8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

VERONICA BEARD

Jamie

T he next morning, Jamie woke in another fun new position.

With Nora playing the big spoon.

He allowed himself long moments to enjoy it before he looked to the clock on the nightstand and saw it was early.

Nora wasn’t an early riser.

And although he’d very much like to start both their days in a way it’d be starting the day right, Jamie didn’t want the first time they made love to be in Duncan and Genny’s guest room.

Or Judge and Chloe’s.

It had been too long of a wait, and that was all his fault.

But they were going to have to wait a little longer.

He sighed, caught her hand on the arm that was draped around his waist and pulled it carefully to his lips so as not to wake her. He touched his mouth to her knuckles.

With equal caution, he set it behind him and slid out from in front of her.

When he got back from the bathroom, she was up on an arm, blinking crossly at the window.

Those annoyed eyes came to him.

“What time is it?” she asked.

“It’s six,” he answered.

“Is there an actual six o’clock in a day where I don’t have a cocktail in my hand?”

Damn, she was funny.

He chuckled, walked to her and sat on the bed in the crook of her lap. “Yes, that would be the one referred to as six in the morning .”

“I don’t recognize this in Nora Time.”

“Then go back to sleep, baby,” he murmured.

“No.” She shook her head. “I can’t. We need to pack. And our rental car is being delivered this morning. I also need to go over Hale’s grocery list. He might miss something.”

Chloe and JT arriving home that day, they all had their assignments.

And it was Nora doing the assigning.

Her and Elsa.

“And, of course, I have to go through the motions of looking fabulous before all that happens,” she concluded.

“You look fabulous now,” he told her.

And she did. Cute and soft and entirely too fuckable for their day’s schedule.

“Stop looking at me like that, Jameson,” she snapped. “We haven’t discussed it, but I believe we both understand we cannot consummate this delightful change to our relationship in Genny and Duncan’s guest room with your daughter ensconced right across the hall.”

He lifted his eyes from where they’d gotten caught on her mouth.

“Or Judge and Chloe’s,” he added.

“One question,” she demanded.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Were you going to ravish me in the aft lounge before we got our dire news?”

He burst out laughing at the word “ravish.”

But, fuck him, he was about to do just that before they got their news.

So he was forced to answer, “Yes.”

She looked away and huffed out an exasperated sigh.

He caught her chin and brought her back to him.

“We can make out in Genny and Duncan’s guest room,” he suggested in a low voice.

“Have you seen your chest?” she queried haughtily, glancing down at it like it caused offense and he needed to apologize for it.

He was chuckling again when he answered, “Yes.”

“Well, allow me to inform you, as a heterosexual female, that it would be nigh on impossible to simply make out , as you so eloquently put it, with you and your bare chest, and not have that get out of hand.”

Good to know.

“I could put on a T-shirt,” he offered.

“I’ve seen it already this morning. It’s taunting me now. You’d have to put on a snowsuit to take my mind off it.”

Jamie again burst out laughing.

Nora waited until he was done before she spoke again, but she wasn’t fooling him. Her face was soft, her expression content. She loved to make him laugh.

And Jamie loved that she did, and more, that she brought so much laughter back into his life.

Yes.

He loved that quite a bit.

“If we must be up and mobile at this godforsaken hour, I need coffee,” she ordered imperiously.

“I’ll get right on that.”

“You do that.”

“Kiss first.”

She lost all snootiness and whispered, “Jamie.”

“Quick one.”

“I have morning breath.”

“No tongue.”

She rolled her eyes.

Jamie stole a kiss.

When he pulled away, she was pouting, and that didn’t fool him either.

Her expression was no longer content.

It was happy.

So…good.

Jamie had managed to start their day off right, nonetheless.

Dru and Hale were in Chloe and Judge’s kitchen, cooking enough food to refrigerate and freeze, it would keep that couple fed for a month.

Sully and Gage were outside, exercising the dogs.

Elsa was in the study, doing some work.

Laird was in Tom’s arms, and Tom was out on the back deck.

Genny was in an armchair, JT cradled in her lap.

Duncan was at work, and so were Matt, Rix, and Alex, and Mi and Sasha had had to go back down to Phoenix to do the same thing.

