HarryI woke with a start and a crick in my neck, letting out a sharp exhale and scrambling to remember where the hell I was.And then it hit me. I was still at the hospital. With Nico, with Raina, with Allison. I had dozed off in the chair, and I had no idea what time it was.Raina was asleep in the chair next to mine, and Allison was holding on tightly to Nico’s hand and gazing at him as she waited for him to show any sign of a response. His chest was rising and falling a little steadier than it had been at the start of my visit, so that was something, I guessed.“What time is it?” I asked Allison quietly, my voice gravelly and raw from tiredness.She glanced at her watch. “Just past seven in the morning,” she replied. “If you want to go home...”“No, I’m going to stay,” I replied. “Will the hospital be serving breakfast yet?”“Probably,” she replied. “Could you get me a black coffee?”“Of course,” I promised, and she closed her eyes and smiled her thanks. I planted a kiss on Raina’
Harry“Well, I brought something else down from the cafeteria too,” I remarked, and I pulled out the pudding cup that I had picked out for Nico.“Talk about a nutritious breakfast.” Raina giggled.“It’s for him, in case he wakes up,” I explained.Allison shook her head. “I can’t believe you knew what his favorite flavor was.” She laughed. “That was a damn good guess.”“Hey, I have a little kid of my own around,” I reminded her. “I know that anything that’s even adjacent to chocolate is usually the best bet.”“It’s the only kind he’ll eat,” Allison said.I set it down on the bedside table and patted Nico’s arm.“Come on, honey, you’ve got a treat from your daddy,” Allison cooed gently. I froze for a moment. It was the first time I had heard her refer to me as his daddy, and it was kind of a shock.“Sorry,” Allison apologized at once. “I didn’t mean... maybe that was too much.”“No, not at all,” I assured her. “It’s just going to take some getting used to. That’s all. I love the idea of
RainaSunday had been a hell of a day.I yawned as I made my way into the clinic Monday morning, and I was glad to be back at work. I had wondered if I was going to make it, not sure if I was going to be too tired to even bother with turning up today.If I’d had surgeries to do, I wouldn’t have bothered coming in at all, way too exhausted to think about letting myself near anything that needed me to wield something sharp. But luckily, it was mostly just check-ups and admin, and I could handle that.I had called Harry a few times over the course of the day, to check in on how things were going with him and Nico and Allison. I was glad he was able to be there to keep the two of them company, though I wished that I could have been too.At a certain point, though, it was just clear that I was getting in the way. I wasn’t his mother, and I barely even knew the little guy that well, and I didn’t want to pile more stress on top of him when things were already so tough for everyone.Reed had
RainaI had ordered Nico a toy online, just a little stuffed wolf to remind him what a fighter he was. I had made sure that it was free of any artificial dyes and totally hypoallergenic, but I would still double-check with Allison before I actually gave it to him. I didn’t think that the little boy would have much use for flowers.Rita had been running around like crazy, trying to keep things together for me while I let my insomnia-addled brain do the best it could. I had no idea how she could handle all of this on top of having her little boy, but she told me that there wasn’t a thing she couldn’t take on.“When I think about that poor woman and her son,” she remarked, shaking her head. “God, I would just do anything to make the load a little lighter on her, you know? I can’t even imagine what she must be going through. It must be agony.”“You’re so kind, Rita, you know that?” I told her.She managed a smile. “I think I’m just sending out hope to the universe that something like this
HarryI sat there on the front step, my head tipped back, absorbing the last of the evening sunshine, and I let some of the tension of the last couple days lift from my shoulders.I couldn’t believe that I had actually made it through. It had been a hell of a weekend. Nico was back at home now with Allison, and that meant that I had no reason not to get back to my own real-life once more.That said, my mind was still with them. My brain was still tracing the space that they had left behind. I wished there was something I could have done to make things easier on them, but I knew that the best I could manage was giving them the space to settle in and heal and get back to reality.Allison had promised me that she would let me in as soon as she thought there was space for me, and I was going to let her set the pace on that.Meanwhile, I was going to try to get back to the reality of my real life. It felt strange to be back here with Winnie and Tink after everything that had happened, but
Harry“Raina?” I asked, and I patted the seat next to me. “There’s something I wanted to show you. Well, a few somethings, actually.”“Oh, really?” She joined me curiously, eyeing the blank screen in front of me. “I don’t mean to alarm you, but there’s nothing there.”I shot her a look, grinned, and clicked the mouse so I could show her what I was talking about.I had been scanning through a few properties, now that I knew that we needed to move. Somewhere that would have plenty of room for the kids and for guests, should we want them too. And though I hadn’t come out and asked her about it directly, I was sincerely hoping that she would be willing to give us a hand in picking the right one. Because whichever one we landed on, I was hoping that one day she would be willing to live there with us, too.“I was checking out some houses,” I explained, and I looked over at her. “And I was hoping that you might be able to give us some input, too.”I eyed her for a long moment, waiting for th
