16. Leila #2
Instead of voicing any of that, I turn from Mr. Flynn’s hold and step into Drew’s chest. His good arm wraps around me instinctively as I nuzzle my head into the base of his neck, the hand in the sling teasing the exposed skin of my bicep.
He presses his lips to my forehead before looking at his dad. “Didn’t want to interrupt you two, but Mom needs you to help her with the potatoes. Something about making sure to not use whole a stick of butter this time?”
Mr. Flynn chuckles, the sound coming all the way from his belly.
“Potatoes can never have too much butter. You’d think she’d know that after forty-three years of being with me.
I make the best damn taters.” His boots pad softly on the wood floor as he slips into the kitchen, leaving the me and Drew alone.
Drew’s hand travels to my chin, forcing my eyes to meet his. “You sure this isn’t too much, too soon?”
I shake my head even as another tear trickles down my cheek. “Swear I’m good,” I whisper before tucking my head against his chest again. “Just missed this feeling.”
He hums in understanding, though whether he thinks I’m referring to being in his parents’ home or against his chest, I’m not sure.
He’d be right either way.
“Mom and Kristen are fighting over who gets to hold Kaia while you eat.”
“And Declan?”
“He’s snuggling her as we speak.”
“I hate they never had any of their own.”
His heavy sigh rocks our bodies. “They’re finally coming to terms with it, I think. There’s even talk of fostering since she has connections through her psychiatry and nursing background.”
“They’d both be so good at it. Parenting kids with unkind pasts, I mean.
” After all, I feel like I have a pretty solid history as an example of how patient Kristen is with all of our sessions over the years.
And the day everything changed between us notwithstanding, Declan has never once made me feel uncomfortable.
Not even after the night I was attacked, when any man not Drew or my brother could trigger a panic attack.
We stand in silence, my head tucked under Drew’s chin as he holds me close to his side. I melt into him, but I can still feel the tension radiating from his body.
“Your thoughts are begging to be let out, Andrew Malakai Flynn. Let ’em fly.”
He chuckles, and some of the tightness in his muscles relaxes. “Just have something to ask you, but I have a feeling it’ll be a longer conversation than we have time for right now.”
As much as I want to press him for more, I know better. Drew has always been easy to read, but it’s by his choice. He can close down and keep even the biggest secret tucked away when he wants.
“I guess it’s a good thing you’re staying over again tonight, then, isn’t it?” I lean my head back, a soft smile—a real one—sliding onto my face. Maybe it’s too bold, too forward for whatever this is that’s stirring between us, but I’m trying to embrace what makes me happy.
“Yeah, sunshine,” he says before pressing a gentle kiss to my forehead. “I guess it is.”
And if this feeling of hope and love inside my chest is anything to go by, happiness won’t be going anywhere.
“Come on, sunshine. Let’s go face the music.”
He wraps his arm around my shoulder, guiding me into the kitchen where I’m sure pretty much everyone could hear what was said.
But no one acknowledges it. Kaia looks content snuggled into her uncle’s chest, and the glassy look in his eyes makes me confident that she’s wrapped another protective male around her tiny little fingers.
I’ll have to apologize to her in the years to come. Good luck dating, baby girl.
Kristen is the first to notice us, and she waltzes over, wrapping me in a hug.
Maybe it’s weird having a friendship with my therapist, but I think that’s the only reason I’m comfortable going to our sessions.
Because she isn’t a stranger trying to pry into the darkest recesses of my mind.
Her petite frame and blonde hair always make me think of an ice princess, especially with those glacial-blue eyes of hers.
She lets go and brushes a loose strand of hair over my shoulder in a very motherly gesture, and I feel the guilt creeping in not for the first time. Here I am, a mother to a completely unplanned, healthy baby, and she’s been trying to conceive and carry for years.
She catches the shift in my mood and smiles softly, her hand cradling the side of my head. “None of that,” she whispers knowingly. Glancing up at Drew, she nods at his shoulder brace. “Hey, kid. How’d your visit with the doc go?”
“How it looks,” he grumbles. “Not exactly rainbows and butterflies.” He filled me in after my nap, that he’s limited for several days. Not that it’s stopped him from toting Kaia around.
Have you ever met a cowboy who wasn’t stubborn to the bone?
Yeah, me neither.
Kristen’s expression is sympathetic with understanding.
She was a trauma nurse before changing professions and going back to school for psychiatry.
