Page 106 of The Secrets She Keeps

She looked down at her baby. Ember was sound asleep against Alex’s chest. Drooling everywhere. “You can put her in the playpen, you know. She’ll sleep through it.”

“I know. But I’m practicing that whole being an uncle thing like I’ve seen Norm doing,” Alex told her. “I have her for now. She is about all that’s keeping me from going hunting for the assholes that put those bruises on your gorgeous face and took my baby sister. I need…to hold the good in life close for a little while.”

“I can understand that. She’s beautiful in every way.” They looked at the baby together. “Her tooth finally came in. While I was gone. It is her first.”

And Heather had missed that milestone with her baby. Knowledge of that was on her face.

“Is it fang-shaped?” Mac asked quietly. Powell didn’t even know when he had ended up sitting there, right next to Heather. “Considering, genetics being what they are and everything.”

“Maybe,” Heather looked at him. “Thanks, Barratt, by the way. For…the hospital.”

There was somethingdifferentin the way they looked at each other. Powell just watched. Nothing felt right now. It just didn’t.

“Hey, baby, I just gave you a lift. You did the hard part and arrived in time to helpmelook all heroic and manly and everything. Thankyou,by the way. For the save. Taking care of her out there. She might be very Powell-y and everything. But she’s our Powell, and we adore her completely. Thanks for what you did.”

“Second that,” Alex said. “Owe you for life for this one.”

“Hey, boys, you missed the memo,” Heather told them, her hand wrapping around Powell’s. Powell resisted the urge to cling. “Powell and I did ittogether.We both got out of there.Some of themdidn’t.We’re back with our families, where we belong. And that is what matters most. Not how it happened, but that itdid.”

“How do you not be so…angry?” Powell asked suddenly. “I feel so damned mad, Heather. For all of it. And my guard? Is Keith even going to be okay? No one has told me.”

“He’s still in critical,” Heather said quietly. “I asked Joy to check for me today. But he’s being upgraded in the morning. He’s going to pull through. As for the anger thing—I’m still working my way through that myself, honestly. I probably will be for a long time. The rest of my life, maybe. But…I’m hoping I’ll get there eventually.” She looked at Zoey, where she was just visible talking to Bonnie in the side parlor off the music room. “One thing Bonnie taught me twenty years ago…sometimes, you just have to take it one day at a time, don’t think about anything else but that one day, and then when you look up, you’ve made it to the other side. I’m still trying to figure that out.”

Heather had had a lot of pain in her life from a very young age. But she just kept going too. Powell didn’t know if she’d be able to be that strong. She just nodded. She didn’t know what to say. Not at all. “I just don’t know what I am supposed to do next. Everything feels broken and sideways.”

“That’s…the trauma at work. It distorts things, puts the world through an altered kind of lens. Concentrate on that one-day thing. And remember that one day soon, you’ll have one oftheseto focus on too. They change your entire world. Make it seem brighter. Better. And,” Heather gave a slightly wicked, slightly lopsided grin. “Have lots of fun getting Gunnar naked in the meantime before the kid gets here. I think you both deserve that, don’t you?”

“Hey! Innocent big brothers, here,” Mac said. He reached down and lifted the baby from Alex’s arms when Alex shifted. Then it was Mac holding Ember like it was the most naturalthing in the world. “There are things I don’t want to think about. I prefer to believe my future nephew or niece wasspawnedby aliens, too, you know. That is what works best for my mental state, okay?”

Gunnar came back, settled next to Powell on the loveseat. It felt like he was right where he belonged too.

She wanted to cuddle right up to his side and stay there forever.

For a moment, Powell feltsafeagain. Like the world hadn’t been completely destroyed in those horrible moments. She was back with the man she loved. And back with her brothers. And her parents. Her family.

Safety was all an illusion. She knew it. But it was enough to give her hope. She could get through this. Shewouldfigure things out with Gunnar, andtheywould be parents in September. She was just going to focus on that.

And do the one day at a time thing like Heather said.

Somehow.

72

Heather wasn’t stupid.They weren’t going to like what Daniel said next. None of them were. And she knew that man most certainly wanted something. It was hard to miss.

Daniel McKellen usually did. And whatever it was, Gunnar was in the know. And it upset that beautiful man.

A great deal.

Gunnar was one of those people who had an extremely high level of empathy. He hurt when other people, especially people he cared about, were hurting.

Her family came back in, the kids running in front of them. Maris had a slightly frazzled look on her beautiful face, but her teenage niece was really good at handling the younger kids. Joy and Eden settled the kids in the side parlor to watch a movie Heather had found in her in-box a few days ago. It wasn’t even released yet, and there had been a special note from Quade in the email saying it was for the kids to watch. He had a small role in it too. And had helped Hunter Louis Clark write a portion of it.

He'd emailed to check up on her that morning too. Of all her grown nephews, that boy was the one nephew she was going to keep.

It should be enough of a distraction for the older kids. Maybe even the preschoolers. Joy left the French doors to the parlor open where they could hear if the kids needed anything. Frankie had been clingy since Heather had made it home.

Heather barely resisted clinging to her little girl too. She had been so afraid she would never get back to her babies. Her hands shook as she remembered.

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