Chapter 37 Daisy
THIRTY-SEVEN
DAISY
“Did you taste it, Mom? It’s the best watermelon I ever had.” Colin slurped the juice from the slice of watermelon that he had his face buried in. His cheeks were a mess and his clothes were filthy.
Details that didn’t matter since he had the biggest smile on his face.
The sun shone from the fading blue sky. Its warmth caressing my cheeks. The heat was tempered by the shade of a tree that we sat beneath and the gentlest breeze that blew through the meadow. A few hundred feet away, a stream babbled, adding to the peace.
“Your mom ate three pieces,” Raven told him. “I’m pretty sure she loved it. Probably because I picked it out, and I’m pretty much the best melon picker there is. But you know, I’m basically kind of amazing at all things.”
Raven knocked her shoulder into mine, sending me a wayward grin with her tease.
She was a wild one. Always laughing and joking. Talking herself up like crazy while still being one of the most humble people I’d ever met.
I guess that was the way she injected herself directly into your heart.
“Whelp, you sure did a good job, Auntie Raven, so you gotta be pretty good at everything,” Colin told her before he dove back in. A stream of watermelon juice dribbled out onto his shirt.
She laughed a tinkling sound.
Baby Luna copied her.
This tiny laugh and the most precious smile filling the baby’s face. The child cooing at her mother who sat with her legs crisscrossed beside me. Holding her up under the arms as the woman seamlessly loved on her daughter and bantered with the rest of us.
“That’s right. She’s pretty great,” Otto murmured where he was lying on his side, basically wrapped around Raven from behind.
“Don’t fill her head any more than it already is.” Sitting on the other side of me, Charleigh reached into the bowl of fruit and popped a grape into her mouth.
“Oh, I plan on filling her with something,” Otto mumbled low enough that Colin couldn’t hear.
The sip of iced tea I’d just taken spurted from my mouth, and I clapped my hand over it like it might stop the riot of laughter that wanted to tumble out.
Piper groaned and threw a grape at him. “Gross, Otto. You are the worst.”
“Nah, I’m the best. Ask my Moonflower.” It was pure suggestion.
On the other side of Charleigh, a growl rolled out of River. “You’re not going to have the ability to do anything if you keep up with that.”
The death glare he sent Otto essentially confirmed he was capable of murder.
Otto howled. “Ah, come now, brother. No need to get up in arms. You know the only thing I’m trying to do is take care of your sister. Really, really good care.”
Giggles rolled out of Raven.
River grunted, and I suppressed another laugh.
The whole afternoon they’d been this way.
Constant razzing back and forth.
Across from me, Emery sat between Kane’s legs, resting against his chest. Her expression was soft as she sent a glance toward me. Clearly checking to see how I was fairing in the middle of this.
An outsider who’d been dropped right in the middle of the sweet chaos.
At the thought, my eyes skated to Cash, where he and Theo stood in the middle of the field. They watched over the rest of the children who were playing ball, ensuring they didn’t wander near the stream.
Finn was in Theo’s arms, and the man dribbled the ball between his feet, kicking it back and forth between Maci, Nolan, Addy, and Eva.
Cash stood off to the side. Not participating, yet his eyes steely and keen.
For a beat, that hazel gaze drifted to me. Rays of sunlight slanted down to kiss his masculine face. Every inch of him rippled with that undefinable strength.
My stomach bottomed out.
“Colin, watch this!” Nolan shouted as he backed away from the ball before he shot toward it, kicking it as hard as he could and sending the ball rolling across the field.
Colin jumped to his feet and dropped the watermelon rind to the blanket. “That one was really good, but I bet I can kick it farther!”
“Then you’d better get over here and show us,” Theo called as he swooped Finn down to rebound the ball. The adorable toddler cracked up as Theo flew him low and helped him kick it.
“You better watch out because I’m the super fastest,” Colin returned.
“Not even, Colin. You know I run way faster than you,” Addy chastised like she couldn’t believe he’d dare dream otherwise.
“I fastest!” Eva tried to keep up with Addy as her big sister went running toward the ball to intercept it.
Charleigh emitted a soft laugh. “Oh, I bet you have your hands full with the three of them.”
“They definitely keep me on my toes,” I said lightly before I admitted, “I couldn’t imagine my life any other way, though.”
Tenderness filled Charleigh’s expression. “No, there is no better sound than children’s footsteps and voices in your house. Even when they’re unruly.”
“Hope we have a whole slew of them running amok one day.” River’s deep voice was low with significance. He moved, sitting close to her so their shoulders touched as they watched the children play.
She let go of a dreamy sigh. “My heart hopes so, too.”
