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“I’m going to leave you two alone.” Margo rubbed the side of her belly. “Your daughter is restless, Simon. Probably heard your angry voice. Work on that,” she suggested as she breezed past him.
He let out a long breath and tipped back his head. “We haven’t had a single argument since our fucking mother tried to take her from me. Then you come in here, and five seconds later, she’s fretting over you and saying fuck you to me. Why is that?”
“She didn’t actually say fuck you. It was more metaphorical.” I sighed at his steady stare and set down my bags and guitar case. “Your wife is an incredible woman.”
“You have the fucking hots for her.”
I managed not to squirm. “I wouldn’t say hots exactly. I’m in love with Zoe.”
“Yeah, but she’s not in love with you anymore, now is she?”
The arrow hit its intended target. “I hope she still is, but she may be over me. If so, I’ll have to face that. I just won’t ever stop trying to change her mind.” I cleared my throat. “While accepting all local laws prohibiting stalking, et cetera.”
Simon surprised the hell out of me by laughing. “It would be so much fucking easier if I could just keep on hating you. I started off well enough there.”
“That you did. Wait, are you saying you like me now? Because I can’t tell.”
“Good. And no, I’m not saying I like you now. You led those bastards right to our doorstep. Put a target on Margo’s back.” He held up a hand before I could speak. “I know you never knew Margo was in the crosshairs. Or so you claim.”
“I didn’t. I swear.”
“Considering your puppy eyes toward her, I’m inclined to believe you. And that annoys me too.”
“She’s so…with child.”
Simon arched a brow at me.
“A woman is never lovelier than when in that state. I suppose I never realized. I want one,” I said suddenly.
“One what? A Margo?” He smirked. “Sorry to say, they broke the mold there. She’s taken.”
“No, not a Margo, though she’s amazing. A baby. I want one of those. I want a family.” The realization gripped my chest in steely claws.
I’d said as much to Frank, but those had been someday words. Except I didn’t want to wait for someday.
I’d spent years looking behind me, hearing a ticking timeclock in my head. Worry and pressure had been my constant companions. Now that they were gone, I felt free…and empty. As if all that space inside me that had been full of fear was simply a vessel that demanded something far different now.
All the love I could stand, both given and received. And not just to Zoe. I wanted children.
Our children.
Beyond that, I wanted this. A real family. Not only one I would make, but to be close with my brother and his wife and their baby too.
“Wait a second. You’re not even dating Zoe anymore and you want a baby?” Simon shook his head. “Gotta say, I’ve never heard a dude say those words in quite that way. Especially a rockstar. Is it the British thing? Do they make guys differently over there or something?”
It was my turn to laugh. “Margo mentioned your daughter. It’s a girl then, is it?”
Simon nodded. “Yes. Raine.”
“That’s a beautiful name. Musical. You’re such a lucky man. I hope you know that.”
“I do. And you’re right, I am. But I wasn’t smart enough to know I wanted all this. I mean, Margo, yes, I wanted her from the first minute I saw her.”
“Much as it was for me with Zoe.”
Perhaps that instant certainty about who was meant to be ours had been passed down in the blood too. A cosmic, karmic gift to help make up for the monsters who had bred us.
“But the rest? Marriage and babies and all of that? It came later for me. Babies, well, not at all. That was a happy surprise.” He smiled and rotated his wedding ring around his finger. “The right surprise we didn’t even know we needed.”
