LITMIR.BIZ

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year, and they’d be set.

      “Skye is going to be released to my care, maybe tomorrow.”

      “Are you going to be able to take care of her?”

      Jake would have normally taken umbrage at his brother’s attitude, but right now? Yeah, it was a danged good question.

      “I don’t know.”

      Near silence descended upon the room. “We could keep her,” Lark finally said, looking at the baby.

      “What?”

      “We could keep Grace—just until Skye gets settled. Keaton and I know her schedule. We know how to take care of her. She shouldn’t be out in this weather, anyway, not until she’s stronger. That way, you can focus on getting Skye back into shape. You can bring Skye over here to visit the baby, but she won’t have to get up in the middle of the night.”

      Could he do that? This was his daughter. A daughter he’d only known about for...five hours, but still—his flesh and blood.

      He didn’t want to be a monster about this. This wasn’t him abandoning the baby. This was him getting Skye to the point where she could take over, right?

      Plus, if he left Grace here, that would prove that he wasn’t going to skip town again. “Would that be okay? I don’t want to impose, but the sooner we can get Skye back to full strength, the better.”

      Lark sighed as she looked at Grace. “Keaton and I already have it all worked out and, really, she’s an angel.”

      “I’ll need to get a house of my own. The whole point of you keeping the baby here is to give Skye room to recover at her own pace.” To put it less tactfully, he didn’t want to sleep under the same roof as Keaton and Lark—even if they were being really good to Grace.

      “You’re actually going to stay?” Keaton sounded doubtful.

      Jake let the comment slide. “Skye’s doctors are here and I’m not going to do a damn thing that might set her back. I know you don’t believe this, but I didn’t know about the tornado until this morning. Hell, I don’t even know if Mom and Dad came through all right.” If he’d known...

      “Mom and Dad are okay,” Keaton said in a quiet voice. “Some property damage. The ranch house is being rebuilt, but they were in Florida and Alabama, checking out some retirement properties, so they weren’t in the line of the storm. We’ve had them over a few times.”

      “Good. I’m glad.” Strangely, he was. He’d spent the last four years pointedly not caring about what his family was doing. They’d wanted him to put the family above Skye. Nothing was more important to him than Skye.

      “They adore Grace,” Lark said in a way that made it pretty clear that this absolved most of their sins in her eyes.

      “And they’ve come to see that Lark is nothing like her parents,” Keaton went on. “I think they’re realizing that not all Taylors are lying, cheating dogs.”

      Bitterness rose up in the back of Jake’s throat. Oh, sure—now his parents were going to open their arms and welcome a Taylor into the family. But not for Jake and Skye when he had needed them to.

      “What about your parents?” he asked Lark.

      She dropped her eyes. “They’re...okay. Fine.”

      “Whit Daltry’s got some houses for rent in Pine Valley,” Keaton said, changing the subject. “I think a couple of them are furnished—not too far from here. I’ll call him.”

      “Thanks. That’d be great.” He was not buying a house. He was not staying in Royal long. Just long enough to get Skye back on her feet and figure out where they stood.

      Just then, the baby made a little hiccup-sigh noise that pulled at his heartstrings.

      Lark shifted Grace off of her shoulder. Keaton picked the baby up so smoothly that Jake was jealous. “Grace, honey—this is your daddy,” Keaton said as he rubbed her on her back. Then, to Jake, he added, “You ready?”

      Not really—but Jake wasn’t going to admit that to Keaton. He tried to cradle his arms in the right way. Then Keaton laid the baby out in them.

      The world seemed to tilt off its axis as Jake looked down into his daughter’s eyes. They were a pale blue—just like her mother’s. Up close now, he could see that Grace had wispy hairs on her head that were so white and fine they were almost see-through.

      She didn’t start bawling, which he took as a good sign. Instead, she waved her tiny hands around, so of course he had to offer her one of his fingers. When she latched on to it, he felt lost and yet not lost at the same time.

      He was responsible for this little girl from this moment until the day he drew his last breath. The weight of it hit him so hard that, if he hadn’t already been sitting, his knees would have buckled.

      This was his daughter. He and Skye had created this little person.

      God, he wished she were here with him. That they could have done this together. That things between them had been different. That he’d been different.

      But he couldn’t change the past, not when his present—and his future—was gripping his little finger with surprising strength.

      “Hi, Grace,” he whispered. He shook his hand a little, raising her fist with his pinkie finger. “It’s so good to meet you.”

      The baby smiled, which made Jake feel ten feet tall. “Hey, she’s smiling at—”

      Then a horrible noise—and an even more horrible smell—cut him off.

      Keaton began to laugh. The dog whined and put its paws over its nose.

      “Sorry,” Lark said, rising quickly. “She’s about due for another bottle, too.”

      “Time for your first lesson—diapers,” Keaton said as he clapped Jake on the back. “Welcome to fatherhood.”

       Three

      “Grace is with Lark, right?” Skye asked. She knew Jake had answered that question at least three times already, but she wanted to see her daughter.

      “Are you asking because you don’t remember the answer or because you don’t trust me?” Jake grinned at her from the driver’s seat. It was an easy grin that warmed her from the inside out—but there was something underneath it that had an edge.

      She was going home. With Jake. The past few days had been the longest of her waking life. Skye had been ready and willing to leave that hospital far behind and get back to making new memories with Jake.

      “I just...I just want to see her again. I remember you already said yes,” she hurried to add. “I feel like I’ve missed so much.” She laughed. “Probably because I have.”

      The process of being released from the hospital had taken most of the day. Late winter twilight settled over the landscape as Jake drove toward their new home. “And...we’re not going back to our apartment, right?”

      “That’s right,” he said gently. “The doctor wants you to stay close to the hospital. I rented a house. It’s close to Lark and the baby and not too far from the hospital.”

      “I wish I remembered Grace,” she said, an impotent frustration bubbling up. “Why is Lark keeping her?”

      “Because Lark is a nurse and you need to recover,” he answered smoothly. “We’ll go over and visit, I promise. And I always keep my promises, don’t I?”

      “Yes...” She tried to make sense of that hidden edge to his words It was almost as if he was mad at her. But did that make any sense?

      No, it didn’t. He was probably just upset that she’d been hurt so badly.

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