7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

RALPH LAUREN

Jamie

T hey received the news somewhere over New Mexico.

Considering Hale, Elsa and Laird were on the plane when he and Nora met it, so they needed the additional seating capacity for transport to the hospital, Rix and Harvey, Duncan’s best friend, had both driven to the local airport to pick them up.

Harvey, a rabidly genial man, was unusually quiet.

Rix looked wrecked.

It felt like Jamie hadn’t had any oxygen from the minute the captain gave them the news until they hit the maternity waiting room, and he saw Duncan surge out of his chair and jog to them, a massive smile on his face.

He took Jamie’s hand, and with his other, clamped the muscle where Jamie’s shoulder met his neck and squeezed.

Duncan didn’t delay in speaking.

“Chloe and baby are fine,” he shared the information they got on the plane, but Jamie, knowing thoroughly how painful love could be, refused to believe it until he saw it. “She lost a lot of blood, so they’re going to keep her here for a day or two. Their baby boy is adorable as fuck, and so tiny. But he’s breathing on his own, sucking and can keep himself warm. They’re gonna keep him here with Coco, but when she’s good to go, he’s good to go.”

He.

Judge and Chloe had a boy.

Nora had been right.

Duncan looked over his shoulder, grinned largely, clapped Jamie’s neck and stepped aside.

Through all this, Nora was at his side, clutching his biceps with both hands, but they dropped away when Dru fell into his arms.

He wrapped them tight around his daughter and rested his cheek against her brilliant hair, pulling in her scent, feeling her health and relief and joy seep into him.

She tipped her head back, and he lifted his.

“Let’s go see Judge,” she whispered.

He nodded, needing that like he needed air to breathe, but he let her go and turned to Nora.

She looked like a Ralph Lauren ad. Medium-wash, western-inspired denim shirt, tailored white slacks, tan belt.

Her eyes were soft with relief and bright with tears as she lifted her hand to cup his cheek.

At her tender touch, the beauty in her expression, the memory of her the last few hours, not to mention how she’d been in his life the last few decades, it happened.

What he thought would never happen again.

But he was done.

It was over.

The fight. The denial.

The pain.

All of it.

Though, the instant he heard Castellini was making plays to get her back, and then Jamie saw her in that fucking dress, it had already been over.

She’d been at his side in a plane for the last five hours, holding his hand.

Before that, she’d been at his side in a damned helicopter, also holding his hand.

In fact, she’d been at his side the last nearly two years, and long before, looking after him, taking away his crushing loneliness and going so far as to make him laugh. A lot.

So Jamie took her face in both of his hands, angled his head, and captured her mouth.

She made a soft sound of surprise, but she was Nora. His Nora.

She didn’t pull away.

No, she wrapped her fingers around one of his wrists.

The kiss was hard and long, but closed mouthed, and he hoped it communicated all he felt for her, all she was to him, and all they were going to be in the future.

Jamie only ended it when he felt the wet of her tears on his lips.

He raised his head and looked down at her beautiful face.

The tears were not for what he just gave her, because Nora didn’t think like that. She didn’t think about herself first.

The tears were about what he was about to receive from Chloe and Judge.

“Go,” she whispered.

Yes. He was right.

Those tears were about the gift he was about to receive.

He nodded, pressed his forehead against hers, then let her go and moved to take his daughter’s hand.

Dru was staring up at him, lips parted, even more joy and relief in her eyes, but he couldn’t process that now.

“Show me the way, darlin’,” he prompted.

She squeezed his hand, and he traded chin dips and nods with Harvey’s wife Beth, Mika and Cadence, who, with Tom, had chartered their own plane and beat them there (they’d brought Dru), as well as Sasha, Matt, Gage, Alex, and Mi, Chloe’s best friend, along with Mi’s husband, Jacob. All of whom were in the waiting room.

And now, all of them had eyes to him, there were some smirks, some happy smiles, some expressions of delighted surprise, this because of what they’d witnessed between Jamie and Nora.

