Page 20 of The Last Thing (Baker Girls #4)

CHAPTER TWENTY

WILSON

My little hellion likes to snuggle.

We haven’t done anything sexual in a few days—her desire for that comes and goes, often in a short time span, and I happily respect it.

Especially because when we aren’t doing anything, we cuddle in my bed and watch TV together.

Inevitably, she falls asleep before we finish what we’re watching, and I tuck her in and lie down beside her.

Like there’s a magnetic pull between our bodies, she instantly rolls against me, snuggling up to me every time.

It’s yet another little thing that gives me hope.

I’m chipping away at the walls around her heart, and that’s a damn good thing because she’s completely infiltrated my heart. I’m done. Gone for her. There will never be anyone else who makes me feel alive the way she does, and I never want there to be.

I see a future with her. Now I need her to see it too. To not fear it.

She rustles in her sleep, then groans, and I sit up, immediately on alert. That’s a surefire sign she’s feeling nauseous.

She sits up suddenly and stumbles out of bed.

“Oh, shit.”

She hurries down the hall on shaky legs, then lets out a whimper before freezing as she pukes all over the floor.

She falls to her knees, crying, and I drop down beside her, rubbing her back.

“I’m sorry,” she sobs.

“You don’t have to apologize. It’s okay.”

She wipes her eyes, but more tears come.

“Hey…” I’m about to kiss her head, when a voice comes from behind us.

“What’s going on?”

I turn to look at Sophia, who is standing in the hallway, tiredly squinting at us.

“Why is Miss Hallie here?”

Thank God we’re fully clothed tonight. Well, Hallie is. She’s got on a tee and shorts. I’m only in sweats, but that’s typical.

I stand up and look at my daughter. “You know how Hallie said her stomach bothers her sometimes?”

“Yeah.” Soph still looks so tired, I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t remember this tomorrow.

“She wasn’t feeling well tonight, so I wanted her to stay so I’d be here if she needed someone to take care of her.” Not a lie. “She started feeling sick really suddenly and couldn’t quite make it to the bathroom.”

Hallie stands and wipes her eyes, trying to put on a calm exterior for Soph, though her eyes are still red and puffy.

“I’m sorry if I scared you or worried you.” She lets out a weak laugh. “I hate throwing up.”

“I do too.” Sophia yawns.

“Did you get any on you?” I ask Hallie.

She looks down and shakes her head.

“You two go lay down, and I’ll take care of it.”

Hallie’s eyes go wide. “But?—”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got this.” I wish I could kiss her to drive the point home. “Go.”

“Come on,” Sophia says, taking Hallie’s hand. “And I don’t care if you cry. Throwing up makes me cry too. It sucks.”

“Yeah, it does.”

Hallie gives me a thankful, emotion-filled look as Sophia leads her away.

I reach out and give her hand a tiny squeeze, the most I can do to reassure her right now.

Our hands slip apart slowly, and I savor every tiny touch before our contact is broken.

Now it’s time to clean up.

My poor little hellion. Luckily, once she gets it out, she usually feels okay for a while. She looked so panicked when it happened, but it’s just a little puke. I wouldn’t have survived Sophia’s early years if I hadn’t gotten used to cleaning up vomit.

If you’ve never caught your kid’s puke in your hands, are you even a real parent?

It’s not like it’s my favorite thing to deal with, but I’ve dealt with a lot worse.

I get it all cleaned up, then grab a couple of rags, cleaner, and some fresh water and quickly clean the spot on the floor, then rinse it.

It takes about twenty minutes all-in, and once I’ve washed my hands and put everything away, I aim for Sophia’s room. Depending on how awake she was, she might need another story or some music on her sound machine to help settle her in.

But what I find when I get there makes me stop in my tracks.

Hallie and Sophia are asleep in Sophia’s bed. Soph is curled up against Hallie, and Hallie’s arm is wrapped around Sophia.

Emotion grips me as I stare at my girls. And they are both mine. My whole world is right there in one tiny bed.

I want it to last. I want to keep this. I want to give Sophia the mother she deserves. I want us both to have the family we’ve needed. I want to wake up beside Hallie every day and worship her.

If only she’d let herself believe in how amazing we could be together.

She’ll get there , I tell myself. And I force myself to believe it. Because I’m not giving up hope that we can have it all.

