Chapter 30
Chapter
Thirty
Reese sat at one of the tables inside Steel Protection with Elsie tucked against her chest in a sling. The main room had been cleared for the Christmas party. Desks had been pushed against the walls.
The conference table was covered in food, Santa Claus paper plates, Rudolph napkins, serving spoons, and trays of cookies. Colored lights ran along the equipment racks. Garlands hung over the dark monitors. Someone had set one screen to a fireplace and another to falling snow.
A Christmas tree stood in the corner where maps and case boards usually sat. The first time Reese had walked into this building, she’d stood near the front desk with fear sitting in her throat. She came in because she couldn’t keep running from Wade’s shadow.
Now she sat in the same building with her husband across the room getting her a plate, her newborn daughter asleep against her chest, and the whole place full of voices, food, babies, and Christmas lights.
Elsie made a small sound in the sling. Reese looked down and touched one finger to the baby’s cheek.
Elsie was only a few weeks old, dressed in a 0–3 month holiday sleeper that still bunched at her wrists and ankles.
She was warm and heavy with sleep, tucked close enough that Reese could feel every small breath.
The red-and-white striped cuffs covered her hands, and the tiny embroidered reindeer sat off-center on her chest where the sling had twisted the fabric.
Reese was tired all the way through her bones. Her body still ached in places she had not known could ache. She had slept in pieces since Elsie was born, never long enough to feel fully awake and never deeply enough to forget she was listening for the baby.
This exhaustion came from nursing, rocking, diapers, and learning which little sounds meant hunger and which meant comfort. It came from being needed completely. It wasn’t the old fatigue of running, hiding, and staying ready to leave.
Elsie’s mouth moved in her sleep, and Reese caressed her cheek again. This child had once been the reason she ran. Now Elsie was the reason she had found home.
Across the room, Ryder crouched in front of Adrian and made a face so ridiculous that Adrian squealed and slapped Ryder’s shoulder.
“Ryder,” Valeria said, reaching down to steady him. “Don’t wind him up.”
Ryder straightened with both hands raised. “I was providing holiday enrichment.”
Dom took Adrian under the arms and lifted him before he could launch himself at Ryder again. Adrian immediately grabbed a fistful of Dom’s shirt and tried to chew the collar.
Hunter stood near the food table with Brie beside him, Colette asleep against his shoulder. Brie balanced a plate in one hand and adjusted the tiny Christmas hat sliding over Colette’s eyebrow with the other.
Near the tree, Siren held four-month-old Rory against her chest. Rory’s cheek rested on Siren’s black sweater; one small hand curled near her collar. Siren rocked slowly while Reed stood beside her with a paper cup of cider and a soft smile on his lips.
Blaze came back with two plates and handed one to Stella. Stella took it, looked at Siren with Rory, then looked at Blaze.
“I’m getting ideas,” she said.
“About what?” Blaze asked.
“About permanent babysitting arrangements.”
Siren didn’t look up. “Submit a request in writing.”
Reese smiled before she could stop herself. “Little Saint Nick” by The Beach Boys played under the voices. Someone laughed near the food table. A baby fussed, then settled. No one was whispering about danger. Nothing bad was happening. She was still getting used to feeling safe.
Stella crossed the room with a paper plate in one hand and stopped beside Reese’s chair.
“How’re you doing?”
The question came with Stella’s usual practicality. She looked at Reese, then at Elsie in the sling, then at the cup of water Reese had nearly emptied.
“Tired,” Reese said. “Happy.”
“That sounds about right.” Stella smiled and shifted the plate to her other hand. “Rory’s already growing out of half his newborn stuff. I’ve got a bag of sleepers and onesies set aside for you if you want them.”
Reese looked down at Elsie, who was still lost inside the 0–3 month sleeper. “I want them.”
“Good. I’ll bring them by.” Stella glanced toward the food table. “Do you need a plate?”
“Axel’s getting one.”
Stella smiled and squeezed her arm. Rory made a small complaining sound near the tree, and Stella looked back. Siren still had the baby tucked against her chest, but Blaze had turned his head at the first noise.
“I should go,” Stella said.
Reese watched her go. Stella had hired Reese six months ago with no references, no history she could safely explain, and a name that didn’t match her ID. Stella had given her a job anyway.
Axel came back with a plate balanced in one hand and a cup of juice in the other. He moved through the crowded room without hesitation, stepping around Ryder, letting Adrian grab briefly at his sleeve, pausing long enough for Dom to free him before he kept going.
He was not on the edge of the room tonight.
He was in the middle of it, carrying food to his wife while Christmas music played and babies passed from arm to arm.
He set the plate in front of Reese first, then put the juice beside it.
The plate was full of sliced ham, roast turkey, mashed potatoes with gravy, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and a buttered roll.
“Thank you,” she said.