Raina“Are you sure you don’t mind me taking a half-day?” I asked fretfully.Rita shook her head and waved her hands at me. “You go house hunt with your man! I’m still making up for the time I missed on maternity leave. I don’t want you rushing on this. You could be living with him soon enough, anyway.”“Hey, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” I said, but I could hardly keep the smile off my face.She was right. I knew that we hadn’t actually had the conversation yet, but the fact that Harry had encouraged me to offer my own opinions on the houses and had now invited me to take a look at the ones he was checking out today suggested that cohabitation was in the cards.“I’m totally going to get ahead of myself,” Rita replied. “I think this is fantastic. The two of you are moving so fast.”“Well, I waited long enough to do the dating thing,” I said. “I guess I see no reason to wait around now that I’m here.”She gave me a quick hug and sighed. “Oh, I’m going to miss that apartment of you
RainaThis one was a little farther from my work, but I liked the area as soon as we entered it. It seemed bright and brisk, full of families, many of whom were walking home from half-days at school. It was in the district that Winnie was currently being taught in, so she wouldn’t have to worry about changing schools. And when we pulled up in front of the house, I couldn’t keep the smile off my face.“Okay,” I murmured to Harry, keeping my voice low so that the realtor didn’t get any ideas in his head. “Now, this place, I like.”The house was a little smaller, but it seemed so much roomier. Some of the furniture was a little beat-up, but it was nothing that a little love and effort wouldn’t fix up right away. As we wandered around, taking in the bathrooms, the bedroom, the little kitchen with its old-fashioned cooker, I felt a smile spreading through my whole body.This was it. This was the place. I was utterly sure of it.And I knew that Harry felt it, too. He might not have wanted t
HarryI hadn’t known until I’d met Raina how much I was hiding from, but now that I could see it, it made my heart ache to think about everything that I had been missing. I thought I had been protecting myself, but in reality, it had just been isolation.Yara had seen that. I was pretty sure, in fact, that she had seen that before I had. I had been ducking and diving from the truth, and she had seen through me, seen me for what I was, seen all the pain I had been carrying with me all this time. And that was why she had set me up on a date.It was crazy, really, thinking that all of this had started with something that I had been so averse to in the first place. I had pushed back against the very idea of going on that date, sure that it was just going to end with me making a fool of myself and looking like an idiot in the process.Of course, if I had known where all of this was going to lead me, I would have gone back in time and told myself to go with it, that it was going to be bette
Harry“All right, all right, if I could borrow your attention for a moment.” I stood up from the chair I had been sitting on and waved a hand in the air so that I could draw the attention of my staff and friends around me.Yara had done a hell of a job putting all of this together. It had only been a couple of weeks ago that I had brought up the idea of the party to her, and she had sprung into full-force action at once, running off this way and that to make sure everything got dealt with as best she could manage it.She told me she was just happy to finally have some kind of party she could organize—and said I could do with throwing a few more like it, actually, though I decided it was for the best that I ignored that little comment. I had been so busy these last few months, I couldn’t imagine finding any more time in my packed-out schedule for fun little gatherings like this.It had helped, of course, that George had been willing to put up his house and grounds to hold the party. We
RainaHe wrapped his arms around me and pushed into me deep, filling me all the way up to the hilt, taking me like there was nothing in the world he would rather have been doing in that moment. I sank my nails into his back and let my body sink into the sheets below me, the softness absorbing me, at odds with his hardness.He didn’t hold back. He didn’t seem to see a need to, and I was grateful for it. After everything that had been happening lately, I felt like I needed this connection with him to remind myself where this all came from.Not that he was so good in bed that I would have gone through anything for him—though, that was a part of it—but it was a raw thing that existed between just us. Nobody could take it away from us, no matter how much they might have wanted to. This was ours and only ours, and we had made it together, and that meant nothing could change it.I could already feel myself getting close. It was the feel of his breath on my neck that did it for me, his essent