Mika and Cadence were on a run to the grocery store to get something Hale had forgotten.

And Chloe and Judge had arrived home with JT half an hour ago.

Jamie’s son had his wife cuddled to his chest where they both lounged on a couch, Chloe covered with a blanket, so Judge was as well. Venus was curled at their feet.

Jamie was in the other armchair, legs stretched in front of him, crossed at the ankles, waiting for his turn with JT.

All this was as it was when Nora floated down the stairs.

She stopped at the foot of the couch and stared severely at Chloe.

“Your postpartum wardrobe is unacceptable, darling,” she announced.

Judge’s gaze raced to his dad.

Jamie simply fought smiling and shook his head to communicate that, yes, Nora had undoubtedly snooped in Chloe’s closet, but no, he didn’t need to be concerned, because that was all she’d done, and she had a purpose in doing it.

Which she would handle, Jamie knew, right now, because when it came to clothes—or anything she deemed important, like a woman who took pride in her appearance, as Chloe did, needing not to lose hold on the woman she was when motherhood became a part of her life—Nora didn’t fuck around.

“I know, I didn’t have time to?—”

Before Chloe could finish reminding everyone she’d given birth five weeks early, Nora spoke.

“No matter. Jamie has a laptop and that’s what express shipping is for.”

“There are some things I’ve been meaning to get from my shop in Phoenix,” Chloe said.

“I’ll bring you a pad and paper, darling. You make a list. I’ll call Mi. She can package them up and I’ll arrange for them to be couriered immediately,” Nora said. She looked to Judge and raised her brows. “Pad and paper?”

“Study, also kitchen,” Judge answered.

Nora glided to the kitchen.

“I love her so much,” Chloe said dreamily, watching Nora go.

“Me too,” Judge replied to her, but his eyes were on Jamie.

Jamie didn’t fight that smile.

“Are you unpacked?” Judge asked him.

“Yes,” Jamie answered.

“Is there anything you need?” Chloe asked.

“No, honey,” Jamie said gently. “We’ve got all we’ll ever need.”

She tipped her head so she could see Judge. “They always fight, but I’m always right.”

“I think maybe we should skirt that subject for a couple more days, baby,” Judge advised.

“Skirt what subject?” Nora asked, returning with a pad and paper, which she handed to Chloe.

“Nothing,” Judge said.

“My brilliant matchmaking skills,” Chloe said over him.

Judge sighed.

Jamie heard Genny swallow a giggle.

Nora crossed her arms over her stomach, but she put out one hip so she could better tap her toe.

Christ, she was something.

And he was an imbecile.

Why had he fought it for so long?

How had he managed to do that?

He had to settle in the fact it was done now.

Or it would be, officially (or, more officially), when they got their asses home.

“We do need to discuss how infernally outrageous that was,” Nora declared.

“Sweetheart,” Jamie tried to intervene.

“You can’t be complaining,” Chloe stated.

“I’m not complaining.” Nora waved a hand blithely. “But that does not negate the fact you stranded your father-in-law and I on a boat for a week. This, my darling, in the game of life and love, is known as foul play.”

“It wasn’t a boat ,” Chloe returned. “It was a mega-yacht.”

“I also won’t argue the amenities, dear,” Nora shot back. “No one could accuse you of not having good taste. But again, you stranded your father-in-law and I on a mega-yacht for a week . This isn’t a Disney movie.”

Chloe snuggled back into her husband and smugly retorted, “It seemed to have worked out like one.”

“Well, obviously, that can’t be argued either,” Nora drawled.

Jamie chuckled.

Genny let her giggle loose this time.

Judge pulled his wife closer.

“However, I must elicit a promise from you at this juncture,” Nora went on.

“And that would be?” Chloe prompted.

“You never engage in that behavior again without involving me, and when I say that, I mean from the very beginning. I don’t want to miss a thing.”

“Well, Gage is here, working with Judge now, so that will be difficult for you, since you live in New York. Matt, the same. Sully is in Texas, also difficult for you. Sasha down in Phoenix, ditto. But when I get down to Ned and Blake, you can be in on it.”

