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Blair opened a drawer and withdrew a piece of paper and a pen. While she made the requisite, “Uh-huh,” and “Oh! How sweet!” with a few hums thrown in for good measure, she wrote on the paper, then slid it over to me.
Here’s my email. Send me everything.
I nodded and folded up the paper before slipping it into my pocket. As I stood, Blair hit the mute button on the phone and looked up at me, the steel back in her cold blue eyes. “Most people fear Justice and assume I just let him take care of everything. But when it comes to my children, Justice stands behind me because he knows there is no greater threat. If you hurt my little girl, you’ll be begging Justice to end your misery.”
I swallowed hard, shocked that I was actually afraid of this tiny little woman. “Yes, ma’am.”
She was suddenly all smiles again and unmuted her phone just as she said, “Aw.” Then she waved jauntily as I stood and made my way to the door.
We were finally closing in on the finish line.
7
Noah
Holy fucking shit. I didn’t know why I was surprised. After my meeting with Blair, I should have been prepared. But it was only three days later when I opened an envelope that had been couriered to my office from my lawyers and was stunned speechless.
Not only had I been named Gracelynn’s temporary guardian, but they’d also set a court date for the adoption. One week after Samantha’s birthday. I couldn’t help chuckling at that. It was Blair’s not-so-subtle hint that I better marry her daughter asap. I had no doubt a part of her urgency was to make sure Justice didn’t have me swimming with the fishes when he found out about Samantha and me.
A text pinged on my phone, and I saw it was from my contractor. I’d renovated the bedroom next to the master into a nursery right after I met Samantha. But as soon as I realized that Gracelynn was ours, I had the company come back and expand the nursery by combining it with the room on the other side. We were using about two-thirds of the space for the babies’ room and sectioning off the other into a play area.
After responding to the message, I glanced at the clock to confirm that Samantha should have finished her time with the children and was most likely already sitting with Gracelynn. Carefully, I returned the papers to their folder and slipped them into my briefcase. A huge part of me wanted to run to my girls and tell Samantha that Gracieloo was ours, but the more rational part reminded me that there was still a little time.
I’d made subtle hints about our future, but I didn’t want to lay out the entire truth until I could keep her. There was no fucking way that I was going to run the risk of someone talking her out of it. Or scaring her into getting together sooner.
Fuck. I didn’t have the strength to hold back if she decided she didn’t want to wait and tried to convince me to take her away before her birthday. Winning over Justice was going to be hard enough. If I didn’t wait until Samantha was eighteen, I didn’t stand a chance.
But I was still going to spend time with my girls. All the way to Gracelynn’s room, I lectured myself and forced my desire back. When I reached the cracked door to my baby girl’s room, I heard someone sobbing.
I instantly knew it was Samantha, and my every thought turned to making sure she was okay and fixing whatever was making her cry. It couldn’t be Gracelynn. There were extremely strict orders to keep me updated on everything about…my daughter. I fucking loved the sound of that.
“Samantha?” I rushed into the room and quickly glanced at Gracelynn’s bed and briefly panicked. Then I spotted her in Samantha’s arms and some of my fear ebbed. “What’s wrong, Samantha? Are you hurt? Is Gracieloo okay?”
Samantha nodded and sniffed, trying to calm herself. But Gracelynn cooed, and a fresh wave of tears assaulted my girl’s clear blue eyes. She raised her head, and when our gazes met, my heart squeezed at how broken she looked.
I closed the distance between us in two strides and dropped down onto my haunches so our faces were level. “Tell me what has you so upset, baby doll?”
Her face lit up just the slightest bit when I used my nickname for her, but it wasn’t enough to swallow the sadness.
“I-I,”—she hiccupped—“I know it’s stupid. I haven’t known her that long.” More moisture gathered in her eyes before slipping down her cheeks. “I don’t know how I got so attached, but,” —she lifted Gracelynn up and pressed their cheeks together—“I can’t imagine ne-never s-seeing her again. I wish…” Her cheeks bloomed with a dark blush, and she looked away.