He ignored all of that as Dru led him down the hall and to a room. She stuck her head in, turned back to him and graced him with a radiant smile before she pushed through and guided him in.

Tom was standing, looking out the window.

Genny was perched on a chair in a manner she could pop out of it at a second’s notice.

Both of their gazes came to him as Dru backed out and closed the door.

But he only had eyes for what was in the bed.

Chloe lay there on her back, her head having fallen to the side, and incidentally, into the throat of her husband, because Judge was stretched out beside her, turned to his wife, his arm tight around her, his head bent, face in her lustrous dark hair.

They were both fast asleep.

Jamie moved to the bed and couldn’t stop himself from reaching out and smoothing back a lock of hair that had fallen on his son’s forehead.

He’d felt this feeling, once, the day Judge was born.

And Christ, it was the most beautiful feeling in the world.

His gaze darted to Chloe when he heard her sleepy-tired-soft, “He’ll tell you it was his idea, but he lies. It was mine.”

Jamie had no idea what she was talking about, he was just thrilled he’d have the opportunity to find out, but that time wasn’t now.

“Okay,” he whispered, moving his hand to cup the top of her head. He bent and kissed her forehead then lifted up and ordered, “You done good, honey. Now go back to sleep.”

Her eyes drifted closed, her lips curled up, and she turned her own head to fit it back into her husband’s throat before she did as told.

Jamie looked at Judge, who had not woken through this.

He felt a hand on his back.

He turned to see Tom standing close.

“Come with me,” Tom said quietly.

Jamie followed Tom out of the room and further down the hall.

To the nursery.

The nurse there hurried to get them gowns and masks, they washed their hands, and then Tom led him to a clear-sided hospital bassinet that was on rollers.

Resting in it, wrapped in a plush blue blanket with a deep satin border, his eyes closed, his cheeks chubby (regardless of his size), was the new most precious being on the planet.

Tom put his tanned hand on the baby’s blanket, bringing into stark relief how tiny he was.

“Five pounds, twelve ounces, allow me the privilege of introducing you to Jameson Thomas Oakley,” Tom announced.

Jamie felt his body buck as the bolt of happiness seared through him, and his gaze shot to Tom.

“I know,” Tom said on a smile. “Hale and Elsa already gave me the honor, but this one feels just as fucking amazing as the last one.”

Jamie was not one of those men so desperate to deny the fact his existence in the grand scheme of things would one day melt clean away, so in an attempt to lengthen the stamp he put on history, he named his offspring after himself.

Hence, his son’s name was Judge.

But fuck , it felt good that Judge and Chloe honored him this way.

“They say they’re going to call him JT,” Tom continued. Jamie’s friend’s eyes warmed and he took his hand from JT’s belly. “You can touch him.”

Jamie immediately moved in, bent over the bassinet, and touched a gentle finger, sliding it from between his grandson’s closed eyes along his little forehead, and he whispered, “Hey there, JT.”

JT’s diminutive, pink, bow mouth made sucking motions, and then he settled.

It was the sweetest greeting Jamie had experienced in his life.

Jamie opened his eyes to dark cut through with light that was not the muted glow of the city, or the stark moonlight hitting the sea, but moonlight sifting through trees.

He felt silk on his hands, because tucked tight to his front was a warm body.

And in his nostrils was Nora’s tangy, flowery scent.

He felt her round ass snug in his groin, but that pleasant sensation wasn’t what made him curl his arms stronger around her to pull her even closer.

No, he did it because his mind was filled with recent memories.

Of the crew on the yacht racing around to get them packed, Nora doing it with them.

Of Nora screeching over the whirring helicopter blades “ Just leave them! ” when they were using the ten seconds it added before their takeoff for the crew to shove her bags into the bird. She did this even though they already knew they’d be waiting at the airstrip for twenty minutes before Hale and Elsa arrived in their jet.

