wasn’t a good sign.
I managed to step over the first baby-gate, but I crashed through the second blocking off the kitchen. My legs didn’t work, and the duffle bag clattered to the ground. I tangled in another maze of baby-proofing that served only to prevent me from moving in my own house.
Why the hell did Piper magnet lock the cabinets if she was just going to barricade me and the baby out of the kitchen?
It wasn’t the time to ask. For as sexy, wanton, and raging as she had looked on Friday, early Monday morning Piper was…still beautiful, but obviously exhausted. Her hair fell from her ponytail, and she wore sweats with mix-matched socks. She bounced a red-faced, frustrated, absolutely inconsolable baby girl in her arms.
When had she last slept?
When had the kid last slept?
What the hell happened in the day and a half that I left?
“Is…” I pointed to the weeping, snotty, bawling child. “Is she going to do that all night?”
Piper’s laugh threaded a bit of insanity into her exhaustion. “All night? Try all weekend!”
“Is she okay?”
“It’s…we…” Piper wrangled Rose and plunked down onto the couch with her. “We lost her favorite stuffed animal, and she has a fever, and—”
I tensed. “Wait, what?”
“Her stuffed animal. Mr. Bunny Bumpybottom—”
“Yeah, I know. Rumpleass the rabbit.” Adrenaline surged through me. “What fever? What are you talking about?”
“A little ear infection, I think.”
I knew I should have checked in. Something tore at me last night, and I regretted not texting, not making sure everything was okay. The baby whined against Piper, covering her delicate little ears with a chubby fist.
“She’s sick?” I patted my pockets for my car keys. “Do we…what do we do?”
“Do?”
“I’ll pull the car around. There’s probably not a doctor this late. That’s fine. I’ll get us to the hospital—”
Piper shook her head. “It’s an ear infection. Babies get them all the time. I already have an appointment with the pediatrician tomorrow.”
“So what do we do until then? What happens? She’s just supposed to…”
Cry?
Break my fucking heart?
Piper kissed her forehead. “I need to put her down.”
“Jesus Christ!”
“To bed, Cole.”
Oh. Fuck. My head pounded. I couldn’t take much more of this. Piper didn’t seem worried, but the thought of Rose feeling terrible and sickly and feverish?
Hell, it made me sick.
Made me feel…helpless.
If I couldn’t cure a fever, I’d do the next best thing. I unzipped my duffle bag and pulled out the bunny. Rose didn’t see it at first, so I flipped it in my hand, slapping his ears from one side of his fuzzy head to the other.
“I found this when we landed in California,” I said. “I think she put it in my bag.”
Piper stared at the stuffed animal like I offered her a million dollars.
Or a decent night’s sleep.
“She knows it’s your bag…” Piper bit her lip. “She wanted to share him with you.”
“She really should verbalize that.”
“Oh, you have no idea…” Piper knelt with Rose on the ground, letting the baby stand. “Look, Rosie. Look who Cole found!”
Rose couldn’t see me through the tears. I hobbled closer on one knee and held the bunny out.
She stumbled a bit. Looked at the stuffed animal. She babbled something adorable and excited.
Rose raced towards me. I offered the bunny. She didn’t want that.
I froze as she padded to my chest and wrapped her little arms around me in a fierce hug.
Holy shit.
The adrenaline pumped harder. I had no idea what to do. I didn’t move. Didn’t breathe.
A tiny little girl wanted a hug from The Beast.
And Christ…what kind of monster would deny her?
I gently tucked my arm over her as carefully as I could. Her little fists gripped my shirt, and she sniffled against me.
But Rose stopped crying.
And she took her bunny.
Then she pulled away just as suddenly as she came to me. She collapsed back in her momma’s arms, thumb in her mouth, and clutched the bunny.
Piper sighed. “God, Cole, I can’t thank you enough.”
I shrugged. “I didn’t know how to get Rumpleass back to you, but I knew she’d be missing it—”
She didn’t listen to a word I said. She stared at me with such an intensity—such need—that my blood surged and cock hardened against my better judgement.
She grabbed my shirt, pulling me close. Her lips met mine with such passion I was too shocked to grab her back. She flicked her tongue with a promise that ended all too soon.
She pulled away. “I would do such terrible things to you right now…but I am so goddamned