Page 253 of Wait for Him

"Rose."

"It's fine. Auntie has lawyers."

"You are the lawyer."

"Exactly. We're already ahead."

Blaire is laughing hard enough now that she has to hold her stomach. "Please don't make me laugh. Everything hurts."

"Sorry." I immediately sober. "Don't laugh. Nobody make the woman laugh. She just expelled a person."

"Expelled?" Jackson repeats behind me.

"I don't know. My vocabulary is gone. Look at this baby."

I turn slightly so he can see her better, and that's when I notice his face.

Oh, fuck. Jackson is crying. Not cute little glassy eyes either. Actual tears are running down his cheeks while he stares at Jaxon in my arms.

And considering what we were talking about before Michael and Joe tried to beat our front door down...

Well.

That's going directly into the part of my brain I'm not touching tonight.

I look back down at my niece before I start another emotional wildfire.

"You're perfect," I whisper to her, still smiling like an absolute lunatic. "Your Aunt Rose is going to be a terrible influence on you."

"Finally, something we agree on," Michael says.

I lift my middle finger at him without taking my eyes off the baby.

"Great role modeling," he says.

"She's asleep."

"She's doomed."

"She's mine."

"She's literally mine." he argues.

"Don't you fucking ruin this for me, Michael."

Michael closes his eyes. "We're never going to stop cursing, are we?"

"No," Jackson, Blaire, and I answer together.

"Great."

"We can start a swear jar," I offer.

Blaire snorts. "We'd bankrupt ourselves."

Valid.

Very rough fucking roads ahead.