sure she was okay with it, I’d said yes. He’d moved our stuff in the very next day.
Adi had never been happier, and neither had I. With Craig out of our lives for good—he’d gone to jail, gotten married in Vegas, and was presently living somewhere in Mexico—I was finally able to stop living in fear.
It had taken some time to heal from all the emotional damage he’d inflicted over so many years, but Chris was patient and supportive, as he’d always been, while still being convinced that I was “totally badass” at the same time.
Slowly but surely, I’d really learned to trust him. I’d put Down on Love behind me and embraced everything real love had to offer with Chris. Because of him, I’d also learned that what I’d had before had been nothing even in the same ballpark as love.
It wasn’t only me who loved him either. Adi loved him more than she did me, or at least that was what I thought sometimes. He’d stepped into the role of her father so seamlessly, with such grace, enthusiasm, and gratefulness that it had made me melt all over again.
She stood on his other side now, his arm draped over her shoulders as he chatted to one of the older doctors from the hospital. The two of them were practically inseparable when he wasn’t working and she wasn’t at school.
A shriek from the side drew my attention away from the two people my heart beat for, and I turned to look where it had come from. Luna was running toward me with Cyrus laughing behind her.
They still made the picture-perfect couple with their dark hair and light, beautiful eyes. Cyrus wore a suit that probably cost more than this building, but he was also pushing a stroller with the sweetest, most gorgeous little girl with lips like a rosebud and eyes like her mommy’s in it.
At just over two months old, little Daisy Anne had kept my friends pretty busy recently. Chris and I had gone to see them a few times, but I’d also wanted to give them space to settle in.
Surprisingly, Cyrus had taken to fatherhood like a fish to water. Not surprisingly, Luna had taken to motherhood the same way. They were both over the moon and head over heels in love with baby Daisy.
Not that I blamed them. Seeing her made even my ovaries swoon, and I’d promised myself a long time ago that this factory was closed for business. But between Daisy and Chris being as great as he was with Adi, I had a feeling the factory might just open up again soonish.
Even Chris was coming around to the idea. We’d talked about it a lot, but there were a lot of things that had to happen first. Like I needed to get through the grand opening of the practice without being tackled to the floor by my best friend, who was running at me like it was the first time in months her cage had been opened.
Although if I remember the newborn phase correctly, that’s exactly what it feels like when you get to go somewhere.
Luna threw her arms around my neck when she reached me. “Oh, I’ve missed you so much. Why is Doctor Sexy keeping you hostage? Actually, don’t answer that. I don’t want to know.”
“Doctor Sexy came with her to see you last week,” Chris said, turning his attention to us. He smirked at the use of his old nickname, which Katie and Luna insisted on calling him. “Captors generally don’t take hostages out to see their friends.”
She sighed dramatically, rolling her eyes at him. “Stop with your crazy logic. That wasn’t last week. It couldn’t have been. It feels like it’s been a month.”
“It’s well documented that time works in different ways when one has a newborn in the house,” I said, hugging her before patting her back. “It gets harder before it gets easier, but I promise you’ll get used to it.”
Cyrus came up behind his wife, reaching past us to shake Chris’s hand while shooting me a mocking glare. “You’re always such a ray of fucking sunshine.”
He looked at Chris. “I don’t know how you put up with her eternal optimism.”
My boyfriend laughed. “I guess I just love her that much, but she’s also not wrong. Supposedly, newborns are easy when you look back because they sleep so much.”
Cyrus huffed out a breath but poked Luna in the side with his elbow. “You hear that? She’s