Page 118 of Nothing to This

“Is Daddy staying?”Sky asked, bypassing the man at her side to blink at Mommy.

Always at Mommy.“Yes.”This obsession was strange.“Why are you suddenly so worried about—”

“Gabby said Daddy lives in her house.He can’t live here if he has another house.”

Their eyes met.

JD pushed out his chair to take their daughter into his lap.“I told you Gabby isn’t well.My house is here, my place is with you and Kye, and with Mommy.”Tucking her hair back from her face, he curled a finger under Sky’s chin to raise it up.“If anyone ever tries to tell you different, you laugh right in their face, okay?Because, Sproutette, I’m not going anywhere.”Reaching over, he caught Kye’s hand too.“We’re a family.Nothing gets in the way of that.”

Nothing except her.

He put Sky back in her chair and like nothing had happened, Sky got to work educating the boys about mermaids.

After breakfast, she cleaned up the kitchen as JD got the kids washed and dressed.She went through her own motions and stepped into the hallway as the three of them traipsed down it.

“We’re all ready, Momma, how you doing?”

How was she doing?

And right then, in a snap, it felt urgent.

“Go play Kye’s game for a minute,” she said to the kids.

“Mommy, we’re ready for—”

“Yes, and we’re leaving.Mommy needs to talk to Daddy for a second.”

“Play nice and you’ll get a cookie in the car,” JD said.

They turned on their heels to run into Kye’s bedroom.

“What is it?”he asked, all concern.“What happened?”

“I…”

Her mouth dried.She’d never been nervous talking to JD, talking to anyone really.Something about the gravity of her clarity got her worrying she wouldn’t do it justice.

He stroked her hair above her ear.“If you don’t feel good or need the day to—”

“We have to tell them.”In surprise, his mouth opened to no words.“You told me—you said that, uh, that you missed out on the pregnancy.”

“Yeah.”

“And I didn’t get it—it didn’t occur to me until… I missed out too.”

“You missed what?”

Her mouth was still dry, but she kept going anyway.“I never saw you hold them, feed them, change diapers, put them down at night…” She swallowed.“You missed the pregnancy.You missed witnessing me as a mother to them, and I missed watching your devotion to them grow.I want to…” Her heart raced.“I want to see you with them.I want to see you hold their tiny, wriggling little bodies and soothe them to sleep.I want to see you up in the night talking about whatever you talk about when they lie there so innocent and helpless.I want to come home and find you in a mess of toys and chaos, asleep with our little one.”

“You missed out,” he murmured.

And as her smile formed, a tear slipped from the corner of her eye.“Our twins are the most precious thing in the world.”She took his hand.“I know you know that.No one else knows that like you and I know that.It’s a journey I thought I would never want to experience again.The thing is… I hadn’t realized…”

“Hadn’t realized what?”

“That the only person I ever want to share that journey with is you.”From the way he searched her, all she got from him was confusion.“It’s like you said.I don’t want to have children with another man.You’re the last man.My last man.I want to have your baby, Jamison Dawes.Only yours.Real, the whole deal, from the very beginning.”

“You want to…”