Saxon's Savior (Protect and Serve #3) - Pandora Pine Page 0,58

he’d already been to work on that very thing. “Why don’t we get you to bed first?” He pulled me into his arms.

What I needed more than anything else was a hug. I’d been doing my best to hug Sophie and Lola until my arms were sore, but neither of them seemed very comforted by me. They were too little to understand I needed to get hugs as much as I needed to give them. “I am sleepy,” I mumbled against him.

“Come on. Off we go.” Dallas grabbed my hand and led me out of the bathroom. He folded back the covers on the bed. “Hop in.”

I wasn’t used to people putting me to bed. My parents were finished doing that by the time I’d turned six, but since I’d been in Gloucester, it seemed to be happening all the time. “What about you?” I settled onto my back and slid my feet under the crisp covers.

“What about me?” Dallas sat on the edge of the bed and smoothed my hair. He wore a hopeful look in his eyes.

“Stay?” I asked. Dallas had done so much for all of us tonight, I didn’t want him walking out of the house on his own.

“Are you sure?” Dallas looked eager to share my bed, but there was a questioning look in his eyes.

I nodded, patting the other side of the bed. These last two weeks had been the longest of my life. I needed someone to be there for me.

“I’d like that.” Dallas walked to the foot of the bed and started getting undressed. He hung his pants over the chair in the corner of the room. His shirt joined the pile seconds later, leaving him only in his briefs and white socks. Soon the socks were gone too. Dallas slid into bed next to me, resting his head on my bare chest.

“How did you get over your mother’s death?” I whispered. I wasn’t sure if now was the best time to ask the question, but I needed to know the answer.

Dallas was silent for a few seconds. His arms tightened around me. “In a lot of ways, I’m still not over it. Whenever someone mentions her or when we deal with an overdose at work, I always flash back to finding her dead in that dingy motel bed.” He sniffled.

Shit. I knew Dallas was seeing that awful image again. I’d been lucky enough to have never seen the photographs from my parents’ accident. They’d had closed caskets at the funeral, saving me from seeing their battered and bruised bodies. Dallas hadn’t been so lucky. “I’m sorry to have brought that memory up for you again.” I was a fucking idiot. No doubt about it.

“No, it’s not that.” Dallas pressed a kiss over my heart. “You’re wondering how long it will be before life gets back to normal for the girls. I don’t blame you one bit for asking. They’re so little. I can’t imagine Lola will remember that last day at all. It might take Sophie a bit longer for the memory to fade. What you need to do is keep moving forward. That’s what Mom and Dad did with all of us boys.”

For as soft and kind as the McCoys were, I could see that mentality in Mandy. She wasn’t one to dwell on the past and made sure her sons weren’t either. “What did moving forward look like?”

Dallas snorted. “Chores. I had to do my own laundry, help with the yard work, and cook once a week with Mandy. We all took turns setting the table, cooking, and doing dishes.”

I could imagine how having a routine would be helpful with that many kids in the house. “Lola and Sophie are too small to do those types of chores.”

“They can clean up their room. Put away folded clothes. There’s no reason they can’t help cook. Bring out the Instant Pot and let them dump stuff into it. Imagine how proud they’ll be when they can say they helped make a delicious dinner.”

“Lola was so excited just to toast a marshmallow.”

“Don’t get me wrong, David and Mandy gave us all a sense of responsibility, but there were also a lot of tears and hugs. They both understood the trauma we all had been through and how it had a way of bubbling back to the surface from time to time. The girls will go through that too.”

I was going to need to be on my toes to make sure I was