Sighing, I squeezed him a little. “I know.”
“So maybe you can adjust? Everyone will understand you being more vigilant when Wren is here. That’s expected. But right now? Trust us.”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay.”
“Okay.” He kissed my jaw, then nudged my side. “Lie down. I want to nap more.”
Chuckling, I made myself comfortable, then let him slide into the gap between my body and the back of the couch.
“You snug in there?” I teased.
He just hummed happily and cuddled into me. I had just had enough time to relax when he sleepily said, “I hope you called your cousin. Wren seemed really worried.”
Aw shit.
“I did. He’s taking care of it.”
“Good.”
Maybe it was the healthcare worker’s “take the rest when and wherever you can” brain of his, but it was as if someone turned Emery off. He powered down and was asleep just like that.
I let myself relax further into the cushions and tried my best not to think too closely about how good this felt. I was here for just about a month more, and then I’d be back on the road with Wren.
A month seemed too short and too long at the same time, somehow.
And just like that, another week had passed, and we were a week from Wren’s arrival.
I’d made sure all the cameras were installed where they were supposed to be. I’d also gotten an extra computer for the office that could handle the security stuff without messing with the one Jenn used for general admin for the ranch.
All that we still needed were the dogs that were arriving about two weeks after Wren and I left. There were plenty of people around to help Nessa with getting them settled, including Isley who was going to be on standby with all his veterinary wisdom.
I sat in the office, idly staring at the large monitor I’d also bought. I could put all the camera views on the same screen and while I didn’t need to do that, it was an easy way to get my brain to zone out just enough that I could also try to think if I’d missed anything.
I had yet to install the cameras for Hawk’s aquatic building, because I’d been waiting for it to be done. That’d be next week, and everyone was very excited about it.
Demi had joked that she wished her baby brother was as excited about her wedding as he was about his “horsey pool” which had cracked up the whole family.
I heard a peal of laughter from the kitchen and smiled. Nick had settled in, and Jenn enjoyed having him around. She was doing incredibly well, but nobody was ready to risk her health, and thus Nick was staying for now, at least until the wedding.
Because of course there’d been some tiny disasters. I’d been told this was normal for weddings. Some of them were things Jenn could work on while mostly sitting down at the house, so that’s what she’d been doing while Nick worked in the kitchen.
He now had his own code for the gate, since Carter had put him up in a studio apartment in town.
My phone rang, and I winced.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Your cousin called me.”
“Which one?” I played innocent.
“You know very well which one, Ville.” Then she went on to a tirade in Finnish about what kind of son would push the responsibility of helping his ailing and aging mother to someone else.
I zoned out. It was the only way to handle this. If I hung up on her, she’d just call back.
Once she seemed to come to some sort of a pause or an end, I wasn’t sure, I opened my mouth and shocked us both.
“When I was six years old, your husband, myfather, threw me into the wall because I was too slow to get him a new beer from the fridge. I was bruised for weeks. After that it was something every other year. Your constant lies to the doctors and relatives about why I was bruised, or how my wrist got fractured, or why I had neck pain foryearsafter he backhanded me. When I tried to talk to you about it, you brushed it off. Every time.Every time, Mom. You never stepped in. You never said anything. You didn’tevencomfortme, because it would’ve made him more mad, and you didn’t want that to be directed at you. So no, I’m not coming to help you out. Janne will. He’s doing it, because he sawhimhit me once at the cabin when we were teenagers. He also saw how you didn’t react. Yet he’s still coming to help you, because he doesn’t want me to have to travel across half the world to do a favor to someone who wasneveron my side. Goodbye, äiti. I don’t think I’m going to answer any more of your calls.”