Of Nora’s wide eyes, open surprise, and expressive hope after they left the hospital and went to Duncan and Genny’s sprawling mountain house to have a glass of champagne to celebrate before they crashed, and Genny said, “I’ll run and make up a couple of rooms for you two.”

Whereupon Jamie replied, “We only need one.”

Nora had not said a word. Nor had she made it a thing.

After gifting him with a wondrous expression, she’d simply followed Genny to help her, and Mika went along with them. And when Jamie finally made it to the room, she was in the bathroom, unpacking his dop kit so he didn’t have to go rummaging for his toothpaste.

She’d then futzed around with her own things, her indication she wanted him to get ready for bed first.

The only hesitation she’d shown was when she walked out of the bathroom wearing a stunning nightgown of shimmering, pale pink silk edged in exquisite cream lace that fell to her calves.

“Which side is yours?” she asked.

He was standing in his pajama bottoms at one side of the bed, staring at how gorgeous she was, though he thought his position shared the answer to her question.

Since it hadn’t, his answer was to move to her, herd her to that very side, then hook her at the waist and pull them both into bed.

He’d turned out both lights then situated them as they were now.

With her scent, and her feel, and her nearness, and his son whole, and his son’s wife healthy, and his grandson breathing, Jamie had passed out within seconds.

Now, Jamie was awake.

And he had to make a decision.

That wasn’t quite true. It was mostly made.

But when they woke the next morning, he’d have to make it official, because after the morning, he couldn’t walk it back.

But first, he had to make an admission.

He was scared shitless.

An outsider looking in would think he was born with it all.

He was not.

He’d convinced himself he’d had it all when he’d won Belinda’s heart.

He did not.

He’d earned it when Rosalind entered his life and brought Dru with her, and she’d entrusted both of them to him.

Then he lost half of that.

Now, he had a shot at it again.

On this thought, he felt an odd, soft bump hit the bed, this being explained when he felt a cat walk up his leg.

One of Genny and Duncan’s pets.

The cat stopped at his hip, and he felt it staring down at him through the dark.

He figured it’d jump away, but instead, it started to move toward Nora.

He was about to intervene, but was too late. The cat touched her, and she moved.

She swept the feline into her arms and cuddled it, cooing drowsily, “Your Chloe did fine, Puck. Did you ever doubt?”

Jamie heard a loud cat purr.

He kept hearing it even as Nora’s body melted into his as she fell back to sleep.

She liked animals.

That did it.

Decision made.

The cat was still purring when Jamie settled into Nora and drifted asleep.

Jamie woke again, but this time, the sun was shining through the pines.

And he was now on his back, Nora pressed down his side, her arm resting along his stomach, her head on his shoulder.

Having her there after how long he’d waited to have just that, what he didn’t want was to move, but he had to use the bathroom.

He was also keen to get back to the hospital.

He carefully extricated himself from her hold so he wouldn’t wake her and went to the bathroom.

When he finished and walked out, he froze at the sight of her makeup-less face, her bed-tousled mane of hair, and her pretty sleepy eyes, a sight he’d never seen.

And finally, he got to see behind the mask, and what she’d been hiding was even more beautiful than what she gave the world.

She was sitting up on her ass in the bed, her knees to her chest, her arms wrapped around her shins.

She let them go, and moving both legs at once, gracefully swung them over the side, found her feet and walked his way.

She stopped at him and got up on her toes to press a kiss to the underside of his jaw, and then he heard the bathroom door close.

He sat on the end of the bed to wait for her to come out and glanced around.

He’d been to Genny and Duncan’s large mountain house before. It was rustic, cozy, but still impressive, imposing and refined in a way all the logs, wood, stone, western and Native American motifs could not hide.

Taking it in now, he decided he was buying a house in Prescott, Arizona. And if he couldn’t find one he liked, he’d build one.

On this thought, Nora came out of the bathroom and headed to one of her open suitcases, stating, “I’m assuming you wish to whisk away to the hospital tout de suite .”

