Chapter 58
Auggie took one look around the man’s house and smirked. “Love what you’ve done with the place.”
He hadn’t changed a single thing since the last time she’d been there—years ago. All of the photos were in the same places, same furniture. Of course, it was furniture that had been designed to last generations—not like her romp-friendly second-hand pieces. “Settled in?”
“Very funny. I have settled in. I’m in the master suite now. I repainted and have my bed in there. I like a king-sized. Plenty of space to…move around.”
He shot her a wicked look from those dark green eyes of his. She knew what he meant. And her stomach tightened just thinking about it. She strongly suspected a time would come when she’d be…seeing his bedroom.
Just not tonight. She waited in his living room, stuck in the past as she remembered all the nights she’d slept over as a girl.
Her best memories before she’d moved in with her aunt and uncle had mostly happened in this house.
She’d never forget that. He went outside and came back with the diaper bag and the playpen he’d thrown in the back of his truck.
“I’m thinking we can put the girls in Clancy’s room.
It’s closest to the living room, and we should be able to hear them just fine.
I’ll put a note on her door, if she comes in so she doesn’t wake them up.
She texted that she was running late from work and Cloe was late from the hospital or one of their dates were—I’m not sure which sister is dating which Masterson at the moment, which…
highly concerning here. Cloe is going to bring Clancy back to the house, Clancy will change and they are going to the party after. Will Markie be okay in the big bed?”
“She should be. We can put pillows beside her.” She held her sleeping sister in her arms. Markie was completely limp, but the fever reducer she’d given her before they’d left the inn was already starting to work.
“I’ll take her to Shane Lowell in the morning, if needed.
He runs a two-hour clinic on Saturdays next to the counseling center.
I think I have one sick kid every other week.
We’re Shane’s biggest customers now, I’m sure of it. ”
“It’s a lot to juggle, but you are amazing at it.”
Within five minutes they had the playpen up in Clancy’s room—with Auggie giving him step-by-step instructions when he’d struggled—and Markie snuggled in Clancy’s full-sized bed.
She rolled over on her stomach and stuck her rump right in the air, Baby Miss Missy clutched close.
Auggie had removed her glasses and put them on Clancy’s nightstand, after relocating the dress Clancy had laid out for tonight to the nearby chair.
Clancy was getting a bit daring with that piece of silk and lace. Wow. What was that girl up to?
She just looked at her beautiful baby sister for a long moment. Markie really did look like Maggie or Nikki right there. No denying the Tyler in this one.
“She’s beautiful. Precious.”
Auggie turned, he was there, holding Maeya and rocking her back to sleep. Like he’d done it a million times. “You are really good at that.”
“I was almost thirteen when the Clancy-creature hatched. I remember rocking her. I remember when Cloe was born when I was eight, but Clancy was different because I was so much older and Mom was starting to get really sick, so I spent more time helping with Clancy. It went too fast.”
“Yes, it does.” Maeya had been two months old when Auggie had gotten her. Now she was crawling and starting solid foods and babbling all the time. “I want to enjoy it, while I can. That one is my only baby-baby.”
“You can have a few more. Maybe…two? Possibly three?”
Was that a hopeful note there? She considered the question, as she settled pillows around her three-year-old.
She hadn’t seriously considered more children, not since the moment she’d learned about the girls.
“That, I do not know. If I was with a man I trusted enough to shoulder half the load, no matter what. One or two, maybe? If such a man exists.”
“I’m sure he does. And even if there weren’t any more she-devil—or a he-devil—babies, I’d think a man would be blessed to be daddy to the she-devils you have currently collected.
Except Em and Junie, because that would be weird.
Considering how old those two are—there is no way someone would get away with grounding them.
And I do plan to marry those two off to Zach Lowell and Cadell when I get a chance.
Just to see what happens. If I was the man we are referring to, anyway. ”
“Junie and Em with Zach and Cadell? Are you trying to cause a riot or something? Those are just as likely as Claudia and that damned Weatherby who drives her crazy.” Auggie thought a moment.
It wasn’t entirely crazy, though. “Except possibly Junie and Zach. He does like to push her buttons. And she gets more fired up with him than she does anyone else.”
“He likes to watch her when she’s not looking, but I don’t think he realizes that.
That Weatherby asshole has a thing for Claudia, too, you know.
He’s just hiding it. I noticed the other day.
And Cadell has had a thing for Em for a while, I think.
He just won’t ever act on it.” He lowered the baby to the playpen.
Then turned back to Auggie, a serious expression on his beautiful face.
“Em scares him. What she makes him feel. He’s afraid he’ll end up hurting her like he thinks our father must have hurt our mother.
Your sister seriously terrifies him. He’s so afraid he’ll be like him, he’s closed himself off from life and is wrapping himself up in work.
Dad destroyed his trust—not just in our father, but in himself. Cadell’s still working through that.”
And he was worried for his brother. She could see that worry in his eyes.
Auggie would think about Em and Cadell together later.
That would require some serious thought—and study.
Of both of those two. And…she was so going to tell Claudia her brother’s theory about Ransom Weatherby.
Claudia would launch into orbit at that one.
She waited until Maeya was settled, and walked right up to him.
She pressed her forehead to his chest. His arms went around her instantly.
She looked up at him. “You are a good man, Calloway Ellis. I’m sure you’ll make mistakes, no matter what woman finally captures you, but you have a good heart in there. And that is what matters most.”
“I know the woman I want to catch me.” He just looked at her and waited.
Auggie knew…this, standing there over two of her sleeping children, was their defining moment.
“She’s going to. It just might take her time.
She has six mini versions that she has to put first. And it is really too soon to shake up their world again.
So…it’ll have to be slow. The man she catches will need to understand that. ”
“Well, if she catches this man, she should know…he wouldn’t expect it any other way. Because those mini versions matter so much. And if they don’t ever make more mini versions, he’d be perfectly happy just helping her raise them to be as amazing as she is.”
Her hand was captured in his and he pulled her out of his sister’s bedroom. And led her down the hall. Then they were in the living room and he was pulling her to the couch and holding her, the way she needed, wanted to be held for a lifetime.
They stayed right where they were.