The Man Who Has No Sight - Victoria Quinn Page 0,88

shirt, wearing a floppy hat to keep his face out of the sun. He kept looking at his brother, trying to make sure he was copying him exactly.

I sat in a chair in the shade and kept an eye on them since Dex was so close to the water. He had dark hair and dark eyes the way I did, looking just like Derek did at that age. But he had a subtle softness to him that he’d inherited from his mother. He was advanced like I expected he would be, but he had other qualities, like his warmth, his smile, his laughter…that all came from Cleo.

Cleo came outside, her stomach large in her summer dress. She waddled onto the deck, visibly uncomfortable in the heat because of her size. Her eyes immediately went to the two on the edge of the dock. “You think it’s safe having Dex so close to the water?”

“I’m watching them, baby.”

She rubbed her stomach as she watched them, like it was bothering her to see her three-year-old so close to the edge. “I’m gonna go—”

“Baby, sit down.” I got to my feet and indicated the chair.

“But I—”

“Sit.”

She did as I asked and took a drink of water.

I grabbed a standing umbrella and carried it out to the dock before I grabbed a couple chairs.

She smiled at me, like she appreciated what I was doing.

“Come on.” I gave her my hand and helped her up.

She walked next to me, eight months pregnant, having back pain, sleepless nights, and incredible mood swings.

But she was entitled to it since she was giving me the gift of another child. I helped her into the chair before I sat beside her.

She was much happier being close, being able to keep an eye on her boys. Her hand rested on her stomach, her hair in a ponytail, her face beautiful with that pregnant glow.

My hand moved to hers, and I held onto the armrest. “You’re beautiful.”

She turned to me, giving me a slight smile. “I’m huge, Deacon…”

“You’re pregnant. And so beautiful.” I liked it when she had that belly. This was our last baby, so I was sad it was almost over. I liked making love to her like this, making her pregnant in the first place, but we’d agreed three was the perfect number and I would get snipped once our girl was born. We would have tried for another if we had another boy, but the doctor confirmed it was a she, so we decided to keep it at three.

Her eyes softened. “I can’t wait for Daisy to get here. I’m done being pregnant.”

“I’m gonna miss it.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re gonna miss making me pregnant is what you mean…”

“No. I’m gonna miss both.” I watched Derek talk to Dex like we weren’t there, talking about the different kinds of fish in the lake and how deep the water probably was at the center. “Derek is already ten…time goes by so fast.”

“They’ll always be our children, no matter how old they are.”

“I know.” Dex said my name in a different way than Derek did, and I got attached to that quickly. And hearing a beautiful little girl call me Daddy…would probably kill me. If she looked like her mother, I wouldn’t be the disciplinarian like I was with the boys. It would just be too hard to say no, not to give her everything she wanted.

Cleo turned back to the boys and watched them, loving them equally like they were both her biological kids, like she’d carried Derek to term even though another woman had, a woman we hadn’t heard from in years. Distance made her move on, made her call less, made her start over with a new family…until she seemed to forget Derek entirely.

But Derek was fine—because he had Cleo.

She was a better mother than Valerie had ever been.

The first time he called her mom, she cried.

She turned back to me. “Should we head back in the morning? I’m sure there’s a lot sitting on your desk right now.”

I was just as dedicated to my work as usual, but my priorities were definitely different. Being a father to three and a husband to one made me realize my happiness was just as important as the data sheets on my computer. “Let’s stay another day.”

“Yeah?” she asked, smiling.

“Yeah.” Derek was out of school for the summer, and Cleo was on maternity leave. I was the only reason we had to leave. But I blew off work…because I’d