I run my hand gently over Hallie’s stomach and kiss her cheek.

“Time to wake up, Hellion.”

“Hm?” Her eyes flutter open, and she looks around, eyes landing on me kneeling beside Sophia’s bed. When she puts it all together, she covers her face with her hands and groans.

“Hey, none of that.” I pull her hands off her beautiful face.

“I threw up all over the floor. You had to clean it up. That’s mortifying .”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want you to associate me with throwing up.”

I stare at her for a second. Is she fucking serious?

“Hellion, that is never how I see you. That’s a thing that happened. Just a part of life.”

“It makes me feel very… not sexy.”

Again, I rub my hand over her stomach, firmly resting it there. “I don’t need you to be sexy all the time. I like your smile, your humor, and your vulnerability too. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I like all of you. Every version.”

She rests her hand on my cheek, eyes dropping to my lips.

“Where’s Sophia?”

“Putting the finishing touches on breakfast.”

Leaning up, she presses a soft kiss to my lips, but the softness doesn’t stop the heat. The rush of… something inside me whenever we touch. When she seeks out my comfort.

We break our kiss too quickly, but until we tell Sophia anything, it’s too risky to continue.

Standing up, I hold my hand out to her. “Come on. We’re having a special breakfast.”

“I stayed the whole night,” she murmurs.

“Yeah, you did. And you slept hard. I won’t take too much offense if you tell me Sophia is a better cuddler than I am.”

She blinks at me. “Is Sophia okay? Like… was she weirded out by any of this?”

“No. Our logic was sound enough for her. Plus, I don’t know if you’ve caught on, but she really likes you. She’s just happy you’re here.” She slips past, but I reach out and grab her hand, holding her in place as I whisper, “So am I.”

A little shiver runs through her, but she straightens, and I let her go, smiling to myself at the effect I have on her. She can deny her feelings all she wants, but I know they’re there. Whether she realizes it or not, every day, she gets a little closer to letting me in.

I follow Hallie out to the living area, and she stutter steps when she gets to the kitchen and finds Sophia at the table, smiling brightly.

“Breakfast is served. I wish this was all my stomach wanted so I could eat it all the time.”

Three cups are filled with milkshakes, and each one has a plate of fries next to it.

Hallie whirls around and looks at me, emotion dancing in her eyes. “You did all this for me?”

Though I long to cup her cheek and look into those intoxicating amber eyes, I keep my hand tight at my side. Still holding her gaze, but not too intensely, I pour every bit of what I’m feeling into my words.

“Of course I did.”

She swallows hard, then blinks twice and cracks her knuckles before turning back around and smiling at Sophia. “Thank you for helping. And for making sure I slept so good last night.”

Sophia bounces over to Hallie and throws her arms around her. “Thanks for snuggling with me. I liked it.”

Hallie strokes her hand through Soph’s hair and laughs. “So did I.”

The connection between those two is proof that love forms in an instant. It may take longer to grow, but those two formed an instantaneous bond that easily turned into love.

Now I’m hoping I get as lucky.

Hallie yawns as Sophia heads to her bedroom to get ready.

Then she sighs and groans. “I think I’m still hungry.

” She aims for the refrigerator. “Is there any more ice cream? Or maybe I’ll go home and make some tater tots.

” But as she pulls the freezer drawer open, her eyes go wide.

She closes it again and turns toward me. “What is all that?”

I bite my lip as I walk over to her. “I think you know.”

“There are three cartons of my favorite vanilla ice cream in there. Bags of french fries and tater tots. Why?—”

Checking to make sure Sophia isn’t in the hallway, I wrap my arm around Hallie, tugging her close.

“Because they’re the foods that settle your stomach. You should always have what you need, and you’re here more than you’re in your own apartment. And if you run out there, you’ll have some here. I told you I was going to take care of you. This is a fraction of that.”

She stares at me, just stares, emotions flitting through her eyes too fast for me to read.

“Hey, Dad?”

I step back and clear my throat as Sophia walks into the room.

“What’s up, kiddo?”

“Can you put more hair ties on the list? I broke another one.”

“Do you need more right now? I can bring some over. I need to change quick before I take you to school.”

Sophia shakes her head. “I’m all good for now. Thanks, though.”

Then she scampers out of the room again, and Hallie slowly makes her way toward the door.

