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“Come on, baby girl. It’s okay to cry.” His arms surrounded her; his hoarse voice broke her. “It’s okay to cry right here. That’s what Dad is for. We can just cry together.”
Shudders tore through her, pulling a ragged cry from her lips.
She was only barely aware of the fact that he picked her up as he had picked Bliss up. Cradling her like she was five as he sat down, one hand pressing her head to his chest, his head lowering over hers, his other arm wrapped around her, holding her on his lap.
Like a father would hold his child.
Like Angel had never been held, never been comforted.
And his shoulders jerked; a tear fell to her arm. His tears.
And she broke.
Sobs tore from her. Twenty years of grief, loss, hope, and pain filled the desperate cries as her arms wrapped around his neck and she cried as he held her. Rocked her. That child that had forgotten how to cry, the father that would have been, and all the fear that they were losing the woman that meant so much to both of them. Mother. Wife.
And neither of them knew how they’d bear it. They didn’t know if they could bear it.
• • •
Dawg had to turn away, the tears that ran down his cheeks glimpsed only by the wife he pulled to him.
The cousin he’d once believed would never know how to be a father was surprising him again. The natural instinct Natches had with his daughter, Bliss, had made Dawg kick himself for that thought for years. But this, seeing Natches accept the child that hadn’t come from his blood but had become a child in his heart, was staggering, humbling.
Pulling a semblance of control around him, he turned back to them and strode to the chair next to his cousin. He gripped Natches’s shoulder and patted Angel’s knee, not really certain how to comfort either of them, as Christa sat next to him, always close, the strength he hadn’t realized kept him going until he’d seen Chaya clinging to life.
Rowdy sat on the other side. Ray, Rowdy’s dad, the man that took wild-assed heathen nephews to his heart so long ago, crouched in front of Natches, bad knees and all, tears running unashamedly down his lined face.
They comforted them the only way they knew how. They were there, close, willing to help them stand if they needed it. If the worst happened, Angel was still family, just as she was before. She was Chaya and Natches’s daughter and that would never change.
• • •
Chaya stared at the scene her sister had drawn her to. There, with his cousins and his uncle surrounding him, Bliss with her head on his knee, Angel cradled in his arms, the man she loved held on to the children that were so much a part of her.
Angel isn’t alone any longer now, she thought. And as Duke rushed into the room then moved more slowly to where Angel sobbed on Natches’s shoulder, his hand reached out, settled on her shoulder, and he just stood there with her.
He loved her so much. She hadn’t realized how much that Mackay loved her daughter, but she should have. She’d told Natches once, when Duke was barely fourteen, how much he reminded her of Natches.
Her Bethany, her BeeBee, and now her Angel, was finally home. She didn’t have to worry about either of her girls; they were both grounded with family.
“They’re grounded by you,” her sister said softly from where she stood next to her. “Have you seen what you needed now?”
Chaya nodded slowly. She had. She had needed to know her babies were safe, that they were okay.
“It’s time to go then. Come on, Chay. Stop being a wuss,” Jo-Ellen chided her gently.
“Stop being so bossy,” Chaya ordered. “We were never close enough for that.”
“We weren’t,” her sister agreed. “But our babies were, Chay. Our babies were.”
• • •
Exhausted from the tears and emotion, Angel sat against Duke later, wrapped in his warmth as Natches and Bliss sat on the other side of her. Her gaze flicked to the clock on the wall. It had been so long since her mother had gone into surgery. So many hours without word. Could a body actually sustain that long?
“The doctor’s coming out,” Doogan announced from the waiting room entrance.
Natches was on his feet instantly, one hand enfolding Bliss’s, the other catching Angel’s wrist and pulling her to her feet.
“Wait.” She tugged on the hold. She didn’t know if she could do this.
