Page 95 of Shattered Souls
I scoff. “He clearly has no idea what he’s talking about because hugs arethe best.” Her eyes light up, and I promise to do everything in my power to ensure she only ever looks at me like that. “They literally cure everything. Bad day? Hug it out. Tired? Hug it out. Tummy ache from too much ice cream? Hug it out.”
She giggles at that, and the tension uncoils from inside me.
“You wanna hug it out, Pumpkin?”
Flashing me that toothy grin, she launches herself at my chest. Her tiny arms barely fit around my neck as I squeeze her against me before tickling her sides until she’s squealing with laughter.
Fuck,if I could get used to doing this for the rest of my life.
Aurora sits on my lap as she finishes her ice cream, and I watch her with awed fascination as snapshots of how life will look going forward fill my mind and flood my chest.
Aurora and Riley curled up in bed together.
Riley slipping out after Aurora has fallen asleep and sneaking into my bed instead.
Waking up beside my girl before getting up to make pancakes for everyone for breakfast.
Yeah, if I’d doubted it before, I know for certain now that here is where I’m supposed to be. I never would have lasted if I’d taken that offer to join the Pacific Penguins. Playing for the Timberwolves, I can be home for dinner most nights, we can watch movies together, and I can tuck her into bed. I want to be there for as much of it as I can.
“Riley’s going to kill you.”
“It’s not that bad,” I counter, staring at the mountain of bags covering every inch of floor in the living room. Gray’s just gotten home from work, and Riley and Royce should be home any minute. They just called to say they were grabbing takeout on their way back from campus. “Is it?”
I’m starting to have second thoughts about some of my purchases.
“You’re a dead man walking.”
Shit.I swear it didn’t look like this much when it was in my car. However, the fact I had to start asking shops to hold the items because I ran out of trunk space probably should have been a clue. This isn’t even all of it. Some shops offered a delivery, which I gladly took them up on when I started running out of space in the car.
“It’ll be fine.” I’m not sure if I’m trying to convince Grayson or myself.
The asshole makes a grunt of disagreement, and when I turn to look at him, I find him staring at a passed-out Aurora. A sugar crash is a real thing. By the time we made our last few stops and got home, she was passed out in her car seat. I brought her in and put her on the sofa, creating a pillow wall around her so she couldn’t accidentally roll off onto the floor.
I study him for a moment longer. His expression is part terror, part awe as he drinks in the sleeping child like he simultaneously can’t believe she’s here and doesn’t have the first clue what to actually do with her.
“She’s pretty spectacular.” My voice is low so as not to wake her, although considering she hasn’t so much as stirred as I’ve carried in bag after bag and box upon box, it makes me think it would take something close to the apocalypse to wake her from her coma.
Still not taking his eyes off the sleeping girl, he grunts. I don’t speak Grayson, so I don’t have the first fucking clue what he’s saying. Does he even know?
“It’s okay if this is weird for you.”
“Weird’s not the right word,” he muses. “...Surreal?” Tearing his gaze from her, he finally looks at me. “Is it fucked up that I wish she were mine?”
“I don’t think so. Is it weird that I already consider her mine? That I’d protect her with my life? That I’ve already decided no guy will ever be good enough for her?”
His lips twitch. “I think we can all agree she won’t be dating until she’s at least thirty.”
I make a noise in the back of my throat like a dying cat. “I was thinking more like forty. She’s already given me gray hairs. I don’t want to be bald, too.”
He’s fully smiling now as he shakes his head before the sound of the front door unlocking has us both turning in time to see Riley and Royce stepping into the house.
Riley’s eyes meet mine as she unzips her coat before darting around the hall, searching.
“She’s sleeping,” I explain before she can ask, indicating the living room where the little girl is passed out. “She tired herself out.”
Riley’s gaze shifts to the living room, her eyes going wide as her mouth drops open. Coat forgotten, Grayson takes it from her limp hands and hangs it up by the door while Royce stalks into the kitchen with the takeout bag.
I hear him return a moment later, but my eyes are stuck on Riley. I tense, nerves fluttering in my belly. “I may have gone a little overboard…”