He bent and kissed her cheek, then sat beside her.
Reese picked up the fork and took a bite of mashed potatoes. Axel adjusted the edge of the fabric near Elsie’s cheek. He had learned all of it. Diapers. Bottles. Burp cloths. The difference between Elsie’s hungry sound and the small warning noise she made before she woke angry.
He had learned to care for her daughter like Elsie had always been his. Because she was.
Elsie shifted against Reese’s chest while Reese was taking a bite of her dinner roll. The sound was small, not a cry yet. A warning. Reese knew the shape of it now, the little restless breath that came before Elsie woke fully and remembered she had opinions. Axel set his cup down.
“I’ve got her,” he said.
Reese didn’t argue. She wiped her mouth with the napkin, loosened the sling, and eased Elsie out with one hand supporting her head. Axel reached across the small space between them, and Reese passed their daughter into his arms without ceremony.
They had done this half-asleep in the apartment upstairs, at the kitchen table, beside the bassinet, in the blue dark before morning.
Axel settled her against his chest with one hand spread wide across her back.
Elsie made one unhappy sound, turned her face into his shirt, and quieted almost at once.
Reese watched them while she picked up her fork again. Axel bent his head slightly, his cheek near Elsie’s dark hair, and kept one steady hand over her back while the party moved around them.
Reese ate while Adrian passed from Dom to Valeria and reached immediately for Ryder again. Colette slept through Hunter shifting her higher on his shoulder. Stella took Rory back from Siren, kissed the top of his head, and handed Blaze her empty plate.
Brie came out from behind the food table with a tray of cupcakes. Ryder said something too loud near the tree, and Nell elbowed him before Valeria could turn around. Someone laughed. Someone else asked where the extra forks were. The lights on the Christmas tree blinked against the dark windows.
Reese sat in the middle of it with warm food in front of her and Axel beside her, holding their daughter.
Six months ago, she’d driven into Fate Mountain alone.
She’d slept in her car with cash hidden in her bag, Wade’s name still attached to hers, and one hand resting over the baby no one in town knew existed.
She hadn’t come here looking for family; she’d come because she had nowhere else to go. Now everyone in this room knew her as Reese Walker-Rivers. Axel shifted Elsie carefully against his chest as she fell asleep. Reese took another bite of dinner, no longer outside the room.
Brie reached their table with a tray of cupcakes from Sweet Summit Bakery.
“Pick one before Ryder eats them all,” she said.
Reese looked over the tray. There were chocolate cupcakes with crushed candy canes, gingerbread cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and vanilla cupcakes with sugared rosemary tucked into the frosting. A red line of cranberry showed at the center of one where the filling had pushed through.
“The vanilla for me,” Reese said. “Chocolate for Axel.”
“Good choices.” Brie lifted them carefully and set them on a plate.
Ryder appeared at Brie’s shoulder and reached for another cupcake.
Brie shifted the tray out of his reach. “Ask like a civilized adult.”
“May I please have the cupcake you are emotionally withholding from me?”
Brie let him take it, then looked back at Reese. “I packed extras for you and Axel to take upstairs. Nursing mothers need emergency cake.”
Reese remembered the first time she’d walked into Sweet Summit Bakery for the meeting with Axel.
Brie had brought her coffee and a pastry and told her Steel Protection paid for everything during client meetings.
Later, Reese learned Axel had arranged the made-up story ahead of time so she could eat something beautiful and not worry about the price.
Brie touched her shoulder lightly before moving across the room to Dom and Valeria. Axel shifted Elsie a little higher against his chest and took a bite of his cupcake.
“I keep thinking about the first time I came in here,” Reese said.
Axel looked at her over Elsie’s head.
“You stood by the front door,” he said. “Wearing your diner T-shirt, looking like you were about to bolt.”
Reese swallowed. “You remember that?”
“I remember everything about that moment.”
Elsie slept against his chest; one cheek pressed to his shirt. Axel took another bite of cupcake.
“I was so scared that day,” Reese said.
She looked around the room. She’d been terrified because she had finally admitted to herself that she needed help.
“I’m not scared now.”
Axel smiled, put down the cupcake wrapper, and wrapped his arm around her. “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey played on the speakers while Siren kissed Reed under the mistletoe. Snow fell silently out the big windows at the front of the building.
Dom stood near the tree with Adrian on his hip. Valeria was laughing at something Rosa had said. Hunter and Brie were dancing with Colette tucked against Hunter’s shoulder. Stella had Rory back in her arms while Blaze stood close. Ryder was twirling Nell around in the middle of the room.
These were the people who’d brought Reese back from the edge and welcomed her home.
Now Reese had a husband, a daughter, her own name, and a place to sleep where her bags were always unpacked.
Beside her, Axel sat in the center of his pack with his child against his heart.
She wasn’t running anymore. And she never would again.