Page 116 of Adoring Delaney

Purple. Covered in white muck. Screaming his little lungs out.

I stopped looking at my nephew and looked at my wife and I realized she’d been right. Even though Honor’s painful screams had only ended seconds before, I couldn’t remember what they sounded like. My sister-in-law was now cooing at her newborn son and she looked the picture of serenity.

And that was how Carter Hudson Lenox came into the world. It was loud, it happened on a kitchen floor, and it was the perfect way to end a perfect day.

“I still can’t believe that happened,” Delaney said as I helped her into my truck.

“It was pretty amazing.”

“He’s so little.”

“Laney baby, he was almost nine damn pounds, and did you see that kid’s head? Christ, that was intense and I knew Honor was in some serious pain, but holy fuck. You sure you don’t want pain meds?”

“Nope.”

There was nothing to say, she was crazy. So I said nothing and simply smiled at my wife.

“Love you, Delaney.”

“Love you, Carter.”

I let her sweet voice wash over me and I smiled.

Finally everything was the way it was supposed to be.

Delaney and Carter.

I helped her with her seat belt and when she was done buckling, I placed my hand on her belly.

“I love you, too, Little Man.”

35

Quinn

My family was driving me berserk.

It had been three months since the crazy bitch, Dana Lowe, shot at me and everyone was still harping on it.

She shot at me, she didn’t shoot me.

God knows, I love them all but they were exhausting me.

My father was the worst of the bunch. He was so over-the-top my mom had a talk with him. Especially after I told him I was moving out. Now, one may ask why an almost twenty-four-year-old woman was still living at home with her mom and dad. The answer was easy, my mom was a good cook.

Okay, so that was part of the reason. The truth was I’d had some trouble finding myself. My family called me a free spirit, my dad called me flighty. That may sound mean, but he meant it in the nicest way you could mean it, calling someone irresponsible.

He’d been a little right. I’d taken my sweet ass time finding what I wanted to do with my life because I had what most of my friends didn’t. A tribe. A support team around me that loved me unconditionally. And as much as my dad joked about me living with him until I had to put him in a nursing home—a thought that never meshed with the image of Jasper Walker—he’d been beside himself when I told him I’d found an apartment.

Then he went into crazy, overprotective dad mode and insisted he check out my new place before he’d “allow” me to move in.

So now my parents were officially empty-nesters after having a kid or kids in the house the last thirty-two years. And to say my parents were taking advantage of their childless home was an understatement. It hadn’t even been twenty-fours after I’d moved the last of my stuff out when I went home and walked in on something no child should ever see. Thankfully I’d heard what I’d heard and stopped dead in my tracks before I’d turned and marched my happy ass right back out.

But I’d heard enough to turn me off sex for at least five years, and I’d need double that in intense psychotherapy.

I was walking up the stairs to my apartment, one of the many things Dad hated about my building. There was no security. All of the apartments were in clusters of eight. Four downstairs and four up. One set of uncovered, out-in-the-open stairs led to a landing. Two apartments on one side and two on the other side. I kinda liked I only shared one wall with a neighbor. I also had a kickass balcony that had a view of the wooded area behind the building.

Another safety hazard according to my dad—I lived in the back of the complex. But that was why I chose this unit. All the others either looked at the parking lot, the pool, or the clubhouse. And as cool as a view of the pool would be, I didn’t want to hear people swimming.

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