Page 41 of The Claiming Series: Collection 1

Drayton

Five Years Later

I look up as my wife strolls into my office with our daughters, Lexie and Mabel. Lexie, our two-year-old, is sound asleep in her pushchair, but Mabel, our eldest at four, comes flying towards me.

“Daddy!” shrieks, holding out her arms to be picked up.

I lift her onto my lap, hugging her close and kissing the top of her head. “Hey, Pumpkin! How was school?”

“Good. Liam carried my satchel for me at recess. ”

My eyes fly to my wife. “Who’s Liam?”

Daisy rolls her eyes at my protective tone. “Calm down, baby. He’s one of Mabel's friends. You know how we encouraged her to make friends now she’s at big school.”

“Not fwiend. Boyfwiend,” Mabel corrects. “We’re going to get married when we’re all growed up.”

I look down at my daughter with a raised eyebrow. “I thought we agreed you were only going to make friends with girls.”

Mabel shrugs. “I like Liam. He gave me a lollypop. See?” she asks, holding it up still in its wrapper. “Mommy said I can’t have it until after dinner.”

I look at Daisy again. “He’s using the candy trick already?”

Daisy chuckles and shakes her head. I know I’m protective of my girls. God knows I’d lay my life down for any of them without hesitation.

“Hey, baby,” Daisy says, moving close to claim a kiss, her hand cupping my face and rubbing my beard.

“Hey, sweet thing,” I murmur against her mouth.

My hand drops to her stomach, where she’s carrying our third child, a boy. She’s only four months along, but she’s showing earlier this time, and I fucking love it. Love that everyone can see she’s carrying my baby.

Both our girls resemble their mama, with their blond curls, honey-brown eyes, and sweet temperaments. I’m kind of hoping our son will favor me a little more—I need a tough guy to balance things out a little in the testosterone department.

Sadly, none of our kids will ever know either of their maternal grandparents. Chloe’s health took a nosedive three years ago when she was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. She was told to stop drinking immediately, but she didn’t. Six months later, she was dead.

Daisy took it hard. Mabel was a baby at the time, and Daisy was pregnant with Lexie.

While Daisy had resigned herself to not having a relationship with her mom, I think there was some small part of her that hoped one day Chloe would change her mind.

It wasn’t to be, however, and she ended up dying alone in the hospital.

Now a father myself, it never ceases to amaze me how Chloe could’ve pushed her daughter away like that.

My wife and girls are my whole world—there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for them.

Daisy is always telling me how lucky they are to have me, but the reverse is true as far as I’m concerned.

My little girls have brought an abundance of love, laughter, and fun into my world.

As for my wife—she gets more beautiful with each passing year. She’s my first thought every morning and my last before I go to sleep. She’s the strongest, kindest, most loving woman I’ve ever known, and her love has healed me in so many ways.

She’s held me when I’ve woken shaking and sweating from the nightmares that still plague me from time to time, given me a peace I thought had been forever stolen from me after my time in Yemen.

Falling in love and building a new life doesn’t wipe away what came before, but it sure as fuck makes me appreciate everything I have—the love of a remarkable woman, two gorgeous girls, and a little boy on the way. Pretty fucking perfect, if you ask me.

Lexie stirs in her pushchair and slowly opens her eyes. Daisy moves to pick her up, and Lexie snuggles into her mama’s neck as she slowly wakes up.

“Can we see Nanu and Grandpa this weekend?” Mabel asks, looking up at me.

“Sure. You love spending time with them, don’t you, pumpkin?” I ask, ruffling her blond curls.

She nods enthusiastically. “Yep. Grandpa bakes the best chocolate chip cookies in the whole, wide world.”

Yep, she’s my daughter, alright. Always thinking with her stomach.

Pa finally made an honest woman of Nancy six months ago.

I think it took him a long time to realize it was okay to love again after Ma died, that she wouldn’t want him to be on his own.

He tells me it’s different the second time around.

Nancy is also a widower, and neither of them set out to replace their previous partners, but they make each other happy, and that’s all that counts.

It helps that Nancy is a genuinely good person, and she and Pa dote on our girls.

Nancy took over from Daisy at the bar when Daisy took on a job share here at the station with Jessica. She and Connor were married soon after us and have a little girl the same age as Lexie, so the job share works perfectly for them.

“Are you looking forward to seeing Aunty Lily and Uncle Callum?” I ask Mabel, bouncing her on my knee and making her giggle.

“Elsie?” Lexie pipes up, lifting her head from her mama’s shoulder .

“Yeah, Sweet Pea, Elsie is coming too, and baby Daniel,” Daisy confirms with a smile, referring to their daughter, who’s about a year younger than Mabel, and their baby son.

Lexie squeals and claps her little hands.

“Which is why we’re here, Daddy, to drag you away from your desk.

I know what you’re like when you get your head buried in a case, and they’ll be here in a few hours. ”

“Is it that time already?” I ask in surprise, glancing at the clock on the wall.

“Big hand on the five, little hand on the two, which is—” Mabel screws up her nose like her mama does as she works it out. “Ten past five,” she announces proudly.

“You’re a genius, Pumpkin,” I say, impressed. I look around at my family. “So, what are we waiting for? Let’s get out of here.”

I stand up with Mabel in my arms and lean in to kiss Lexie’s chubby little cheek before stealing another kiss from my wife.

“Yuck,” Mabel says with a look of profound disgust on her face. “I’m never doing that with Liam!”

I give her a big smile. “Right answer, pumpkin, right answer.”

Thank you for reading the Claiming Series Collection 1. If you enjoyed these stories, I would love it if you could spare a few minutes to leave a review.

Thank you for your support and for loving my stories.

Much love,

Violet .