Feeling like I was intruding, I let my gaze wander, but it only wandered to him. To Cash, whose features morphed between gentle awe and abject fear as he watched my children.
My insides trembled. My own fear and awe wobbling out.
He glanced my way with that potent gaze. As if he felt the weight of my stare and the need that blustered out with it. I bit down on the inside of my cheek and jerked my attention away.
Crap.
What was I doing?
But I didn’t know how to stop this slow slide of giving. The way with each second, my reservations were being whittled away.
Theo suddenly hustled the whole horde of children toward our spot.
“It’s family game time,” Nolan shouted. “We picked hide and seek! You gotta be on my team, Daddy-O!”
River chuckled. “You want me on your team, huh?”
“Yup, because you know what my Momma-Dog says. You’re the stealthy sneaker.”
River sent Charleigh a glance that was riddled with a secret message I couldn’t decipher, before he slowly pushed to his feet. “Sounds good to me.”
“I’m on my mommy’s team!” Maci shouted.
“What? You don’t want me on your team?” Kane feigned offense.
She giggled like mad. “No way, Daddy, we gotta be separate so you can find us.”
Easy laughter rippled out of him as he stood then stretched out his hand to help Emery up. Something deep rolled out with his words. “Either of you ever go missing, I won’t stop until I find you.”
Theo reached for Piper. “Up you go, Pipes. It’s you and our Little Finn-Finn.”
“You find me?” Finn drawled in his adorable voice as Theo passed him to his mom.
“That’s right. I’m definitely going to find you.”
“I’m on my Mr. Cash’s team!” Colin shouted at Cash, who still lingered in the distance.
I could only feel the grunt that rolled out of him. The way the air trembled and the ground seemed to quake below.
“I’ll give you five bucks if you can actually get that grump to play.” Kane’s eyes gleamed as he issued the challenge.
“My Big Gwumpy Giant!” Eva smacked her chest. Claiming the man who, with each day, was claiming me. Or maybe I’d just forgotten that I’d always been his.
“Mr. Cash wants to be on my team, don’t you, Mr. Cash?” Colin shouted toward him.
Cash had that terrified look in his eyes again.
“I…uh…” He roughed a big hand over his head. “Usually sit these types of things out.”
“Please, please, please! You gotta play with us!” Addy suddenly darted in his direction, running across the field and grabbing hold of his hand.
It seemed a proclamation. That Addy had finally fully given. Distrust no longer in her eyes when she looked at him.
“I want my giant!” Eva jumped.
Uncertainty gushed from him on waves.
My heart nearly exploded when he relented and let Addy tow him toward us.
Otto whistled low. “Tell me the rest of you are actually seeing this?”
“Oh, I see it, brother, but I’m not sure I believe it.” Baffled, Kane blinked.
Addy jogged in our direction with Cash lumbering behind her. “Mom! You gotta hide, and we’re gonna have to find you.”
“Oh…”
Raven grabbed me by the forearm. “Don’t even try to get out of this. Family game means everyone.”
“And we never leave our family out!” Colin shouted, that precious grin directed at me.
My chest squeezed. “I wouldn’t dare miss this.”
“Looks like my Little Luna is going to have her first game of hide and seek,” Otto said in a gentle voice that still tumbled and shook in his chest. “Come to Daddy, my princess.”
She gave him a gurgled, toothless smile, that black hair so soft around her porcelain face. Nothing but dimples and chubby cheeks.
The man basically melted as he took her.
Raven melted, too.
“Maybe we don’t have to play,” she suggested with a coy grin.
Otto chuckled. “Don’t worry, baby, you and I will have our own game later.”
“Tease,” she whispered back.
“You callin’ me a tease when I have to look at you dressed like that all afternoon? You know exactly how to have me twisted around those pretty little fingers, don’t you?”
In an instant, they were wrapped in each other, their baby enfolded between them as they murmured words that none of us could hear.
“Dude does it just to drive me out of my mind,” River grumbled as he helped Charleigh to her feet.
Giggling, she snuggled into his chest. “You just don’t have anyone to get annoyed at you when you do the same to me.”
He curled a muscled arm around her, and she yelped as he tugged her close.
“Oh, sheesh, they’re gettin’ all lovey dovey again. They’ve been kissing a whole lot, so I bet that means I’m going to get a baby brother or sister.” Nolan huffed like it was putting him out.
River grinned down at him, still holding Charleigh tight. “What would you say about that? A baby brother or sister?”
“I say I like it as long as I don’t gotta share a room.”
“Well, we’ll have to keep that in mind.” River looked back at Charleigh. She blushed a sweet shade of excitement and anticipation.