She worked out of an Atlanta clinic for a while but finally opened her own practice here in Havenwood not too long ago.
I’m pretty sure just about everyone in this town has gone to chat with her at least once.
Just another way Havenwood is unlike any other town: everyone here promotes positive mental health alongside the physical.
“Well, come on. Find a seat,” she says before looking up at Drew. “Now that your dad’s added six pounds of butter to the potatoes—”
“And half the jar of salt,” Declan chimes in, chuckling.
“—and more than enough sodium, we should be ready to eat.”
Mrs. Flynn huffs in faked exasperation, her hands on her plump hips and a look of pure adoration on her face as she takes in the sight of all of us. “You’d think I raised you lot in a barn or something.”
Mr. Flynn cuts in, setting the pot of mashed potatoes on an iron trivet. “I tried, honey, but you said that it would be frowned upon to leave them in the stalls overnight when they were throwing fits.”
The whole table laughs as Mrs. Flynn rubs her brow and mumbles under her breath before swatting her dish towel at her husband. “I should’ve locked you in the barn a few times, too, mister. You caused just as much mayhem as these boys and Leila did.”
I scoff, only slightly offended. “I did no such thing.”
This time, it’s Drew’s turn to sound the exasperation. “Excuse me? Nine times out of ten, you were the reason I got in trouble.”
I offer him a cheeky grin as I lean back against his chest. “Not my fault you always took the blame.”
He huffs but hugs me to him before dropping a kiss to the top of my head.
I turn my focus to Kaia so I don’t have to pay attention to the smug look on Drew’s parents’ faces. “Dec, I can take her.”
He’s already shaking his head before I can take a step forward.
“Nope. You’re gonna sit there and eat in peace while Mom and Kris take turns fawning over my perfect angel of a niece.
Then I’m going to steal her back and show her around the ranch.
We need to see what her breed and color preferences are so Dad can buy her a horse for Christmas. ”
“Declan,” I huff.
He passes my baby girl to his wife before moving toward me, stopping a respectable distance away. I’ve known him since I was tiny, but he knows his size is a trigger. My stepfather used his size to intimidate me, so anyone over six-foot has the potential to kickstart an episode.
Drew starts to step in front of me, the beginnings of a growl slipping through his lips as his protective streak swims to the surface. “Don’t start anything, brother. I love you, but I’ll gladly knock you out if you hurt her feelings, shoulder be damned.”
Declan shakes his head, palms up in surrender. Or maybe as a peace offering? “Apologizing, kid.” He glances between the two of us. “We all made our own choices, but mine set all of this into motion.”
I shift my weight forward with the intent of telling him not to apologize, but Drew’s arm tightens around my waist, keeping me in place. Declan smiles, but the pain and guilt in his eyes is almost too much to witness.
“That night…all I heard was your scream. Every worst-case scenario slammed into me at that sound.”
“Wait,” I say. “You knew I was in your hotel suite?”
Drew’s body shakes in silent laughter, and it takes everything in me not to stomp his toe like a little kid throwing a tantrum. As my eyes move back to Declan, I realize he’s laughing quietly, too.
“You guys suck.” I pout even as those pesky little tendrils of hope and love continue to weave and interconnect the broken pieces of my soul.
“You’d be a terrible spy, Leila Grace. Anyway, I reacted poorly when I found the two of you, you know…” He glances away, his cheeks tinging as pink as mine probably are at the reminder that he caught me and Drew in bed together. Naked. Post horizontal hokey pokey.
Drew leans down to whisper in my ear loud enough for his brother to hear. “Kind of enjoying his embarrassment, aren’t you?”
This time, I do stomp his toe in warning, but a soft giggle slips through my lips. “You guys are nuts.”
“Damn right, it was embarrassing. I saw your naked ass more than enough when we shared a bathroom,” Declan shoots back before sobering.
“Almost done, I swear. It was never my intention to force you guys apart. And then I made an ass of myself by assuming that you knew more than you did about Drew’s accident and surgeries and still chose to stay away. ”
“Just wait until Doc gives me the all clear. You and me and the boxing ring,” Drew grumbles.
I reach back, rubbing his arm in soothing motions.
“I’ll give you a free shot,” says Declan.
“My wife has more than shown me the error of my ways, and your plate was more than full growing and birthing the most perfect addition to our family. So, I am profoundly sorry, to the both of you, for stepping in shit that was none of my business.” He looks thoroughly chastised, even though he’s the one offering the apology.