Claiming Her - Tory Baker Page 0,31

on him as he does all of the work.

“Let’s get to bed, baby,” he mumbles, and in a matter of moments he has me tucked into bed. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to shut everything down, set the alarm, and then we’ll sleep the bad day away. Only good days for us from here on out.”

“I love the sound of that. Hurry back.” I sink into the pillow underneath my head, the sheet and comforter tucked under my chin. I’m always cold when I’m in bed and Slade isn’t here with me. Thankfully, that doesn’t happen all that often.

I feel the mattress sink down next to me. “Night, Trouble. I love you.” He kisses the side of my neck before spooning my back.

“Goodnight, Slade. I love you so much,” I reply groggily. My body finally shuts down from the shit that has happened today. It even stops thinking about Travis and how I’ll forgive him for what he did to Slade and me. I just hope that, when tomorrow comes and he has to go back overseas, everything will be all right.

Epilogue

Slade

Two Years Later

“You can do it, Trouble. One more time,” I tell Taylor as I hold one of her legs up while she pushes our second child out, not in the way you think though. This is her first time going through labor and delivery. She delivered Grace already, and now we’re waiting on one last push for our son, Grayson. He’s being a stubborn thing and isn’t wanting to cooperate. I can only imagine where he gets it from.

“Ohhh.” She bears down, pushing one final time, and he decides to finally meet us.

“You did it, Taylor. We have two amazing children. I’m so proud of you.” I kiss her forehead.

“We did it, but if you don’t get over there with our babies, I’m going to kick your ass.” You wouldn’t know that she just went through five grueling hours of labor.

“Yes, ma’am.” I kiss her forehead and mock salute her this time around, much like she does to me when she tells me I’m being bossy.

It wasn’t long ago we were saying our wedding vows in front of Travis, Bridger, Drake, Leo, and Kellie. It was a small, intimate wedding, exactly what we both envisioned. It didn’t take long for Travis to forgive us for falling in love, though my girl, she made him work for her own form of forgiveness after the disappearing act he did on her when she needed to know he was safe. He came to our door the day after the incident happened with her favorite form of food—carbs with a side of dessert.

We spent our honeymoon in Greece, one of our last places to travel before we decided to calm down on our traveling throughout the United States and then in foreign countries. Thankfully, we were able to work around our schedules to take long weekend getaways. It was our last stop in Maine when Taylor came out of the bathroom and announced we should start trying for a family. I couldn’t have been happier; she threw her pills away that night.

Just the other day, she was saying, “I can’t believe how big I am. Where did this come from, anyways? I swear my stomach is as big as my body.” Taylor had been on a rampage that day and it seemed to last all day long. She wasn’t wrong when she bemoaned the fact that my swimmers work, it was our little joke. Even though it takes much more work than just my swimmers. When the doctor confirmed her pregnancy, we also discovered two heart beats. As far as either of us knew, twins didn’t run in our family. We’re just that lucky set of parents.

I sat down on the couch and put her feet on my lap, knowing exactly what she needed to calm down. I found the instep of her foot, massaged it, and she became content.

Now, here we are, and I’ve never been happier. Each day brings new adventures. I hate like hell leaving Taylor while they take care of her, but just like she wants me to watch over our babies, I want the same.

I watch as the nurses go over them with a fine-toothed comb, their little lungs working with each and every poke and prod. It is pissing me off the longer it takes, when all I want to do is wrap them in my arms. That’s right. The once unseemly invincible man has