He was relatively certain he’d never “whisked” anywhere.

But her words made him smile.

And knowing his decision had been made caused warmth to rush his chest.

“Come here,” he ordered gruffly.

She stopped, turned, and regarded him.

“Jamie, I think we should?—”

He cut her off by indicating the bed they’d slept in together with a flick of his hand. “I’m pretty sure you’ve caught my drift, but let’s make certain of that, shall we?”

She stood there, staring at him, and it was cute how he could tell she was barely breathing.

But since she needed to do that, and he needed to end the hell he’d been putting her through, he didn’t hesitate to carry on.

“You were right. That kiss wasn’t a mistake. I’ve been wanting to do that for fucking decades. I fell in love with you in that ladies room, Nora, and it might not be right I did when we were both married, but it happened. I’ve loved you ever since. I’m terrified of having you, and life making it go to shit. But I can’t fight it anymore, and more importantly, I can no longer put you through me trying to do it. I want you in my bed and in my life. In my children’s lives. I want to be in your children’s lives. And when we figure out where we’re going to land, and just saying, your apartment is fantastic, but I’d prefer my brownstone, and I’m okay with you redecorating it. Even though Lindy’s touch is all over it, it’ll be your home. So you’ll need to make it yours. But once that’s done, we’re getting a dog and a cat, or maybe two. Of both.”

“I should have come to you,” she whispered.

Jamie smiled again. “Yes, you should have. But why did you say that?”

“Because…it’s so very strange, darling, but I find I can’t move.”

If she couldn’t, Jamie sure fucking could.

He got up, went to her, and pulled her into his arms.

She put her hands on his chest just below his shoulders and looked deep into his eyes.

“I want to kiss you so badly, it’s a goddamned ache,” he announced. “But I can’t kiss you, because I did that, so I know how it’ll go. That being, it’ll make me want to fuck you. And we don’t have time for me to do that properly, since I need to see my son, my daughter-in-law and hold my grandchild.”

Her smile was soft and sweet as she rested her weight against him, “Then let’s get to the hospital.”

Jamie chanced allowing himself to touch his mouth to hers.

It was a mistake, seeing as, when he came away, her gaze was languid and loving and happy.

Fuck.

He’d nearly messed this up.

Thank Christ he’d pulled his shit together.

Finally.

He gave her a squeeze. “You’ll take longer, so you go first. I’ll get us some coffee.”

“Your wish is my command.”

It would be.

He told her that with a wolfish grin, and her eyes grew large.

Before that affected his groin any further, he let her go and gave her a gentle shove toward the bathroom.

He then found a T-shirt to pull on before he walked down to the kitchen to get their coffee.

It was supremely satisfying to be the man walking behind Nora Ellington when she swanned into a room.

He’d done it before, but he’d never been hers. Not officially.

Now he was.

And it felt tremendous.

Thus, his lips were twitching smugly when he did so.

Nora was speaking.

To Chloe.

“Oh, glorious! You got the peignoir set I sent you!”

The room was crowded, but Jamie’s eyes went right to the bed.

Chloe was wearing a baby pink nightgown with a deep, wide vee neck that had little red roses with green leaves embroidered on it. Decorating the end of the bed was a filmy robe with those same roses, what appeared to be trailing down the sides of the sleeves.

Chloe was pale, still looked tired, with bruising created from effort and fatigue shadowing under her eyes sharing how bad it had been.

But mostly, she looked like Chloe.

“Of course I did. It’s the first thing I packed in my baby bag. Didn’t you get my thank you note?” Chloe replied before Nora bent over her and moved her head so they could kiss both cheeks.

Judge stood by Chloe’s bedside, and Jamie was concerned to see his son’s wife was bathed, refreshed, her hair gleaming, and she was in a lovely nightdress. But his son was disheveled, wearing the crumpled clothes he’d been in the night before, and he clearly hadn’t gone home to shower and change or taken the time to freshen up in Chloe’s hospital bathroom.

