Page 119 of Ripple Effect

A chair creaked in my ear. “What happened?” Colby asked curiously.

“Libby baked my favorite cake for my birthday. She surprised me with it at work. I was gone for ten minutes to answer a question on the floor. Half the cake was gone!”

Colby laughed in my ear.

With a bemused smile, I face the man who a lifetime ago told me I’d find him when the time was right. He made it easy and sought me out instead.

“Are the girls having a good time?” Keene drops his tall frame into the chair opposite my desk.

Holding out my phone, I show him the video. His normally stern countenance softens when Leah’s sweet little voice calls out to me. “She’s getting so big, Cal,” he tells me as he passes the phone back.

“I know.” Shaking my head, I admit, “I’m in awe every single day.”

Keene taps the file he came in with against his leg. “There’s a million reasons why none of this should exist for either of us.” Pushing to his feet, he tosses the file on top of the others on my desk. “And there’s one why we have it all.”

Curious as fuck what Keene Marshall—who normally embodies the term “sanctimonious prick”—has to say, I ask, “Why?”

“Because for some incomprehensible reason, they love us as much as we do them.” Making his way to the door of my office, he smiles. Something I’ve learned he does as rarely as I do unless he’s talking about his wife and daughters.

Just like Libby’s love managed to pull mine out of me.

Even as Keene’s closing the door behind him, I’m dialing Libby’s cell.

She picks up breathlessly on the third ring. “Hey, honey.”

“She has to go to daycare at some point, Libs,” I admonish her gently.

Libby’s peal of laughter warms all the spots of my soul that are swamped with guilt when I still have to travel or work keeps me late at the office. I never want us to ever get back to that place we were at ten years ago.

When I voiced my concerns in our bed late one night, Libby scalded me with a glare that should have filleted the skin from my body. “That won’t ever happen again. That, I can assure you.”

“It’s one day, Cal. Besides, all of Ali’s girls are here. Truth be told, it’s like we’re running our own daycare.”

Laughter roars out of me. “And there’s that sass.”

“You know you love it,” she replies pertly.

“I know I love you, Libs. Always.”

Her husky “I love you too” only temporarily derails me. “Leah is never going to get potty trained, Libs. You were the one so adamant about sending her to this daycare because they had a ‘potty whisperer.’ How can Agnes work her magic if our child isn’t there?”

“Fair point,” she concedes. “But it’s two days, Cal.”

“Two days where she’s going to wet the bed,” I mutter.

“Fine, I’ll be the one to change the sheets,” Libby sighs.

I stand up and pump my fist up and down, grateful the glass that takes up an entire wall of my office so I can monitor the ops center is one-way. “Good. Do you need me to get Jax from school if you and Ali have all the girls?”

“No, honey. We have two cars. Ali said she’ll follow me to the school and then to the house.”

Sitting back down, I muse, “I never thought I’d be on a double date with my boss on a night like tonight.”

“Me either, but I’m definitely not complaining. I’ll see you at home by four?”

“Absolutely. Drive safe.”

“Will do.” Libby hangs up, and I dive back into work so we can be finished by the time I have to leave to head home.