Page 104 of Rise After Fall

“We’ll be by in the morning to pick you up and take you to breakfast. You can’t visit Balsam Ridge and not have the biscuits and gravy,” she says.

“It’s a date,” Christine agrees.

PJ helps his wife to her feet.

Maxi stands and hands Kaela off to Weston just as Taeli returns, dressed, with Tucker and Caleb in tow.

Everyone says their good-byes, and Weston and I walk them out.

“There are extra trunks in my bottom drawer. I’m going to lay her down, and then I’ll join you guys,” Weston says.

“Thanks, man.”

He starts toward the hallway and stops. He looks back at me.

“I like this,” he muses.

“What?”

“The two of us, spending an evening at home with our girls. This is the good life.”

He disappears into the room across from his own, and I look out of the glass door to Anna and Zoey talking animatedly.

It certainly is.

We spend an hour in the hot tub with West and Anna. The girls drinking wine and us guys watching the football game on the television mounted on the side of the house.

When a cry comes over the monitor, Anna and Weston call it a night to rescue Kaela from her crib and take her to bed with them.

“That’s a bad habit to start,” I tell Weston as he dries off.

“I don’t care. She’ll only be this little once. I’m gonna drink up every minute.”

“Aw,” Zoey utters.

“I know, right?” Anna says as she wraps her arms around his chest.

They walk inside, and Zoey stands.

“Are you ready to take me to bed?” she asks, and a yawn escapes her.

“You don’t have to ask me twice.”

I follow her out of the tub and grab two towels from the warmer for us, and we sprint inside to escape the cold.

“I’m stealing your shirt to sleep in,” she says as she walks toward the guest room.

I tap on Weston’s bedroom door and ask if he has any spare toothbrushes. Anna emerges from their bathroom with two still in the package.

“Thanks.”

When I make it to Zoey, she’s lying across the bed in my flannel, fast asleep.

I pick her up so I can turn the comforter down. I gently lay her back down, tucking a pillow under her head, and pull the covers around her.

After using the bathroom and brushing my teeth, I return.

I kick out of the damp trunks, click off the lamp, and climb into the bed beside her.