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Graham grinned like a bastard and stepped over to Charlie to kiss her head, then did the same to Harlow. “Charlie. Warrior.” He peered over Harlow’s shoulder at my daughter, and whispered, “Hi, sort-of niece. I’m gonna come back later with your sort-of cousin so you can meet him and
I can hold you.” He smiled at Charlie again, and said, “She’s gorgeous.” With the wadded-up money, he pointed at me. “Deac . . . dad looks good on you.”
It was my turn to grin like a bastard. “You too. Then again, it’s looked good on me for about a year and a half now.” I slipped my money into my pocket, and shrugged when Graham’s face fell as he finally realized his mistake. “Not my fault you didn’t think to apply the bet to kids already born.”
Graham laughed humorlessly. “Again . . . damn it.”
The girls shared a look and rolled their eyes before Harlow went back to cooing at my new girl.
“So now that she’s here, what’d you name her?” Knox asked as he stood behind Harlow, looking down at the baby.
I looked at Charlie, and she smiled through her exhaustion. “It wasn’t my idea,” she finally said when I didn’t volunteer anything.
“Charlie Girl, you can’t break the tradition.”
“That my mom started,” she argued gently.
It was an argument we’d had a hundred times. She hadn’t won, obviously.
“This is Brianna,” she told them with a soft smile. “Named after Brian Jones, one of the original members of the Rolling Stones.”
“Hate to say it,” Harlow began, “but I agree with Deacon. No way you could’ve broken that tradition. She’ll fit in perfectly.”
“Dad!”
My smirk grew into an unrestrained smile when I looked at Grey standing in the doorway with Keith. I stood to go to them, and tuned out Harlow and Knox saying their good-byes as he smashed into my legs. “Hey, bud.”
“My parents just got here with him and Aly,” Grey said quietly. “Are you ready for him?”
“Oh yeah.” I pressed a hard kiss to her head, then nodded toward the hall. “Go back to Graham and Kate. I’ll make my way there later.” Once Grey was walking away, I took Keith over to the sink so he could wash his hands, and reminded him softly about being gentle and quiet with his new sister.
Things we’d been going over for months, and things I was sure I would be going over again in about a minute. He was shaking, he was so excited.
“All right, you ready to meet her?”
“Dad! Come on! Let’s go!”
I smiled at Knox and Harlow as they slipped out of the door, and then just stood there, frozen as I watched my wife holding our new daughter, singing softly to her.
I didn’t need to be able to hear the words to know what she was singing, because it was a song I knew well. It was ours.
There were those damn emotions again.
And there was that word. Love.
Yeah . . . used it all the time now.
I cleared my throat and kept my hands on Keith’s shoulders to keep him from jumping onto the bed like I knew he wanted to as we walked closer, and then I helped him climb up next to Charlie and Brianna.
“Hi, Storm!” Keith whispered as he leaned over to get a look at his new sister.
My brow pinched, and I looked up at Charlie just in time to see her force back a laugh.
“Storm? Is that who she is?” I asked as I sat down by Charlie’s feet.
Keith looked like he was studying Brianna really hard for a minute, then he nodded. “Yeah, don’t you think so?” Without waiting for my reply, he dove right into a hushed, one-sided conversation about ladybugs and how they could steal your powers from you if you weren’t careful. “But I know how to keep them away,” he whispered, as if he were telling her a secret.
“I was wrong,” I said low enough that I wouldn’t interrupt Keith, and looked into Charlie’s eyes as she let her soft voice trail off. “I would lose sleep for the rest of my life to listen to this. To look at this. The three of you together. Our son talking to our daughter. You singing our song. All of it.”
