Page 104 of Dirty Puck

TWENTY-THREE

BREE

Iwoke up with her hand on my chest and sunlight bleeding through the blinds. Bree—warm, tangled up against my side like she belonged there. Like she always had. My heart felt lighter than it had in weeks, even with the weight of everything still circling us. My mom. The mess with Dane. The threatened lawsuit that I knew he’d carry through with. The headlines we were bound to face. But she was here. We were back. And there was no going backward now.

Her lashes fluttered as she woke, and when she smiled up at me, everything in me stilled.

“Morning,” she whispered, her voice scratchy and soft.

“Morning, beautiful.”

She stretched like a cat, arm brushing mine. “How long have you been awake?”

“Long enough to know we’re done with keeping this apartment as a failsafe.”

She laughed, snuggling closer. “That’s bold talk.”

“No. That’s commitment,” I said, running my fingers through her curls. “It’s done. You, Benny, and Claudia have to move back in with me—permanently.”

She blinked up at me, stunned silent.

“I mean it,” I said. “That house isn’t a home without you. Without our boy and his great-grandma. Without the woman who’s given me the only thing I ever wanted that I didn’t know I needed.”

“Reece…” She paused to collect her thought. Then, with a hand to my chest, she said, “You only just realized you loved me. If things start to get too much for you, if you start to pull away again, what will we do? This isn’t like when Dane and I lived together. There’s so much more at stake now.”

“I fucking know that. You don’t think I know that? There’s so much I have to tell you. My teammates ganged up on me. I fought Antonov.”

Bree gasped.

“Yeah. I know. My mom died. She’d been the only person in my life for so long, but then you were there, and Benny and Claudia. I needed a chance for everything to make sense in my brain. Then you were gone. Bishop was so pissed at me and when he told me to ‘fix it,’ I thought about it. I thought about why my mom wanted me settled. I thought about why I came to you, of any woman in the world, and yeah?—”

Tears flowed down over her cheeks and I reached up to draw a thumb through them.

“Shh… no need for tears, baby. This is all good. I’ll build Claudia her own cottage if she doesn’t want to stay in the main house. I just want us together. We’re a family. Let’s live like one.”

The tears continued to fall, but she nodded. “Okay. Okay. Let’s talk to her.”

In the middle of us getting dressed, the bedroom door creaked open and Benny stuck his little head inside the room with us.

“Hey, bud,” I said with a lightness that came from realizing that despite losing my mom, I was the luckiest man alive. “Want to get Grandma Claudia and go get some breakfast?”

He stared up at me. Theyeswas all over his face. Benny reached his arms up for me and I scooped him into mine, hugging him, swinging him and just letting myself feel happy.

“Momma has to shower before we go,” Bree said, kissing the top of Benny’s head as she passed by us. I grabbed her, pulling her in for a kiss before letting her continue on.

“Take your time, babe,” I told her before turning back to Benny in my arms. “Is your firetruck shirt clean? Let’s go look.”

Still carrying the boy, I walked into his bedroom, where I set him down to find a shirt, but he knew exactly which drawer his firetruck shirt was in, pulling it out and handing it to me. We changed his Pull-Up, slid his jeans on—none of his pants had buttons or zips yet. All elastic at the waist because he was learning how to dress himself. I helped him with his socks and when he tried to push his head through an armhole, and I grabbed a navy-blue zip-front hoodie from his closet before we headed out to the living room to get our shoes.

It wasn’t long before Bree joined us. She took my breath away even wearing something as simple as her purple joggers and the matching sweatshirt. Her hair was thrown up in a high ponytail with a few curly strands framing her face. Only the lightest of makeup.

Bree’s purse, our keys, Benny’s bag with his Pull-Ups, tablet, toys, and change of clothes in hand, we walked across the hall to Claudia’s place. Bree knocked softly. Claudia answered in her robe, glasses perched on her nose, coffee in hand.

“Well, good morning, you two.”

“Morning, Claudia,” I said. “Can we come in for a second?”

She stepped aside, curious but smiling. We walked over toher sofa and sat. Claudia took the wing-backed chair closest to Bree, who took her hand.

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