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By the time we reconvened downstairs, Charlie was awake and crawling all over her. Some of the trouble and distraction in her expression had eased and she looked happier.
When I leaned down to brush a kiss to her lips, I stroked my knuckles down her cheek. “You sure you’re okay?” Something seemed off and I didn’t want to ignore my instincts.
“I’m much better now,” she said and I caught Charlie before he could land on her.
“Little man,” I scolded. “We do not jump on the furniture or Mama.”
“Want Mama.” He gave me an imperious look and I tucked him onto my hip.
“Ask nicely and no more jumping,” I told him, then focused on Frankie again. Her lips were twitching like mad as she watched Charlie without quite looking at him. It was a skill we all mastered over the years. Largely because we enjoyed the kids antics even when we couldn’t reward them.
“Otay. No jumping.” Then Charlie tried to just fall forward and it required restraint to not laugh at him. Not that I let him land on Frankie.
“Be nice, Charlie or Santa won’t bring you anything.” Izzy sounded like the absolute authority and Josh froze in mid-motion climbing onto the sofa with Frankie.
I wasn’t the only one clamping my teeth to keep from laughing.
“Want Mama no Sanna.” Charlie’s declaration got all of us and Frankie laughed as she held up her arms. I settled him into her arms and then nuzzled a kiss to her forehead.
The fire burned, the pair of trees on either side of the fire place glittered, and the snow fell outside the window, turning the landscape into a postcard. Jeremy carried out cups of cocoa for all of us. We were all home and the family was whole.
Frankie’s laughter filled the room and eased one of the last concerns off my heart. Course, I wasn’t the only one keeping an eye on her. While she hated when we hovered, I didn’t want to take an eye off her until I was one hundred percent certain she was okay.
It could be just as simple as needing to be home and I got that. Didn’t mean I couldn’t keep watching out for her, until she got her equilibrium back.
“Jake…”
“Yes, Baby Girl?”
“Come sit down and stop glaring at the air.” The amusement in her voice looped around me like a siren’s call and I almost broke our own rule and hopped over the sofa.
Bad Daddy.
Still chuckling, I slid onto Frankie’s other side, lifting her and Charlie both so I could settle her in my lap. Her eyes glittered and there was more happiness glowing there.
Better.
Much. Better.
CHAPTER 11
HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS
FRANKIE
Christmas remained one of my all time favorite holidays. The new year could be bittersweet, thinking of Grandpa Ted. I expected this year would be even more so with the twins coming. I wished…
Well, I wished he was still here. My grandparents too, though they’d both passed a couple of years after Izzy had been born. My grandmother first followed by my grandfather.
I’d made a point of spending more time with him in those intervening months. The guys even supported me moving him down here with us, but he preferred his house in Connecticut.
The maudlin thoughts invaded the dark hours of Christmas morning. Easing out of the bed, I made my way into the bathroom. The twins were growing healthily, but it also meant they were compacting my bladder.
Archie and Coop were both sound asleep. Ian and Jake were absent but they might have been on Charlie duty. Charlie was so much better about sleeping through the night, but not totally.
Standing in the doorway to the bathroom, I studied the guys. They were sprawled, Archie was more toward the center with Coop on the far side. Usually I was the one in the middle but it was hard enough to get up and down sometimes, I didn’t want to feel like a beached whale in the middle.
The tightness around Coop’s eyes had begun to ease. I’d been worried about him. He’d taken Michael’s loss so hard. He cared about those kids—all of them. It didn’t make me any less concerned, but at least he seemed better. I tangled my fingers around the miniature pocket watch turned pendant he’d brought to me in Seattle.
