Chapter 7
“WP, can I leave Chaos here with you?”
Glenna swung around at the sound of the man’s voice; she thought he might be Talon, but wasn’t sure who WP was.
“Did Remi kick him out of the war-room again?” Petra crossed the room and took the puppy from him, confirming he was her husband.
“Yeah.” Talon kissed the top of her head. “We need to start training him soon, or I’ll be the one banned from the war-room.”
“But he’s only a baby.” Petra snuggled the puppy against her chest.
“WP, we talked about this,” Talon grumbled. “We aren’t gonna let a ten-pound puppy do something we don’t want a sixty-pound war dog doing in the house.”
“Or the war-room,” Jorja chimed in.
“Fine, but I get to cuddle him when he’s sad because you were mean to him.” Petra flounced across the room, pouting.
Glenna bit back the smile at the consternation on Talon’s face, but he just shook his head, clicked to the other dog, and left them to it.
“I have a question,” Glenna said as Jorja refilled her coffee cup.
“Go for it.”
“That was Talon, right?”
“Yes.”
“Why did he call Petra, WP?”
“Warrior Princess.” Jorja grinned. “If you stick around here long enough, you’ll learn nearly all of them shorten everything or speak in military code that makes you pause and go ‘huh?’ at least a couple of times a day.”
“Ah, I remember Dwight being the same.”
“It’s the kids that catch me off-guard,” Serena chimed in.
“Ember was sitting in the rocking chair last week, and fell off. Does my child cry or call for her momma? No, she doesn’t; she yells out, “man down, man down.” Serena rolled her eyes.
“I’m raising a toddler-sized GI Jane, and I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon. ”
“And you love it.” Glenna sipped her coffee.
“Yes, yes, I do.” Serena grinned at her. “But god help us all when Ember starts dating, because I’m going to need a bail money fund.”
“For her or your husband?” A pang of regret that Dwight wouldn’t get to be the one to see his daughter date, walk down the aisle, or have children swamped through her and would have brought her to her knees if she hadn’t already been sitting down.
“Both, definitely both.”
Tiredness hit her out of nowhere, and her coffee cup trembled in Glenna’s grip, as her fingers struggled to keep from dropping it.
The weight of the last twenty-four hours pressed down on her like a physical force, turning even the simplest task, such as lifting a mug, into an insurmountable challenge.
She set it down before the exhaustion in her bones could turn the mug into another casualty in the long, unrelenting battle she’d been fighting.
The dark liquid sloshed slightly, mirroring the turbulence inside her.
Serena’s brow furrowed as she leaned forward, her sharp eyes missing nothing. “You’re dead on your feet, Glenna.” Her voice was gentle but firm. “When was the last time you slept? Properly slept?”
“I’ll be okay.” The last thing she wanted to be was rude.
The last twenty-four hours had been a blur of trying to sleep on the jet then giving up, gripping armrests during turbulence while her stomach churned with equal parts anticipation and dread.
There had been the reunion with Kelsey, which had been so overwhelming she knew she’d never forget that moment, ever.
Throw in a side of the emotional whiplash of it all: relief, guilt, joy and a whole host of other feelings she didn’t have words for, tangled with grief and the weight of everything she’d lost and everything she’d just barely managed to hold onto, almost made her muscles feel heavy and her thoughts sluggish, as if she were moving through thick, suffocating fog.
Jorja stood, stretching her arms over her head with a groan before she turned those piercing, no-nonsense eyes on her.
“Come on.” Her voice left no room for refusal. “You’re not gonna do anyone any good if you collapse from exhaustion. Let’s get you settled.”
Petra shifted Chaos in her arms before passing the wiggling, licking puppy off to Ember.
The little girl immediately plopped onto the floor, her laughter bright and unburdened as the pup attacked her shoelace with the single-minded determination of a tiny, furry predator.
“We’ll show you to the guest apartment.” Her tone was warm but practical.
“It’s got its own kitchen, bathroom—everything you’ll need to actually rest for once. ”
Glenna hesitated, her fingers twisting together in her lap. “I don’t want to impose—” The words felt automatic, a reflex born from months of scraping by, of never wanting to be a burden, of learning the hard way that kindness often came with conditions.
Jorja’s tone brooked no argument. “You’re not imposing,” she said, cutting through Glenna’s protest before it could fully form.
“You’re family now, sister, and family doesn’t sleep on couches when there’s a perfectly good bed with their name on it at the other side of the courtyard.
” She urged her to her feet. “Besides, Kelsey’s already claimed the room next to yours.
She was talking about decorating it with ‘magic bird pictures’ since she helped us get it ready yesterday.
” A faint smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.
“I think she’s planning to turn the place into some kind of fairy nest. You might want to be rested for that. ”
That did it. Glenna’s throat tightened, the burn of unshed tears stinging the backs of her eyes. The image of her daughter, safe, happy, and chattering about something as simple and wonderful as decorating a room was almost too much to bear.
She nodded. “If you’re sure we won’t be in the way.”
“Look at this place,” Siobhán chimed in. “It used to be a cloister back God knows when. There’s rooms and hidey-holes everywhere. We have plenty of space for one more.”
