Angel gasped but didn’t say a word as I showed the two men out. I watched from the doorway as they stepped onto the elevator down the hall before stepping back inside. She was biting her lip. “He paid her off.”

I shrugged. “Most likely.” It was what a father should do, something I would gladly do for Nevaeh should the situation ever arrive. No way would I let anything hurt her. “We can file for the restraining order tomorrow.”

“He really does love me, huh?”

I wrapped her hair around my wrist and pulled her head back until our eyes met. “He’d be an idiot not to.” I kissed the tip of her nose. “Ready to go home?”

“So ready, babe.”

Epilogue

Shane

We were going to be late, but I had to make this stop.

Harper sat beside me in the front seat of the Ford Raptor that I had gotten a few weeks ago. Drake had turned me on to trucks and really I needed one if all things went as I was hoping they might in the next hour or so. When I pulled to a stop in front of the little farm house just outside of LA and I cut the engine, she frowned, glancing around us. “When you said we had to pick up a few things before the party I didn’t think we would be driving out into the middle of nowhere.”

I let my eyes eat her up. Since we had found out we wouldn’t be able to have kids, Harper had been seriously depressed. A few times she had let old fears invade our lives and try to wedge us apart. That wasn’t going to happen on my watch. I’d been talking to a few people about how she was handling everything and they had suggested giving her something else to love and cuddle since it wasn’t going to be our child. It had taken me weeks, but I had finally found the perfect thing.

“I love you, beautiful.” I reached for her seatbelt and unsnapped her before pulling her onto my lap. “You mean everything to me.”

Her fingers combed through my hair. “I love you too. But that doesn’t explain why we’re here.” She smiled. “I’m starting to worry for your sanity, babe.”

I kissed her lips long and hard, leaving us both a little breathless before opening the door and pulling her out with me. It was quiet out here, really peaceful. Linking our fingers I led her toward the old farm house. As we stepped onto the first steps the screen door opened and a chubby little woman with short curly hair stepped outside. When she recognized me she grinned. “Good to see you, boy.”

I inclined my head. “Ma’am. This is Harper,” I introduced. “Are we all set?”

“Sure are.” She nodded her head toward the door. “Come on, you two. We’ve been expecting you. The house has been full of excitement. He knows he’s going home.”

Harper resisted as I pulled her up the steps. “Shane… What’s going on?” she whispered, but I didn’t answer as I finally just picked her up and carried her into the house.

The inside of the house was just as old and well lived in as the outside was weather worn, but it was cozy and warm. Welcoming. I followed our hostess to the back of the house, having made the same journey just two weeks before, alone. By the time she opened the kitchen door Harper was getting irritated with me and was stabbing me in the chest with her finger to make me put her down.

“Here they are, Ranger. Momma and Daddy are here to take you home.”

Harper’s protests stopped as soon as the words left the old woman’s mouth. Her head snapped around, looking for Ranger. When she saw him sitting on a bed by the stove, her breath caught and those violet eyes that had captivated me the first time I had met her filled with tears. Carefully I sat her on her feet as Ranger yawned and stretched before climbing to his feet.

The nine-week-old German Shepherd stepped forward and sniffed my feet, wagging his tail with excitement. I bent to pet him, letting him lick my face. “Hey there, buddy. Ready to go home?”

“Oh my gods,” Harper whispered. “You got me a puppy?”

I grinned. “Well, only if you want him. He’s house trained and pretty spoiled by Mrs. Hash. He’s the last of her most recent litter. Mrs. Hash and her husband raise them, train them for law enforcement. She made an exception for me though when I told her we needed a baby to take care of.” Her chin trembled and I caught her hand, tugging until she knelt down beside me. “What do you think? Should we take him home?”

Her arms wrapped around me so suddenly I fell backwards, taking her with me. “I love you. You know that? I love you so much. Yes, I want the puppy. I want Ranger.”

Ranger seemed to decide he wanted us too because he joined us on the floor, licking first my face then Harper’s as he tried to get between us. “Looks like we’re a family.”

Giggling, she pulled the dog against her and kissed his snout. “Yeah. I guess we are.”

Jesse

There were some things you don’t want to see first thing in the morning. Or right after breakfast. Or before lunch… Okay, fuck it. You don’t want to see it any time of the day—especially when it was seeping out the sides of my twenty-four-pound, nine-month-old son’s diaper. Oddly enough I hadn’t gotten used to that smell or disgusting sight in the months I had been changing diapers.

Luca giggled up at me as I gagged and wiped his ass clean. “You are the smelliest boy I have ever met,” I told him, and he reached for my shirt, fisting his little hand in the material and jabbering at it. “How does that much shit come out of something so small?”

Layla’s laugh filled my ears as she entered the nursery with Lyric, having just finished feeding him his breakfast. “He’s not so small, Jess. The doctor said that he’s in the ninetieth percentile for his weight and height. No one can get over the fact that the twins were premature.”

I glanced at her over my shoulder as she set Lyric on the second changing table and undid his diaper. When she made a sound that bordered on a gag of her own, I laughed. “Not so funny when it happens to you, is it?”

She tossed a bottle of baby powder at me. “Shut up. Seriously, Ric. Where do you keep this stuff?”

I watched her as she dealt with our son who was just as big as his twin. It surprised even me at times that these two beasts of babies had been born far too early. The day we had brought them home, after more than two months in the hospital, was one of the happiest days of my life. The joy on Layla’s face alone that day had shined from the inside out.

“Gross, it smells so bad in here.” Lucy stuck her head in the door, making a face at me when she saw that we were both changing extremely messy diapers. “You need those hazmat suits to deal with them.”