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I bite my lip hard, fighting the rising tide of emotions. I can’t handle his well-meaning hero act or the complicated feelings crashing inside me while holding the carrier. Part of me wants to steal Gabe’s car and those credit cards he always shoves at me, just drive far away from all these messy emotions threatening to overwhelm me.
Hold it together long enough to get through this day, I tell myself.
Before we can knock, the front door swings open. A stunning woman with vivid teal hair and piercing eyes so blue they’re nearly violet stands there appraising us. Piper. Those intense eyes blaze over me briefly before gentling at the sight of the kids.
“Hey, Pipe,” Gabe greets her.
She nods at him and then focuses again on me. “Hi, I’m Piper, and you are?” she asks, her eyes locking onto mine with an intensity that’s almost unnerving.
“Ameline,” I reply, my voice barely above a whisper. “Thanks for helping us out.”
She looks me over, then her eyes flick to Gabe, but she doesn’t say anything. I can’t help but wonder if she knows about me, like Seth or Jude. There’s so much I know about her, but what if Gabe hasn’t mentioned me to her yet? In fact, a part of me wants to offer my condolences for Archer, but it feels too forward, too presumptuous.
“Don’t mention it. Though, I’m interested in learning more about you,” she pauses, glances at Cora and then the baby carrier. “But of course, we’ll do it later. My husbands will be the ones taking care of them if that’s okay. I have to visit Harper.”
Her husbands? As in two? I’m not judging at all, but I want to ask if I heard right? The question bounces around in my head, but before I can give it voice, Gabe jumps in with his own concerns, “What’s going on with Harp?”
“You’ll have to wait,” she tells him. Piper relieves me of the baby carrier and directs us toward the back of the house. As we walk, she chatters about Orrick and how he’s teething. She throws me a glance. “Zero-out-of-zero recommended.”
“I’m hungwy,” Cora pouts.
Piper smiles warmly at her. “Alright, let’s go see what we can find in the kitchen. We can choose a snack right now and then we’ll cook so when Rhea wakes up you two can have lunch together.”
In the kitchen, Gabe gently sets Cora down onto a stool by the counter.
As I take in my surroundings, my eyes land on Archer. He’s alive? Confused, I blurt out, “Archer is alive?” I ask confused.
His gray eyes stare at me and his jaw tightens. “Let me guess, we were close friends or something?”
I’m lost for words, turning to Gabe, who lets out a sigh. “They found him, but he’s lost his memory.”
“How do you know, Finn?” Piper asks, rummaging through the pantry.
“Finn?” I’m even more confused now. Who’s Finn? There’s no one else here.
Gabe gestures toward Archer. “That’s Finn. As I said he was MIA for years and came back with amnesia. Sometimes he remembers things, but not much.”
“Oh,” I mumble, not sure what to say. Sorry, nice to meet you . . .
Then Finn, or Archer, looks at me, a flicker of something crossing his face. “I remember you,” he says, and there’s a hint of a smirk as he looks at Gabe. “Not too long ago, I told Piper about a memory. You were in a house, about to get married in secret to”—he points at me—“her. Ame is the name and Gabe pretended to do it because of the insurance but he loved you. Also, you were sick, a brain tumor.”
I gawk at him while Gabe says, “Shut the fuck up.”
He laughs. “So it’s true, huh. Piper told me I was confusing a dream with Archer’s reality, but I think I wasn’t.”
Piper’s eyes flick between Gabe and me. “You two got married?”
“We need to check on Ameline’s sister,” Gabe says, a subtle urgency in his voice. Then, with a hint of a wry smile, he adds, “Seth’s rearranging the penthouse so we can take the kids there. If there’s anything you can think of that they will need, let him know. What you see in the diaper bag is all they have.”
Piper glances at Cora and mumbles, “What’s going on with her mom?”
I sigh. “Wish I knew. She asked me to come, and I feel like I arrived too late.”
Gabe glances at Cora and Caleb. “Don’t beat yourself up. You were able to get them out of a bad situation on time. We’ll figure out the rest soon. Promise.”
But that’s the problem. He keeps saying we, and for my own sanity I can’t keep being next to him or accepting his help. More so when he looks too fucking handsome while he carries Cora. As I said before, my ovaries might explode, even when they have useless eggs. They will explode and would ask for retribution—or a baby.
Just one. Can we just have one?
