Page 146 of Stolen Fate

He buried his face in my neck as I rubbed my hands up and down his back, my heart breaking for him. Jace had always been strong, since the first moment we met. So sturdy, so sure, and I had felt safe with him, even before he was mine and I was his.

But to see this imposing man break down before my very eyes, I didn’t know how to comfort him.

When he pulled away, his blue eyes were tinged in red, a lone tear streaking down his cheek. I wiped it away from him, like he had done for me so many times before, and he nuzzled into my palm, turning his head a bit to kiss me there.

“I have a hard time letting Elliot out of my sight because of this. I know he won’t die from SIDS, but sometimes, my imagination gets the best of me, and I can be overprotective when it comes to him. When you called and told me you lost Elliot, it was like all of my worst fears came to life, and all I could think about was Elliot being taken away from me. And I took those fears out on you. I’m sorry. Forgive me?”

“There’s nothing to forgive,” I choked out. “It should be me asking you for forgiveness. I shouldn’t have taken my eyes off of him.”

“Hush now. Everything is okay. And I know Elliot took off when he shouldn’t have. We’ll just have to talk to him about it to make sure he never does something like this again.”

“We? You still want me to be his nanny?”

His eyes fluttered a bit with some unnamed emotions, but they were gone before I could decipher what he was feeling. He smiled a bit at me. “We, baby. You and me and Elliot. Always, okay?”

“Okay,” I said with a sob, and Jace pulled me into his arms, bringing us down on the bed so that he was laying in the center of it, with me close in his arms.

We didn’t say anything more after that. There wasn’t anything that needed to be said.

It was as he said. It was me and him and Elliot.

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