Floored - Karla Sorensen Page 0,104

later

"This is so weird," I whispered. My finger followed the line of his nose and the perfect bow of his lips.

"Right?" Paige asked. "Like they're all slimy and covered in this crazy shit from inside you, and boom, just like that, you'd just die for them."

I met her knowing eyes and grinned. "Basically."

Jude smiled at me from where he stood next to my brother.

"Ready to hold him, Logan?" Paige asked, rocking the baby gently. The little man was sound asleep because hey, it was quite the exhausting event to be born.

My brother nodded. "As long as Momma doesn't need him back."

I laid my head back on the pillow and smiled at him. "Go ahead."

My sisters all crowded in the room, snapping pictures over Paige's shoulder.

Isabel quietly wiped at a tear she didn't think we saw. Molly winked, then pointed at herself, “Favorite,” she mouthed.

But we all watched raptly as Logan first kissed Paige on the top of the head, then clenched his jaw as his wife stood and carefully transferred the baby into my brother's huge arms.

Basically, I was just going to cry my way through the entire day. No way around it. I sniffed loudly before I realized that every single other person in the room, save for Jude, was doing the same thing.

Logan stared down at my son and let out a shaky breath. When he looked up at me, his eyes were bright with unshed tears. "You did real good, kid."

Jude set a hand on Logan's shoulder before he approached the bed.

"You did," he said quietly, wiping my face carefully. "A bloody warrior."

I smiled up at him. "Should we tell them the name?"

Jude kissed me softly. "Go ahead."

My family looked at me expectantly, except Logan, who was staring at the baby again. I smiled. "We'd like you guys to meet Logan Gabriel Ward McAllister."

Paige covered her mouth, sniffing noisily. "Welp, here I go again."

Logan's eyes flew to mine. "What?" he whispered gruffly. "You named him after me?"

I nodded. "We'll call him Gabriel." I slid my hand into Jude's and smiled up at him.

Logan's jaw clenched, and he feathered a hand over Gabriel's fluffy black hair. "Thank you. Both of you."

Isabel rested her head on Logan's shoulder, Molly held Isabel's hand, the diamond of her newly acquired engagement ring winking on her finger, and Claire was next to Molly, an arm around our eldest sister's waist.

Logan cleared his throat. "All right, I need someone to take him before I start ugly crying."

"My turn," the sisters said in perfect unison.

I laughed as they argued over who got him next.

With Jude at my side, his hand curled around mine, I felt almost impossibly happy and impossibly overwhelmed.

It was amazing, I thought, where you could end up when life gave you something you didn't choose for yourself.

Maybe that was how it was supposed to work. We could make all the plans we wanted, but ultimately, the exact right path for us was the one we'd end up on.

And this was mine.

Epilogue

Lia

8 weeks later

“Hush little baby, don’t say a word,” I sang, rocking Gabriel in his nursery, “Momma’s gonna go have private time with Daddy, and I’ll buy you a freaking pony if you stay asleep for the next hour.”

The words didn’t fit with the melody, but I was so deprived of sexy times with Jude and sleep, in general, I could not have cared less what came out of my mouth as long as it got Gabriel to go down for his nap.

My darling little angel stared up at me, but his blinks got slower and heavier, and when he finally, finally conked out, I breathed out a sigh of relief.

Honestly, I loved him so much it was terrifying, but he was the worst sleeper in the entire world. As I laid him down in his crib, I smiled. His hair, still as dark as when he was born, stuck straight out from his head like he’d stuck one of his fingers into a light socket.

Just like when Emmett was born, my son was continually fought over by every single member of my family, and the horrible side effect was a child who only got to sleep when someone was rocking him. I blamed Paige because she’d been known to knock people over in order to reach Gabriel first.

I turned on the white noise maker on the dresser in the nursery, and tiptoed out of the room with my newly acquired ninja sneaking skills, something I was told you inherited upon