ve earned it, Fin.” Good God, the woman knows how to lay it on thick with her puppy dog eyes and nose scrunching smile.
“And just think, you can have all the cuddles you’re dying for every day. Whenever you want...”
“Oh my God, you’re no fair!” I sputter another laugh in between choked breaths while sneaking a gentle stroke of Persephone’s tiny hand.
“Ehhh,” Summer shrugs with a devious grin that says she’s not going to let up until I give her the answer she wants. “Anyway, it’s the weekend, and there’s no work talk on—”
She pauses when the door to the room opens and Jayden peers in, beaming with all the cocky attitude he exudes.
You’d think I’m used to it by now, but no.
At this point, I don’t think I ever will be.
Especially when he bursts out with a giggle right before he rushes inside with Eli following behind him.
“Swear to fucking Christ,” JJ grumbles as he presses a kiss to my forehead. “He’s lucky I love him, too.”
“Don’t make her laugh. It hurts,” Eli tells him as his hand finds mine on the bed, and with a firm squeeze, he lowers himself to nudge the tip of his nose along mine before he finds that same spot next to the scar on my forehead where Jayden kissed me moments ago. “Feeling better?”
“And ready to go home.”
“Soon.” He smiles at my breathless whisper when Jayden’s coos fill the room.
“Seriously, though, how are you not afraid to break her?” We both glance up to find Jayden cuddling Persephone in one arm while he wriggles the fingers of his other hand over her face. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re smiling at me, Trouble.”
Good Lord, my insides are scrambling together while Eli and I watch him coo over the baby curled in his forearm. I don’t think he could look any more of a giant right now, and still, Jayden is the embodiment of gentleness.
“Do you think he’s going to give her back willingly?” Eli chuckles, settling down next to me on the bed.
As always, he’s super careful about not jostling me. Even though it will do me no harm, because the antibiotics have worked. Yesterday morning, my chest drain was empty, which means I’ll be going home any day now. I just wish any day was today.
I miss our bed and the scent of his and JJ’s body wash warming the air when they get ready in the mornings. Not to mention watching them dress while they talk about what they want to get out of training or what muscles they need to loosen up.
I miss cuddling between them while they review tapes and I read. The way their fingers mindlessly comb through my hair and caress my skin.
It’s not the same here. Even if they spend all their free time next to me. This room isn’t our home.
“There’s not a single chance JJ’s handing that baby back to her momma,” I tell Eli when Summer reaches for Persephone and Jayden starts dancing around in slow circles. I’m not saying he’s purposefully evading Summer’s attempts, however… “Parker had to pry Persephone from him yesterday.”
“Can’t really blame him. She’s too damn cute.”
“She totally is.” And the more time I spend with Percy and Summer, the deeper the yearning to have a family of our own sets in.
Sometimes I can’t tell if the ache is in my lungs or if it’s the suffocating longing of giving my men something no one else can. A part of us, made by us, and the endless love we share.
“Come on, Trouble,” JJ croons playfully, his free hand now rubbing light circles over Percy’s tummy as her little legs kick and tuck harder with her quiet whines. “Don’t be shy. Just let it out.”
As though she understands what he’s telling her, Persephone lets out a mighty fart that should not come out of something so small. When she sighs with relief, he carefully hands her back to Summer.
“All yours now, momma bear,” he says gingerly before he lowers the guard rail on my other side and shuffles as carefully as Eli did into place next to me.
“On this note, I’m going to leave you until later. I will pick up Christina and grab sushi and dim sum for dinner.” With that, Summer gathers her and Persephone’s belongings and heads out, leaving me with my guys.
Although I saw them this morning when they brought me coffee from the place on the pier, it feels like it’s been ages since they left for practice. I hate that they’ll be leaving again in a couple of hours to get ready for tonight’s game.
“So Natasha said she was coming to see you this morning,” Jayden starts, his hand lacing with mine while he takes in the yellowing bruise surrounding my cannula.
“You okay?” Eli rests his chin on my shoulder with a coaxing nudge of his nose on my earlobe.
While he waits for me to answer, the length of his strong arm stretches across us. Holding us all together.
“Oddly, yeah. I’m fine. There’s nothing anyone could tell me about Presley that would surprise me anymore. I kind of expect the worst of a conversation where he’s concerned. You know?”
Eli nods at the same time as he nips at my shoulder. “Salem was devastated.”
“Of course. I mean, her husband poisoned her baby’s father. It’s awful. All of it.” What else is there to say that hasn’t been said by Natasha, the detectives, the media…
All the truths. All the lies. Everything has been said.
Contrary to what you’d think, it’s liberating for it to be out in the open and not to have to live with another secret.
After the full details of Casey’s death were made public record, the media instantly assumed that Salem was the nameless victim. They weren’t wrong; she was Presley’s victim, just not his only one.
“It’s still crazy to me,” Jayden murmurs, thumb stroking along the inside of my wrist. “Salicylic Acid? That’s the shit they give you to kill warts and calluses, and they put it in lotions…”
“What are the chances of the team doc giving Casey an extra strong dosage of aspirin for muscle swelling on the same day Presley spiked his drink?” With a deep breath, Eli shuffles down the bed, turning on his side to hug my thigh.
Kissing the exposed skin on the inside. That fleshy part that holds the sting of his bite so torturously well that I squirm deeper into the mattress at the mere thought.
“Prick got his just desserts,” Jayden scoffs with a shake of his head.
“And now, even though it doesn’t feel like it quite yet, it’s all done,” Eli tells me, ducking lower to kiss my knee while his stare flits to JJ’s.
He’s still holding my hand in his when he lifts my chin with the other. The instant our eyes lock, my chest squeezes tight.
Jayden’s beyond beautiful, and his eyes are so soulful that when he tells me, “It’s over, Baby,” I feel it all the way to the marrow of my bones.
“Time to live, Fin. Like really live and make all your dreams come true.”
“Everything we talked about. All the plans we made, Angel,” Eli says, nipping my knee to bring my attention back to him. “It’s over. The past is done, and now we get to make the future we want for ourselves.”