At Chloe’s declaration she intended to continue meddling, Judge cast a beleaguered glance at the ceiling.

Nora, however, swept a hand to indicate the floor at her feet. “I’ve made this sacrifice several times, braving the wilds of Arizona for this family. So that’s no excuse not to involve me. I’m uncertain I can handle Texas, because of a certain someone who lives there. But I’ll do my best.”

“Then you’re in,” Chloe decreed. “Now, are those cargo pants Veronica Beard?”

“Yes,” Nora answered.

“This season?”

“Yes.”

“Can you get me a postpartum pair?”

“I’ll get my phone and do that now, darling,” Nora vowed, then she was off to find her phone.

“Judge,” Jamie called.

Both his son and his son’s wife looked at him.

“Once things settle, I’ll be looking into buying a property here,” Jamie told him.

Chloe’s face lit up.

“Wonderful,” Genny murmured.

But Judge.

Fuck.

His boy looked happy, relieved, excited and humbled, all at once.

“That would be awesome,” Judge said low.

“Not to live, but I’ll definitely be out here more often,” Jamie explained.

“We’ll take anything we can get,” Judge replied.

“Absolutely,” Chloe added.

At this point, he had to shift because Genny was there, handing over JT.

“Not a surprise,” she said after Jamie had curled the light bundle to his chest. He looked up into her blue eyes. “They’re hard to resist.”

She was very right.

She smiled at him, he returned it, then he moved it to the bundle in his arms.

JT was awake, his unseeing eyes staring, his little baby fists moving randomly, and Nora had been correct.

Sheer perfection.

He shifted his gaze to see Judge whispering in Chloe’s ear, and Chloe listening with rapt attention.

Yes.

Sheer perfection.

That evening, everyone had returned to Duncan and Genny’s, except Dru, whose flight to go home left the next day.

Sully was going to drive her down to Phoenix to catch it before he got on his own.

She’d asked if she could sleep on Chloe and Judge’s couch so she could have more time with them and JT before she had to leave.

Judge wouldn’t hear of it, since the couch in the study was a pullout, so she was sleeping there.

But now, Jamie was standing at the back doors which were made of glass, and looking out at his daughter, who was sitting on a step on the flight that led down off the side of the deck to the open space shared by the complex.

He smelled her first, and felt her second, when Nora pressed against his arm.

Jamie wanted all the time he could get with Chloe, Judge and JT as well.

But he also really wanted to get home to see to some pressing business.

“You need to get out there,” she said quietly.

He turned his head and looked down at her. “Dru can be an alone-time person.”

“Dru, right now, needs her father to remind her, even though he’s not her biological father, he’s still her father, and even though she does not share blood with her big brother, he’s still her brother. Last, the pairing she wanted for her dad came about, but that does not now mean she’ll be cast out, emotionally or otherwise.”

It felt like his insides had frozen because he hadn’t thought of that.

“Jesus,” he whispered.

“There’s alone, darling,” she whispered back. “And feeling alone because you can get it in your head you don’t belong. So, my dearest, you need to assure her she does so that doesn’t take root.”

It was good she was so damned smart.

He bent his head to kiss her, she met him halfway, then she stepped away, and he moved out.

He sat down on the step beside his daughter and playfully bumped her with his shoulder.

He thought perhaps Nora was wrong when Dru did what she would always do. That being resting against his side and putting her head on his shoulder.

“You good?” he asked.

“That was scary,” she answered.

She meant the way JT had come into the world.

He reached out and took her hand, holding it tight and bringing it to his knee as he agreed, “Yes, it was.”

“But everything’s okay now, and I’m glad,” she went on.

“Yes, darlin’, everything is okay.”

She moved her hand from his hold, but only so she could play with his fingers.

Jamie felt that tighten his chest.

She did that as a little girl. She’d been fascinated by his hands when she was little. But she hadn’t done it in years.

He also knew why she’d been preoccupied with his hands.

Chet had used his in fists on Rosalind before she’d left him, and Dru had witnessed it. And even when Chet wasn’t doing that, he’d not been a man prone to acts of affection, physical or otherwise.

When Jamie had asked after Dru’s fascination, Lindy had told him her daughter hadn’t seen a man’s hands be gentle and used to communicate love.