He also appeared to be standing sentry beside her bed.

Jamie’s gaze moved to Tom, who caught it, jutting up his chin in understanding and shared concern. Then Jamie looked to Duncan, who gave a slight shake of his head in the same.

After that, Jamie noticed Alex, who had moon eyes and a lovestruck look on her face.

He followed her gaze and saw Rix standing and holding a tiny bundle to his massive chest, his entire focus on the baby in his arms.

“Rix, stop hogging Jimmy,” Chloe ordered. “Give Jamie a chance to meet his grandson.”

Jimmy?

He thought his grandson was to be called JT.

“Not gonna,” Rix denied, even if he looked at Jamie and grinned as he started his way.

“He’s going to kidnap him like he keeps trying to kidnap our dogs,” Chloe complained to Judge.

“No he’s not,” Judge stated flatly.

His son’s tone snagged Jamie’s attention, but Rix was now there.

With utmost care, Rix and Jamie did the exchange.

And the minute Jamie had him, he understood and accepted the fact, for the rest of his lifetime, he’d be falling in love again and again and again.

Nora got close to inspect him, and within a nanosecond, turned and decreed, “Obviously, sheer perfection . You are so clever, my darling girl.”

Chloe preened. Judge scowled.

Jamie looked to Rix.

His attention was on Judge, and his mouth was tight with worry.

Jamie turned his attention to Chloe.

She felt his regard, then mouthed, Do something. Please .

Fuck.

As he suspected, Judge had it bad.

Carefully, he bent at the same time he pulled JT up his chest to give his little sleepyhead a soft kiss, before he asked Nora, “Want to hold him?”

“You took an age to ask,” she replied, even if he’d had hold of JT maybe a minute.

She went in, doing it deftly, but delicately.

Once she had his grandchild held snug against her, Jamie turned his attention to his son.

“How about we take a walk, Judge?” he suggested. “Maybe I can drive you home so you can get a shower.”

“I’m good here,” Judge replied.

“Hup,” Rix grunted quietly, and the room started to clear, this being Duncan, Genny, Tom, Mika, Alex and Rix.

All but Nora, and obviously, Chloe.

Nora moved to the window, swaying the baby gently side to side, removing herself from the conversation that was to come as best she could with JT in her arms.

Judge tracked her with his eyes like she was a threat.

Oh yes.

He had it bad.

“Judge,” Jamie called.

“Yup,” Judge answered, not taking his gaze from Nora, or more to the point, his boy.

“Judge,” Jamie repeated inflexibly.

His son looked to him and bit, “What, Dad?”

Jamie continued to repeat himself. “Let’s take a walk.”

“Like I said, I’m good here.”

“I think you need—” Jamie began.

“Judge, mon beau ,” Chloe interrupted him, raising her hand Judge’s way, and he caught it immediately, like she was weak, and she couldn’t hold it up on her own.

Shit.

“Please, go home,” she continued. “Have a quick shower. Then come back to me. And bring me a donut from Bosa.”

“I can send Gage to Bosa,”

“I don’t want Gage to get me Bosa. I want you to get me Bosa.”

“Chloe—”

“Judge, honey, I want you to go with your dad, now, so you can be back fast.”

Jamie watched helplessly as his son put up an epic struggle to beat back every instinct seizing his body, a feeling Jamie knew all too well.

He won when Chloe whispered, “ Please .”

Judge nodded, bent and pressed a hard kiss on Chloe’s mouth.

He straightened directly, looked to Jamie and grunted, “Let’s go.”

Judge then moved. Fast.

Jamie glanced at Chloe, who nodded to him, to Nora, who gave him an across-the-room air kiss, and he hustled after his boy.

Judge didn’t speak all the way to his and Chloe’s townhouse, but he drove like they had a trunk full of loot and the police were in hot pursuit.

Jamie didn’t speak because he needed his son to concentrate on driving and not killing them.

