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He made a face. “Maybe I draw the line at that.”
When he kissed me that night in a wedding chapel the concierge suggested, and I officially became his wife, I was home.
“Forgive me?” he asked in my ear.
I nodded. “I do, Max.”
“Love me?”
I kissed his cheek. “In every way. Love me?”
“Completely.”
EPILOGUE
Max
Ihated traveling because it took me away from home, but I had to do it to film and so I did it. Anna handled the restaurant just fine when I was away. Maybe better, in some ways, since she had no temper. And my beloved Hope was a superstar at home with our babies. Still, it was like hell to be away from her. From them.
As quietly as I could, I opened the door to enter our home and closed it just as quietly. It was midnight. I hoped they were asleep. Of course, if Hope were out cold, I’d have to wake her in one of the ways that she liked.
There were many, many ways.
Only she wasn’t asleep. In fact, she was wide awake, on the couch, with both girls attached to her breasts. This was very unusual. Nicole and Chloe had both been sleeping through the night for three months. We’d been really lucky that they were such good sleepers and started doing that at four months old.
Hope lifted her gaze to meet mine, her eyes wounded. I strode toward her, dropping my bags. “What’s the matter?”
My heart pounded hard. If something had happened when I was out of town, I was going to freak the fuck out. My daughters’ eyes were both closed as they nursed, one on each of my wife’s breasts. This was basically sleep feeding. In the dim light, I could still see their red hair starting to form curls.
“They’re sick. I’m sick.” She winced. “Keep a distance. You don’t need this, trust me. They can’t get comfortable, and I don’t blame them. This…this feels terrible. Bad cold. I took them to the doctor this morning.”
I knelt, ignoring her statement to stay away, and placed my hand on her forehead. Luck or genes or whatever it was, I had a really good immune system. I almost never got sick, and if I did, so be it. Hope was hot, and so were the girls.
“Did you take yourself to the doctor? And why didn’t you tell me? When did you get sick?”
She shifted slightly. “Yesterday. I didn’t want to worry you. What were you going to do from New Orleans?”
“Come home.” I sighed. This was the shit that kept me up at night when I was away. Something could happen.
“You had one day of filming left. It’s a cold, it sucks, but it’s not terrible.” She closed her eyes. “Seriously, my love, stay away.”
I put a hand on Chloe’s back and moved her until she let Hope go. “Give her to me. Both of them.” I did the same thing to Nicole, and Hope didn’t fight me on it. They were going in their crib, the one we kept in our room for times like this. They didn’t wake when I set them down, and I felt their heads again. Not too hot. Warmer than they should be, but not scary.
After they were settled next to each other the way they always wanted to sleep, I took a second just to make sure all was well. I’d been terrified when I heard there were two, because…fuck. Multiples obviously ran in Hope’s family, although Layla hadn’t had any yet. Two boys, born years apart.
My daughters were perfection, like their mother, and even though people seemed to think that other than the hair color, they looked like my side of the family, I knew it was bullshit. All I could see when I looked at them was their beautiful mother. My Hope, who had, for some reason, decided I was worth taking back into her heart. Her love wasn’t something I ever took for granted.
I went back into the living room to find her asleep on the couch. She was a lot hotter than our daughters. I picked her up, and she stirred. “Thanks for taking them. I might have just let them stay there all night. I don’t have the wherewithal to move.”
She was way too hot for my liking. “Did you take something for your temperature?”
My life, who I held in my arms, shook her head. “Can’t.”
“Why can’t you?”
Her sigh moved through me. “I’m pregnant. Surprise!”
“What?” I stopped abruptly. “When? What?”
