Page 57 of Before You Can Blink
It had taken me a minute to wrap my mind around the unexpected addition to our family, but then I realized I couldn’t imagine a life without Aspen brightening my days, and I would surely feel the same way about this little one once it arrived.
A smile touched my lips, knowing that kid had already won the genetic lottery, having Daisy for its mama. There wasn’t a better mother around, though I could admit I might be a tad biased in that opinion.
When she turned her back to me, focused on her task, it became easy to sneak up on her from behind. My hands automatically looped around her waist, settling on her belly, the swell of it firm beneath my palms.
Daisy sighed, the sheet she’d been pinning to the line quickly abandoned as she leaned against my chest.
I wasn’t sure what I’d done right in a past life to deserve this woman, but I wasn’t about to question it now.
My lips found the side of her neck, and I breathed in her clean scent. “Favorite part of my day is coming home to you.”
A contented sound that could’ve easily passed for a purr vibrated through her chest. And almost as if it was jealous of the attention its mama was getting, the little life growing inside her gave my hand a firm kick.
“Well, hello to you, too.” I chuckled.
Daisy’s hands came to rest over mine, shifting them over her belly to follow the movements of our baby. “He’s an active one.”
Rearing back in surprise, I asked, “He?”
One of her shoulders lifted. “Just a hunch I have. Everything’s been so different this time around, it’s got me thinking this one’s a boy.”
“Wouldn’t that be something,” I mused.
The image of Tanner Winfield and his boys came to mind, the three of them tagging along behind their dad, eager to help. I could only begin to imagine the memories I would create on this ranch with my own son, working side by side until the day came for me to hand over the reins when I decided to retire.
Turning in my arms, Daisy peeked up at me as her teeth gnawed on the corner of her lip. “Jett, Layla called today.”
“Ah, they coming in soon to meet the baby?” The timing on finishing that house for the Atkinses couldn’t have been more perfect. They moved in exactly one day before Caroline gave birth to a healthy baby girl, whom they decided to name Penny.
My wife shook her head, blue eyes filling with tears that began to spill over. I was used to the pregnancy hormones making her cry at the drop of a hat, so I didn’t experience the rush of panic that usually flooded me at the sight.
Calmly, I brought my hands to her face to thumb away the moisture and explained, “It’s hard to get away right now. I’m sure they’ll visit when there’s a break in their schedule.”
“It’s not that,” she whispered hoarsely.
Head tilting to the side, I asked, “Then what is it?”
Her hand slid up my chest, coming to rest on the side of my face. “Jett, honey, I’m so sorry.”
Paralyzing fear gripped my heart. Something was really wrong.
Stepping out of her hold, I demanded, “What happened, Daze?”
Lower lip wobbling, she said the words that would rock my world. “Murphy’s dead.”
All the air left my lungs, but on the tail end came a disbelieving “What?” Then I shook my head. “No. You’re wrong.”
“Jett.” Daisy reached for me, but I shrugged her off.
“No!” I roared.
The man who had first gotten me on the back of a bucking horse, the man who had sat beside me the day my dad died, the man who had become more than a mentor to me, becoming one of my best friends, couldn’t just be gone.
A heartbreaking mix of pity and sympathy stared back at me in my wife’s watery gaze, and my knees threatened to buckle as the truth sank in.
Chest going concave, I managed to rasp, “How?”
She sucked in a shaky inhale. “He fell during a ride. Snapped his neck when he hit the ground.”