But when they got upstairs to the kitchen from the garage, and Judge was jogging to the next flight of stairs, completely ignoring their two dogs, Zeke and Montana, who were jumping around him, Jamie followed into the living room and stopped him by calling his name.

Judge turned on him. “Not now, Dad.”

“Now, Judge. You need to get this shit out before you go back to your family.”

“I don’t have any shit,” Judge lied. “I need to shower, get Chloe her donut, and get back to her.”

“Judge—”

“ Not now! ” Judge roared.

Jamie didn’t flinch.

But he did ask, “What happened?”

For a second, Judge just stood there.

Then he bellowed, “ Fuck! ”

Jamie could tell he needed to let the dogs out, but he didn’t move. He just kept his focus on his boy.

“God, I get it. Christ , I get it,” Judge said as he started pacing.

Both dogs followed him.

He stopped abruptly and swung to Jamie. “I should never have gone along with pulling that shit with you and Nora on that boat.”

“We’re fine. Better than fine,” Jamie assured. “We can talk about that later. Now, tell me what happened yesterday.”

“Everything’s been perfect. Minimal morning sickness at the beginning. She’s had great energy. Fucking glowing since the fucking beginning .”

Jamie nodded. “I know, son.”

Judge threw both of his hands up in agitation. “So how the fuck did that happen?”

“I don’t know.”

His voice was tortured when Judge shared, “They pushed me out of the delivery room.”

Goddamn fuck.

“Come here,” Jamie urged.

Judge shook his head. “No. I can’t. I need to shower. I need to get back to them.”

“Chloe is fine. JT is fine. You need to ground yourself in that fact.”

“How?” Judge clipped. “You didn’t see…you didn’t hear…fuck. Shit! ”

Jamie watched his boy as he dropped his ass to the arm of a couch, bent double and wrapped his arms over the back of his head, both dogs worried and snuffling him.

Jamie got close as Judge said to his thighs. “I get it. I didn’t even lose her, and I get how everything can turn to nothing in a flash, and you can’t handle it .”

Jamie crouched by his son and reached to put his hand on his back.

“You’re going to handle this, Judge,” he said quietly.

Judge’s torso shot up, dislodging Jamie’s hand, and he clipped sarcastically. “Doing a bang-up job of that, aren’t I?”

Jamie stayed low and stated, “You’re having an honest reaction to a traumatic situation, and you’re entitled to that.”

“I have a wife and kid to look after.”

“You’re still human.”

“I can’t be human, I’ve gotta be—” he cut himself off.

“Everything?” Jamie filled in for him.

Judge’s eyes were haunted when he looked at Jamie. “God, I get all of it now. Everything you went through.”

“This isn’t about me, it’s about you, but I’ll tell you about me to move this along. When the captain of that ship told us Chloe and JT were in distress, I froze. I was immobile. I might still be standing there if Nora didn’t kickstart me. And I’m not embarrassed about that. I love you. I love Chloe. The fact I was so far away and powerless to help when I heard that news wrecked me. There is nothing wrong with feeling love. It can make us weak, like that, but even if it does, it never ceases to make us strong.”

“If that’s the case, then what the fuck with you wasting time claiming Nora?” Judge asked.

“I stopped wasting time. We’re together. Get ready to have another stepmom.”

His son’s eyes rounded. “Shit. Really?”

Jamie stood while grinning and confirmed, “Really.”

“Stepmom? That was fast,” Judge muttered.

It wasn’t fast.

It took decades.

“Obviously, we have to work up to that part,” Jamie told him. “That’s important, but it’s not what’s important now. What’s important now is you stop being so damned hard on yourself. Yesterday was terrifying. That was yesterday. Today you have a healthy wife and a beautiful son. Trust me, buddy, life is too damned short to get stuck somewhere you don’t need to be. I’ve learned that twice, the second time very recently, and I learned it the hard way. Don’t turn away from feelings. Feel them. Then get on with it. Yesterday scared you, because it was fucking scary. Admit it. Feel it. I’m here to talk to about it. But in the end, today is today. And you need to get on with it.”