After that, Jamie had loved and hated Dru’s captivation with his hands, so he was relieved when it faded away, at the same time he missed it.

Therefore, now, he was delighted to have it back.

He cleared his throat and remarked, “I think you get your mission was accomplished with Nora and me.”

“Yeah,” she mumbled.

“You okay with that?”

She lifted her head and tipped it to look at him. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I’m just checking.”

“I like her.”

“I hope so.”

“I like her, Dad.”

He used his free hand to touch her nose as he smiled at her. “You’ll always be my girl.”

She looked away.

Damn.

“Dru?” he called.

“I know.” She sighed and put her head back on his shoulder. “I’ll always be your girl.”

He caught her hand in his hold and bounced it once on his knee. “I mean it, Dru.”

“I know you do.”

She sounded despondent, and Jamie didn’t like it.

He hadn’t had a lot of time for her the last two days, considering everything that was happening.

He should have found it.

“You’re worrying me a little bit, honey,” he said.

She moved her head to look at him again and whispered, “She got Mom’s roses.”

And his chest tightened again.

“You remember that?” he pushed out.

“I’ll never forget it.”

“You’ve known Nora awhile, and you haven’t mentioned it. I thought, since it was an emotional time, it slipped your mind. And since it was an emotional time, I didn’t want to remind you.”

“I wasn’t…” She trailed off and looked to the trees. “Wanna hear something stupid?”

“I want to hear anything you have to say, but I doubt it’s stupid.”

She looked back to him. “You’re right. This isn’t stupid. But it’s…weird.”

“I’m sure it’s not.”

“Okay, then maybe a little creepy,” she mumbled.

“Dru, out with it.”

Her eyes had fallen to his shoulder, but they came up to his, and she blurted, “After Mom died, after we met her, at the church, I used to make up dreams, before I fell asleep, that Nora would come back and make you happy again.”

Jamie grunted, the invisible blow she landed was so solid.

“I know, creepy,” she said quickly. “It isn’t like I didn’t miss Mom.”

“Of course not, darlin’,” he forced out.

“I don’t want you to think?—”

“I don’t think anything but that you care about me. I used to wrack my brain to figure out what would make you happy too, after we lost your mom.”

“Did you come up with any ideas?”

He smiled through the sadness he’d never lose that he hadn’t bested that impossible feat. “No.”

She dropped her head to his shoulder again.

He rested his against it.

They sat together for a while and didn’t talk.

Dru broke their silence.

“How did she get the flowers there so fast?”

“I’ve no idea,” Jamie murmured.

“It was like magic.” She lifted her head again, so he did as well, and she looked to him. “I think that was why I fixated on her. It was all so…we were so…”

“Sad,” he supplied when she faltered. “Devastated. It was all so inconceivable.”

Her smile was small. “Yeah. All those. And then this woman in a pretty dress shows up and makes flowers appear out of thin air. So it seemed she had magic, and I guess, well…” She shrugged. “I guess we needed magic.”

Jamie could definitely see that, because at that time, they did need Nora’s magic.

“And now, she’s with you,” she whispered. “And it makes me happy. But it also makes me sad.”

And he could definitely see that too.

“I will never not love your mom and I will never stop missing her, even if Nora makes me happy.”

“She gets that. Nora, I mean.”

“Yes,” he confirmed.

“It wasn’t a question, Dad. She gets it. I like that about her.”

“She liked your mom, and we haven’t had time to talk things through, but Nora is not the kind of woman to replace another woman. She’s the kind of woman to embrace another woman. We’ll never lose your mom that way, darlin’, and you don’t have to try to make things easier on Nora by hiding that part of you. Nora wouldn’t have that, and I won’t either.”

She pulled her lips in and rubbed them together.

“Did you worry you had to do that?” he asked.

She let her lips go and said, “You loved Mom a lot, Dad.”

“I loved your mom with everything I had that I didn’t give to Judge and you.”

Her face scrunched, and she hid her emotion by dropping her forehead to his shoulder.

“She knows that, right?” Dru inquired of his shoulder.

Oh, Nora knew that, for certain.

“Yes.”

“How does a woman come after something like that?” Dru asked.

