you want to do, I’m down for it. Making her suffer, forcing me into a princess dress, getting married on the beach… I’ll do it all. Because you’re mine. The how doesn’t matter to me. Only the when.” I slipped my fingers through his, bridging them at the knuckle.
“Only the when,” he whispered in return, his eyes closing as he united us in a kiss that stole my breath. I didn’t argue when he hauled me into his arms and rushed me out of our living room and up to the bedroom. If anything, I let him have at me, because I’d finally figured out that there was no cure for what Adam and I had together.
And I didn’t fucking want one.
THEA
A squeal hit my ears the second I made it out of the locker room, and I laughed when Freddie hurled himself at me, his hands coming around my knees as he did a little happy dance.
Before I crouched down, I removed the gold medal from around my neck and plunked it over his head. His eyes grew big as I dropped down to a crouch and hauled him into me for a hug.
His squeals of excitement made me laugh some more, and I squeezed him back as hard as he squeezed me. Over his shoulder, I saw his dad and I bit my lip at the sight of him with the baby sling on his shoulder. Something about that, that whole image of the sexy dad, shit, it made me so glad he was mine and that, later on, I could show him exactly who he belonged to.
Again and again.
He grinned at me, one hand on the back of Ally’s head as he began to move faster, forcing the crowds to part so he could come to us.
“You did it! Momma, you did it! Again!”
Freddie’s excitement had me pulling back to grin at him, and I plucked the gold medal and let it clatter against the other six around his neck. He insisted on wearing them for every race, and the press insisted on finding him in the crowd—he was getting to be the poster child of Olympic swimming, and he wasn’t even taking part. He was already the U.S. Swim Team’s unofficial mascot, getting fist bumps from athletes every time he came into the stadium.
“I told you she would,” Adam drawled, having finally reached us, but his excitement and pleasure was clear in his eyes.
I stood up straight and let him haul me into his side. In my ear, he muttered, “Well done, babe. You rocked it out there.”
Grinning up at him, I joked, “I did, didn’t I?”
“How do you feel about rocking my world later?”
I pretended to ponder that for a second. “I think world rocking can be achieved.” He winked at me and I chuckled, feeling so fucking happy I was sure I could burst.
Staring into the little sling at the tiny knit cap that topped my daughter’s dark bronze locks, and cupping the back of Freddie’s head as he cuddled both mine and Adam’s legs, I wondered how it was that this tiny little universe of mine could be so perfect.
I wasn’t sure if I’d earned it, or even if I deserved it, but I was glad for it.
So damn glad.
Sighing as Adam tucked me into his arms, I enjoyed it for about a second before Ally squeaked her outrage—she didn’t like sharing her daddy.
I pulled back to snicker at her, then rubbed her head before I pressed a quick kiss to her cheek and whispered in her ear the name I’d whispered in it the day I’d given birth to her, “Draba.” It meant ‘charm,’ and even though I knew Adam and I didn’t need the extra help, I figured it was always good to count your blessings, and protect the future from itself.
Just in case.
She cooed at the name, and I smiled, before I tugged at the little knit cap she wore which was about four years in the making. Not because it had taken so long to make, but because the gesture behind it had.
My mother, while no longer imprisoned, had never tried to be close to me, and when she learned Adam and I were together, she’d gone out of her way to never contact me.
Until Ally.
Until I’d done a stupid interview in a stupid magazine to get the stupid press off my back.
Ally was short for Allegria.
My nanny’s name.
Maybe, in time, she’d get the nickname of Leggy too, and