In an agonized voice, Judge shared, “I love her with everything that’s me, and I overheard them talking about the possibility that they’d have to save one or the other.”

Fuck .

Jamie pulled his son to his feet and into his arms, and he held tight.

Judge’s arms went around him, and he grabbed fistfuls of his dad’s shirt.

“I would have picked her,” he said quietly into Jamie’s ear.

“I know,” Jamie murmured.

“She’d never forgive me.”

“I know.”

“And I would have had to live with that decision, but even knowing it was the right one, it would have destroyed me.”

Jamie let out a deep sigh and repeated, “I know.”

Judge pushed his forehead in Jamie’s neck, and Jamie gave him a moment.

“It didn’t happen that way,” his son said.

There it was.

“No. It didn’t,” Jamie confirmed.

He felt Judge nod against his skin.

Then he pushed away, stepped away and finally gave some attention to his dogs.

“Can you take them out while I shower?” he asked.

“Absolutely,” Jamie answered.

“I need you to drive back,” Judge admitted.

“I can do that,” Jamie agreed.

A shaky smile hit his son’s mouth. “Stepmom?”

Jamie’s return smile wasn’t shaky. “Eventually.”

“I guess, once you get your head out of your ass, you don’t mess around.”

“Nope. And stop talking to your father that way,” Jamie mock scolded.

Warmth hit his boy’s brown eyes. “I love you, Dad.”

Damn, he’d been so caught in all he’d lost, he hadn’t taken time to recognize his many blessings.

He was learning.

“Love you too, buddy. Now go shower.”

Judge nodded and headed to the stairs.

Jamie grabbed the leads hanging beside the front door and took the dogs out.

When they got back, he fed them and the cat, Venus.

And when his son came downstairs, they went to get his daughter-in-law a donut.

It was that afternoon.

Duncan and Genny, Tom and Mika, and Jamie and Nora were drinking cocktails in Duncan and Genny’s great room.

Dru, Sasha and Mi were hanging at the hospital in case Chloe needed anything.

Gage had gone to let Chloe and Judge’s dogs out again.

Matt, who was a practicing vet, had been called away on some horse emergency, and Cadence had asked if she could tag along, he’d said yes, so she went with him.

Hale and Elsa were upstairs, taking a nap with Laird, since Laird, in a new place and not feeling it, had made their night last night not very restful.

Alex and Rix had gone home due to the fact that Rix was like Judge’s twin from another mother, and as such, he acutely felt Judge’s pain. Not to mention, Rix loved Chloe like a sister. He was as demolished as Judge had been about what had happened, he was just better at hiding it. But Alex hadn’t missed it, so she was seeing to her man.

Heddy, Genny’s friend, had swung by the hospital to check on Chloe and meet JT.

And now, they were discussing Duncan heading into town to grab copious tapas from some place called El Gato Azul for dinner when Duncan’s first son, Sully prowled in.

“What the fuck are you all doing here?” he demanded in lieu of greeting.

Sully had a job in Texas and hadn’t been able to get on a flight until late that morning. He’d told them not to bother coming to get him, he was renting a car in Phoenix.

“What are you doing here?” Duncan asked his boy.

“I went by the hospital first,” Sully answered. “Coco was sleeping. Judge was out . JT was adorable, but he was also out. I called Gage, and he said he was meeting Sasha, Dru, Mi and Jake at COLT Grill for some barbeque, like serious shit didn’t just go down. And you all are sitting around with cocktails. So again, the fuck?”

Good.

They were all sleeping, with Judge being out .

“That family needed some time without everyone hovering over them,” Duncan explained.

At that, Sully got over his pique and moved further into the room. “What are you drinking?”

Genny lifted her glass. “Nora whipped up some watermelon sangria. It’s delicious. Have some. There’s plenty.”

Sully turned to his dad. “Please tell me we have beer.”

“Who are you talking to?” Duncan asked as reply.