And there was more of Nora’s magic.

“She understands that life keeps going, and love has no limits, and the man I am that she can love, Lindy helped create, so she’s grateful I had what I had with your mom. She’s grateful for me, and because she liked Lindy, she’s grateful your mom had it too.”

Dru nodded her head against his shoulder, before she mumbled, “I heard you laughing.”

“Sorry?”

She still didn’t raise her head when she said, “This morning. I heard you laughing.”

“As you know, Nora is funny.”

“Mom made you smile a lot. But she didn’t make you laugh. Not like that.”

Right.

“Darlin’, what I have is different with Nora because they’re two different women. One is not better than the other. It’s just different.”

“Okay,” she said softly, still not lifting her head. “And don’t get me wrong, I like she makes you laugh. Even before you guys sorted it out, I liked how happy she made you.”

And damn .

He’d been a total fucking imbecile.

“Things will be changing,” he warned.

She looked at him then, and the smile she gave his comment wasn’t small. “I guessed.”

“But you will always be a part of it, Dru. I might not have been able to adopt you, but you’re mine. You’re my little girl. You’re my daughter. I raised you. I claim you. And Lindy left me the most precious gift she had to give when she left you to me. I’ll always think that. Always, honey.”

Tears filled her eyes, and she said, “I know that, Dad.”

“Never forget it.”

She shook her head. “I won’t.”

“So, why are you out here by yourself?”

“Because I was feeling funny because I’m not really…you know.”

Yes.

Nora had been right.

“Tell me.”

“I’m not feeling it anymore.”

“Tell me anyway.”

She knew him, and when he was like this, she knew she wouldn’t get away with hiding anything from him.

So she rolled her eyes and said, “I just felt like a third wheel.” She glanced back at the house and her lips quirked. “Or in this case, a sixth.”

“You’re not, you know.”

“Ugh!”

And there was his Dru.

Jamie grinned.

“I already told you I don’t feel like that anymore, Dad ,” she finished.

“Just making sure,” he muttered, his lips still tipped up.

They heard footsteps on the deck and looked up the stairs to see Judge coming down.

He sat behind Dru and mussed her hair while she batted irritably at his hands.

Judge did this saying, “No fair you two squeezing out the older child and giving him a complex by whispering secrets to each other on the deck steps.”

“We were talking about Dad and Nora,” Dru didn’t quite lie.

“I think JT really cramped Dad’s style,” Judge announced.

He definitely did.

“Eww! Gross, Judge!” Dru cried.

“He’s just a man,” Judge kept at her.

Dru made a mock-gagging face.

Jamie started chuckling.

“So, I’m asking for an island to get over my possible-new-stepmom woes,” Judge stated. “You should ask for a car,” he advised Dru.

“Why do you get an island, and I only get a car?” Dru asked in return.

“Because I’m the eldest so I get special treatment,” Judge razzed.

Dru blew a raspberry at him.

“Neither of you are getting gifts because I found someone special,” Jamie stated.

“You ruined it.” Judge immediately fake-blamed Dru.

“Like Dad was ever gonna buy you an island,” she retorted.

“I think he was close,” Judge muttered, shooting a smile Jamie’s way.

“You understand now,” Jamie said to him. He turned to Dru. “And if it’s your choice, you’ll someday get it. But trust me, right now, sitting here with you two, I feel like the luckiest man alive.”

“Dad!” Dru cried and threw herself in his arms.

He held her close and looked over her shoulder to Judge.

“I’d say you suck, because you ended all the fun, but you don’t, which also sucks,” Judge said.

Jamie started chuckling again.

Dru pulled away, wiped under her eyes and then smacked Judge’s arm. “Don’t be a jerk!”

“Ow!” Judge yelled, rubbing his arm dramatically. “Dad! Dru’s picking on me!”

Jamie had no clue if Nora sent Judge out to drive the point home. Maybe. Maybe it was Chloe.

And maybe it was that his son was just as determined to make sure Dru didn’t get lost in all that was happening because the only person she biologically belonged to was gone.

It didn’t matter.

Judge had driven the point home.

Biology didn’t matter.

Family did.

And Jamie had the greatest kids on Earth.