RainaI had no idea why he was so eager for me to cancel on Reed that morning, but as soon as I had heard the tone in his voice, I’d known that it wasn’t up for debate. Harry had a damn good reason to want to see me, and I certainly wasn’t going to argue with it.As soon as he opened the door to his place, I knew what was running through his head. I grinned as he pulled me into his arms and kissed me deeply, like he was making the very most of the fact that I was here.“Thanks for coming,” he murmured, and he pushed the door shut behind me.“You going to make it worth my while?” I replied playfully.He scooped me off the ground and into his arms. I burst out laughing and hung on to him as he carried me up the stairs and toward the bedroom.He tossed me down on the bed, and it didn’t take long before our clothes went flying. I was wearing the scrubs that I would have to take into the office soon enough, so hardly my sexiest look, but he didn’t seem to care much.He stripped me off like
Harry“I was thinking more along the lines of a party than a bonus,” I replied to Yara. “Dogs allowed, of course.”“Well, when you put it like that…” She laughed. “Where were you thinking?”I scanned my brain for a moment and then landed on the perfect place.“Let me get in touch with George,” I replied. “I bet he’d love to have an excuse to do up his mansion.”“You really think he’d be willing to hand all that over for a company party?” she asked.I nodded. “You’d be surprised at how mellow he can be,” I replied. “Besides, think of all the women he’ll get to flirt with. It’ll be a dream come true for him.”“I guess so,” she agreed, shaking her head fondly at the thought. “You give him a call, and I’ll see what else I can pull in, all right? But I’m sure everyone would appreciate the chance to have some fun. Especially if our dogs are allowed to be there too.”I texted George as soon as she was gone, and he replied with an almost instant affirmation that promised me use of the house w
HarryI reached under the table and patted Tink where he was asleep at my feet. He might not have known it, but he was the reason that all of this weekend had been such a huge success.Without him, I would never have come across the shelter, and without that, I wouldn’t have been able to put together the awesome event that we had thrown the day before. It had been hectic as hell, but totally worth it, and I was proud to say that we had helped find homes for more than seventy animals over the course of the day.By the time it was over, Winnie was dead asleep in the back of the car with Tink, and George had to be dragged away from Nico, who he just couldn’t get enough of. But the day had been a wild success, and I knew that it wouldn’t be the only one that we had with the shelter.But for now, I was back at work, and I had to focus on catching up on everything that I had missed the last few weeks. Fuck, it had been so busy, I had hardly had time to remember that I so much as had a job.
Raina“Thank you for getting all of this set up,” I told Harry. “You have no idea how much this is going to help get people to start taking notice of the shelter.”“Well, it’s what you deserve,” he replied. “You’ve worked so hard here for so long. I wanted to do what I could to make it easier on you.”I kissed him again. “You know, you’re way sweeter than you have any right to be,” I murmured.He grinned. “Is that an insult or a compliment? I can’t tell.”“You decide,” I replied, and it was right then that I saw Rita and her son coming through the door. She had promised to put in an appearance, and she beamed as soon as she saw me.“Oh, how’s my favorite baby?” I greeted him with a coo, and I came over to hold him in my arms for just a moment.Rita handed him over to me at once, apparently glad to have a chance to put him down, if only for a moment. “Oh my goodness, I think I’m in a lot of danger being here,” she remarked as Marjorie emerged from the back room with a couple of lively
Raina“All right, do you have all the forms ready?” I asked Marjorie as the two of us practically sprinted around the shelter, trying to get everything ready for the adopt-a-thon that was meant to be happening today.She nodded. “I think so,” she replied, but she was clearly nervous.I put my hand on her shoulder. “Hey,” I soothed her. “Everything’s going to be fine. Everyone who’s coming today has already been vetted, you remember? So anyone who goes home with a pet, they’re going to be a good home for them.”“I know that,” Marjorie said. “I’m just... I don’t know if I’m ready to say goodbye to all these little guys after all this time.”“Don’t get all misty on me now,” I warned her. “We have to make space for other animals, remember? I want to make sure that we get as many of these guys off to new homes as we can. Think how good it’ll be to have the space so that you don’t have to worry about turning down anyone who needs a home, right?”“Right,” she agreed, and she nodded and tappe
Harry“I had my lawyer draw up these agreements,” she explained.Michael lifted his head from the papers that he had been going over. He nodded, looking satisfied with what he had seen.“Everything seems like it’s in order to me,” he remarked. “Harry, if you want to take a little more time to go over these and think about the decision, we can hang on to them for you—”“No, I’m ready,” I replied. I was dead certain. Nothing was going to change my mind. Nothing at all. I was happier than I’d been in such a long time. We had the house, I had Raina, and now, it looked like I was going to have my precious, perfect son on top of all of it. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. Not one little thing.“Thank you for this, Allison,” I said. “Thank you for trusting me with him.”“Thank you for letting us into your life after all this time,” she replied. “I know it’s more than I deserve. I know you’re being kinder than you should ever be with me—”“You never have to think like that,” I told he