Sully came in and kissed the cheeks of the women, shook the hands of the men, but gave his dad a hug before he went to the kitchen.

Jamie sipped his bourbon. Nora could mix a mean cocktail, but he drew the line at watermelon sangria.

On this thought, he turned to her sitting beside him on a couch (Puck, incidentally, was tucked to her side, and since he’d already noticed Puck was partial to Chloe, Jamie made note the cat had a type, one it shared with Jamie). She was swiping all over her phone.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m looking up baby stores in Phoenix,” she murmured, then she turned her attention to Genny. “The results I’m finding are dire, my dear.”

“I have some things on reserve at some stores in LA. I finalized purchase on all the boy stuff when we got the news,” Genny replied, and concluded, “They deliver.”

Being the true New Yorker she was, Nora made a hilarious face when Genny said the words “in LA.”

Which meant Jamie was smiling.

He was also counting his blessings.

Because…yes.

Finally.

He was learning.

The call was expected, and it came early that evening.

Jamie took it while stepping out on the back deck.

“How are you doing?” he asked his son.

“Well, it happened.” Judge blew out the words on a sigh.

“How’d it go?”

“We were all asleep. I woke up first and saw it. He’d slipped in and out like a ghost. I waited until Chloe woke up. She opened it. She says it’s a Bird Baby sterling silver cup. I got the Tiffany’s part from the box.”

The ghost in that scenario was a man named Rhys Vaughan.

So far, Chloe was the only one to have met him, and she did this only briefly.

Jamie had had him investigated, but according to every record on two continents (he’d been told by Chloe, Rhys was Welsh, something she derived from his accent), he didn’t exist.

So, yes, very much a ghost.

“And?”

“And, on the bottom, it’s engraved, To, Jameson Thomas Oakley. Love, Uncle Corey .”

Jamie nodded even if his son couldn’t see him doing it.

The story was tragic, convoluted, and bizarre, but tech billionaire, Corey Szabo, now deceased, father to Hale, best friend to Genny, and mastermind who was so good at that shit, he was able to perpetrate his maneuvers from beyond the grave, had set everything in motion.

Including, in a definite but roundabout way, Jamie and Nora being able to finally be what they were meant to be to each other.

Unquestionably convoluted and bizarre, but the results were far from tragic.

When Laird came into the world, his grandfather, even being dead, had sent him a like present.

So they knew it would happen.

And it happened.

“Is Chloe okay?” Jamie asked.

Chloe had been particularly close to Corey.

“She cried. But they were happy tears, kind of,” Judge said.

“How about you?”

“I’m lucky I have a great Dad who’s been through it, so he gets it.”

Jamie drew in breath through his nose, so much, it expanded his chest, and then he let it go.

“Fortunately, considering Operation Parent Trap, we have the time off, so Nora and I are going to stay for a while,” he shared.

“They’re releasing Chloe tomorrow,” Judge shared in return, and Jamie was relieved to hear humor in his tone.

That was much more like his son.

“Excellent.”

“Will you and Nora move to the guest room in the townhouse?” Judge asked. “I want you close.”

“We’ll do that first thing tomorrow.”

“Of course you will,” Judge muttered.

Yes.

Of course he would.

“It’s feeding time, so I gotta go,” Judge said.

“Right. Love you, buddy. And proud of you.”

“Love you too. Tell everyone we’re doing okay.”

“I will.”

“See you tomorrow, Dad.”

“You will, Judge.”

“Later.”

“Later, son.”

They hung up.

He went inside.

Everyone was watching him.

“So?” Genny prompted huskily.

She’d loved Corey most of all.

“An engraved Bird Baby Tiffany’s cup,” he told her.

She bit her lip and tears hit her eyes. Duncan slid an arm around her and drew her close.

Mika dropped her head to Tom’s shoulder.

Jamie moved to Nora to grab her wineglass, which was almost empty, so she needed it filled.

Death.

Life.

Blessings.

And they were moving on.