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“She just got back. You don’t even know if the little guy will be sticking around,” Louie said.
“What if she wants to keep him?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I haven’t met him yet, so I can’t answer that.”
“I’ve met him and I still can’t answer that question.”
“Have you held him?” he asked.
I just looked at him.
He closed his tired eyes and mumbled, “You should try holding him for a while and maybe the answer will be easier to figure out.”
It was nighttime by the time I found myself back at the guest house. Dean, Asher, and Brenna were all watching TV in the living room when I entered.
Brenna stood from the couch and blocked the hall that led to the bedrooms. “She wants to be alone, Jameson.”
I stared down at her. “Dr. Ben says she can’t be alone.”
Brenna put her hands on her hips. “Then one of us will watch over her. The last thing she needs right now is you going in there and waking her up.”
“I won’t wake her, and I’ll be gone before she wakes up in the morning,” I said, doing my best to not lose my patience.
Brenna didn’t look like she was going to back down.
“Let him pass, Brenna,” Dean said. From where he sat on the couch, his back was to me.
Everyone looked toward him, surprised. He ignored us and kept his eyes on the TV.
Brenna sighed and stepped aside.
“Thanks,” I said, trying not to sound irritated.
“I’m not letting you in there for you.”
Dean’s words made me pause. Maura’s personal security genuinely cared for her, more so than anyone else’s security in this family, even Stefan’s. Because I loved her, I was happy she had people around her she could trust. At the same time, however, especially for the last four months, they were a pain in the ass.
The bedside light in Maura’s room was still on when I entered. Maura was asleep in bed. She didn’t stir as I came in or when I shut the bedroom door behind me. She was lying on her side facing a bassinet that was right next to the bed. As I got closer, I could see that the Aryan baby was awake inside. He was just lying there with a pacifier in his mouth, staring up at the ceiling with wide blue eyes. This was the first time I’d actually made myself really look at him. Before, when I had first seen him in Maura’s arms, I hadn’t been able to see past my grief.
The pacifier fell from his mouth, and a breath later, he started to whine. I glanced at Maura. She was so exhausted, she still didn’t stir. Not that I wanted her to. After what she’d been through, she needed rest.
Shit.
Without letting myself think too much about it, I reached into the bassinet and scooped the baby up. In my arms, his whining got louder, and I retreated from the room quickly.
I ran into Brenna in the hall. She saw the fussing baby in my arms and stared up at me with an arched brow. “Where are you going with that baby?”
Great.She thought I was taking him. “I didn’t want him to wake Maura,” I said as I started to bounce a little, hoping that would calm him.
Her face relaxed as she watched me. “He’s probably hungry. The formula and bottles are in the kitchen.”
I nodded and went to take a step in that direction before stopping. “Do you know how to feed him?”
She folded her arms across her chest with a smirk. “Brody taught me how earlier.”
The little brat was going to make me ask her.
My pride wanted me to just figure it out on my own, but the thought of fucking something up helped me ignore it. “Can you show me how?”