“Then I’d love a shower and a nap,” Glenna agreed, “but Kelsey?—”
“We’ve got her,” Serena reassured her. “Jules, Ember, and the puppy will keep her occupied until Chari, Jules’s mom, is finished working, and then we’re going to play in the pool for a bit. She’ll be just fine.”
They have a pool.
Is there anything they don’t have?
Seeing how other people lived had never really bothered her before. But when you were slapped in the face with how much some people had when you were barely scraping by was a hard, bitter pill to swallow.
Stop it. They are helping you.
Don’t be a bitch.
“Mommy?”
Oh god, she was horrible; she’d been about to leave the kitchen without telling Kelsey where she was going.
“I’m just going to go nap, baby.” She squished her into a hug and briefly wondered if there was a way to make Kelsey nap with her. The last thing she wanted to do was let her out of her sight, but if she didn’t lie down soon, she’d be snoring at the table.
Now I know why they say jetlag is a bitch.
“Can I come?”
Happiness and relief made her heart sigh. She didn’t have to leave Kelsey again so soon. “Of course, you can.”
“Wait until you see it! There’s a big window, and I can put my crayons right there.” She twisted back to grin at Glenna, her eyes alight with joy. This was what she’d fought for. This was what she’d almost lost.
“Then I’ll follow you.”
“Yeah, follow me, Mommy.” Kelsey slipped past Jorja and took off running.
“Don’t—” but it was too late, she was already in the courtyard.
“She’s fine.” Jorja led Glenna outside. “She can’t get out the gates without either a code or a remote. Neither of which she has.
Sun blared down from directly overhead onto the fountain in the center of the courtyard. Without the covered walkway, it would have been like stepping into an oven.
“War-room.” Jorja pointed to the door next to the kitchen.
“If you are looking for Tyrone, that’s where you’ll find him.
” She gave her a sheepish grin. “Me too. Umm…that’s where you’ll find most of us, to be fair.
” They turned the corner at the end of the courtyard, where a hammock was strung between two of the pillars.
“Colt and Siobhán’s place. Colt sometimes likes to sleep outside so don’t freak out if you come outside in the middle of the night and hear someone snoring. ”
“The kitties like to sleep here, too.” Kelsey petted a fat tabby cat with white paws who lay in the center of the hammock.
“Snoring Colt and kitties, got it.”
Jorja stopped at the next set of French doors. “This is you and Kelsey.” She opened the door for her. “Kelsey has been staying with me and Gunnar, so we’ll bring your stuff over later, okay, Kelsey?”
“‘Kay,” Kelsey called over her shoulder. “Come see the big window, Mommy.”
“What do we say to Ms. Jorja, Kels?”
“Thank you, Ms. Jorja.” Thankfully, Kelsey hadn’t forgotten all she’d taught her. She pressed her face against the panes of the window that took up most of one wall of the living room. “Come see, Mommy.”
Glenna exchanged an amused glance with Jorja at Kelsey’s impatience.
“I’m coming.”
The living room alone was bigger than Glenna’s last studio—the one she’d been forced to leave when the rent became impossible, when the car became her only shelter.
Sunlight spilled through the windows, pooling in golden patches across the hardwood floor, and the faint scent of lavender hung in the air, soothing and familiar.
It smelled like home, or at least what she imagined home should smell like—safe, warm…
permanent. “Those huge trees are pretty.” She wrapped her arm around herself. “Is that a vineyard?”
“Yes, it came with the property when the boys bought it,” Jorja replied. “Let me give you a quick tour of your rooms, then I’ll leave you settle in.”
“Thank you.”
“Bathroom’s through there.” Jorja nodded toward a door that was slightly ajar.
“Towels are fresh, and there’s a robe in the closet if you want to shower.
We’ll bring up some food in a bit—nothing fancy, but enough to keep you going.
” She hesitated, then added, “You look like you could use a meal that doesn’t come from a drive-thru window. ”
Glenna wanted to laugh, or maybe cry, because wasn’t that the truth?
But before she could respond, Kelsey bounced onto the bed, the springs creaking under her slight weight.
She patted the spot beside her with an imperative little hand.
“It’s so soft!” Her fingers sank into the duvet, her expression one of pure delight, as if she’d just discovered the most wonderful thing in the world.
Glenna sat carefully, the mattress dipping under her weight, the give of it almost too much after so long spent on hard surfaces.
The second her back hit the pillows, her eyelids drooped, the weight of exhaustion crashing over her like a wave.
She tried to fight it—she needed to fight it, because what kind of mother fell asleep the moment she was reunited with her child?
But her body betrayed her, the pull of sleep too strong, too insistent.
Jorja must have seen the struggle in her face. She reached out, tugging the blanket from the foot of the bed and draping it over Glenna’s legs with a tenderness that made her throat tighten further.
“Sleep,” she murmured, her voice a low, soothing hum. “We’ve got Kelsey. She’s safe. You’re safe. We’ll all be here when you wake up.”
Glenna wanted to protest, to insist she could stay awake, that she needed to be present for her daughter, to make up for all the time they’d lost. But the words died on her lips, swallowed by the crushing weight of fatigue.
The last thing she heard was the quiet click of the door shutting softly behind them, leaving her in a cocoon of warmth and silence.
And for the first time in what felt like forever, she let herself sink into it, let herself rest.