Her hand stills on the doorknob, and she glances over at me. “Thank you.”

It’s so quiet I barely hear it, and she leaves before I can say anything, but it hits me straight in the heart.

It’s becoming a routine for Hallie to go to her apartment for a bit after dinner, then come back and do Sophia’s hair before bed.

Sometimes she also reads her a story. And when Sophia is finally asleep and I make my way out to the living room, she’s always sitting on my couch, usually reading something on her e-reader.

“What’s the book of choice tonight?” I ask, taking a seat next to her.

“A romance for the Baker girls book club. We finally finished going through Jade’s backlist, so we’re digging through her friend Zoey’s books now. They’re really good so far.”

“Justin’s wife Jade? She’s an author?”

“Yep. That’s how they connected. Justin narrates books. And is on the cover of a bunch too.”

“Wow. Authors, narrators, football players. Any other high-profile people you know?”

“I know the Metros newest pitcher.”

I gape at her. “The New York Metros… You know Jamie Henderson?”

She laughs and sets her e-reader aside. “Not well, but yeah. I’ve met him a couple of times.

He and his girlfriend rent the apartment above my old one in the city.

My parents own the building. But that’s not actually how I met him.

You do realize he’s from Ida, right? Mark’s cousin is a friend of his, and Jade knows his girlfriend. ”

I blink at her in disbelief, and she laughs again.

“You’re the small-town boy. Shouldn’t you know this is how they work? And Zoey, the other author, is from Lacy Creek.”

“Wait. Seriously? What’s her full name?”

“Zoey Holloway.”

“She was a grade ahead of me in school.”

“You really need to get back in the small-town groove. You’re out of touch.”

I grab her legs and swing them onto my lap, massaging them. Another part of our routine, though I can tell she’s trying not to get too used to it.

“You’re probably right about that. After Sophia was born—hell, when my ex was pregnant with her—my sole focus became being a provider or caretaker.

I stopped going out with friends or really doing much of anything.

And once I had Sophia… I made her my entire focus.

When you said that, I wanted to deny it, tell you how wrong you were.

But there was truth to your words. Soph is my life.

I’ve let go of a lot of myself without realizing it.

I don’t want to do that. Because you’re right.

She deserves to see the fun side of me.”

“It came out over the weekend.”

“Because of you. You… give me the safety to let that side of me out. To find it again. Thank you for that.”

Her gaze lingers on me. “It’s the least I can do for all the ways you take care of me.

” She nods toward my hands on her legs, then her eyes go to the refrigerator.

“It might seem like nothing to you, but you stocking up on the foods I can easily eat means a lot to me. It’s so simple, but it’s also thoughtful.

If we’re admitting things, I didn’t want to believe your words about taking care of me could be the truth.

It would’ve hurt too much if they weren’t.

But I’m glad they are.” Her eyes meet mine.

“No one besides my parents has ever taken care of me like this. Thank you.”

“You don’t ever have to thank me. It’s my honor to be the man who gets to do it.”

She stares at me for a moment, then in a swift movement, pulls her legs from my hands and climbs onto my lap.

Dragging her fingers through my hair, she stares down at me, emotion brimming in her eyes. Then her lips land on mine in a desperate kiss. The first one she’s initiated since the night we met.

I lose myself in her lips and tongue. In the passion she pours into me.

The sinful groan I let out spurs her on, and she grinds against me, kissing me deeper, almost frantically, like if she stops, I’ll disappear.

I wish she’d trust I never will.

She breaks our kiss, slowly pulling her lips from mine as if it’s impossible to stop. Then she brushes her nose over mine and looks into my eyes. It’s not only heat that swells in her beautiful amber eyes, it’s vulnerability. Another lock cracked.

Her voice is soaked with desperation when she speaks. “Take me to bed.”

My hands wrap around her ass, and I’m on my feet a second later, her body wrapped around mine as I carry her down the hall.

Our lips collide again, and the neediness of her kisses leaves my chest tight and aching with the same kind of need.

She’s letting me in. Letting me care for her. And whether she realizes it or not, she’s giving it all back to me.

My cock thickens as she molds herself to me. She’s mine. I’m hers. And one day soon, she’s going to stop fighting against herself. She’ll see it too.

I’m a patient man. I can wait.

And until then, I’m going to take care of her in every single way.