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I felt my legs tremble and get weak as I clenched around him, making him groan, which only served to urge me on. With one hand still holding my face, he placed the other between us to coax my bundle of nerves. My buckle was inevitable, and so was my orgasm. I went off the edge, bringing him with me. As I cried out his name, he groaned mine. Despite having started it with desperation, we weren’t loud. It wasn’t a spectacle. It was like coming home again.
He placed several sweet kisses on my face. “Over a year ago, I took a chance. I took a chance on you. I took a chance on myself. It wasn’t easy. I didn’t make it easy. But taking a chance on us was the best decision I’ve ever made. I love you, Forest. I love everything that came from you. Our baby. Our home. Our lives. I promise to take a chance on us every single day of our lives. Because there’s nothing more worthy than having you by my side.”
My man was back.
It was the first time walking inside our original building since that fateful day.
After the explosion that killed Michael, it wasn’t safe for us to go back just yet. Not that we would if we could. With Mia in the hospital those first few days, Danny and I did our best to comfort our family and friends and deal with our assignments. Going there highlighted memories we weren’t ready to relive.
We rented a smaller place downtown until our building was reconstructed. Danny and I worked around the clock to deal with everything, and we couldn’t have made it if it weren’t for Mia’s parents and Lisa, Sofia’s nanny. There were moments I felt like I was taking advantage of Jackson and Rosie, but they seemed to need those afternoons together with Teddy. It was their way of diminishing their pain and my way of hiding my guilt.
As far as Danny was concerned, I was pretty sure Lisa was everything he needed. In more ways than one.
Since she couldn’t move around very easily in the first few days, along with some other consequences, Mia went back to work from home at first, dealing with bureaucratic issues or investigations she could do off-site. Gradually, she came back to work at the company and on on-site assignments with us.
It hadn’t been the same without her. It wasn’t the samewithher either.
It seemed she went out of her way to avoid us. She missed our family dinners. She left the room whenever we weren’t talking shop. I even started making up reasons to call her, but she’d hung up as soon as we were done dealing with work, always before I could ask how she was doing. When she finally came back to the field, it seemed she was working her best to challenge Mrs. Death, which became a point of conflict between the two of us. If we weren’t working, we were fighting. Much to Danny’s dismay.
I knew it’d take time for her to heal, and I dreaded the day she realized I was the one to blame. Yet I vowed to myself I’d fix my mistakes and bring my family back together again. I didn’t overcome that much shit, take so many chances, and find the best people to surround me, only to have it all ruined. By me.
Before I entered the property, I spotted Mia’s car parked out front. She was still sitting inside, a lost look on her face as she stared at the building. She seemed so lost in her thoughts, she didn’t notice my presence until I climbed into the passenger seat by her side. We stayed in silence to the point of getting uncomfortable.
I was about to ask her how she was doing when she whispered, “Please don’t.” She wasn’t ready to talk, so she resorted to diversion, her new way of talking. “How is Teddy?”
My lips stretched into a grin of their own accord. “Gorgeous. Big. So smart. He’s definitely Izzie’s son.” She smiled softly, and that felt like a win.
She finally shifted her head to stare at me. “I’m proud of you, Benny. You’re one hell of a man. I’m honored to have met you, and for the opportunity to watch firsthand you building the family you deserve.”
Humbled by her opinion of me, and unwilling to break that snippet of normalcy, I left our conversation at that. She wasn’t ready to talk about that day, and none of us was ready for her to learn about my deceit.
We’d been working nonstop on everything we got about the cartel, from our previous investigation to the one after that fateful day.
Besides dealing with our private clients and contracts with the government, the renovation of our original building was taking a toll on us. Just a little bit more, and we’d be able to move back. I couldn’t wait to not be crumpled into a tight box anymore.
The setback would be coming back to the place where we lost one of our best friends.
I headed to the company to oversee the renovation and found Ben and Mia’s cars parked. I assumed Ben was in the building, but Mia was still in the driver’s seat. I got onto the passenger’s seat, not caring that I wasn’t invited.
“Ben already checked on me.”
I chuckled and got comfortable. “Allow the father in me to do the same.”
I took her small hand in mine and squeezed in reassurance. We didn’t need to talk. I just wanted her to know she had a safe place in me to feel her pain.
“I don’t think I can get in just yet,” she whispered, sounding as defeated as she looked, not once gazing at me.
“So don’t. There’s no need for you to go inside right now. Take your time to heal. We’ll be here for you when you’re ready.” I waited a bit, unsure if I should say those words, then decided to hell with it. “We missed you.”
“We see each other almost every day,” she countered.
“We see the physical Mia, the materialized one. I miss the one who made jokes and pestered us.”
She bit her lower lip to stop her chin from trembling. I noticed from her profile her nose was turning red and eyes were shiny. She’d yet to look at me. Mia just nodded in agreement, and I took that as her way of saying she missed us, too. I was still thinking about new safe topics for us to talk about when I felt the vibration of my phone.
The call fell before I could answer it. Then it started again. When I saw my mother’s name on the caller, something constricted inside of me. She’d called before, of course, but something felt odd. I answered it, feeling dread rise inside my chest.
“Ma?”
