She was loved again for real.
And when Evan woke up the next morning and the guys hustled her into the bathroom to take the pregnancy test, she had no fear as she watched the little window give the result.
No, when she saw that once-dreaded plus sign appear, all she felt was joy.
Three would become four.
A new forever would start.
And man, she couldn’t wait.
Epilogue
The silence of the baby monitor woke her. So many nights of that steady, whooshing sound made the quiet seem downright deafening. Evan rolled over, blinking awake with a soft groan. Her eyelids felt like she’d shoved sand beneath them and her head was pounding. She rubbed her eyes and the numbers on the clock swam in front of her. Past three in the morning. Lord, she’d just finished the last feeding forty-five minutes ago. She looked toward the dresser where the monitor was stationed. No lights blinked. Had she forgotten to plug the monitor back in? Maybe the thing had broken.
Didn’t matter now. She’d never be able to fall back asleep without checking to make sure everything was okay. She scrubbed a hand over her face and yawned. All right. Up and at ’em. The guys had both had long days, getting the new house put together and unpacking the endless amount of boxes that had gone ignored when Lucy came two weeks early, so Evan did her best not to jostle the bed when she climbed out. The room was pitch black, but she’d memorized where she hung her robe. She’d made this trek enough times ove
r the last few weeks to know it well. She wrapped the robe around her and shuffled into the hallway.
The nightlight from Lucy’s nursery cast a soft glow on the honey-toned wood floors, and music drifted from the room. Man, she was completely off her game tonight. Had she left the lullabies playing, too? God knows sleep-deprivation caused her to forget her own name sometimes. Though, most of that was her fault. Jace and Andre had encouraged her to sleep when the baby was sleeping. But somehow she always found herself watching Lucy in awe as she slept. Okay, fine, she was also watching that little belly move up and down, her near constant fear that Lucy would stop breathing making her more than a little paranoid.
It had taken a lot of convincing from Jace and Andre for her to finally sleep in bed again instead of slumped in the rocking chair in Lucy’s room. They’d actually threatened to cuff her to the bed one night just to force her to get a good night’s sleep where she wouldn’t wake up in need of a chiropractor. She’d balked, but in truth she was glad she had the guys around to rein her in a bit. New parenthood could make anyone go crazy. And frankly, the guys could be as far gone as she was sometimes.
Which was why when she got closer to the nursery, she wasn’t surprised to hear that the music wasn’t the lullabies at all. It was Jace singing. She grabbed the doorframe, trying to keep quiet, and peeked inside the room. The sight inside made every inch of her fill up with soul-deep warmth.
Jace had taken her spot in the rocking chair and had Lucy cuddled against him as he sang Van Morrison’s “Crazy Love” to her. Lu’s little fist was balled against Jace’s bare chest, and she had this contented wonder in those big eyes as she stared up at her daddy’s face. Evan smiled. Her girl was such a junkie for skin-to-skin contact, even when she couldn’t get any milk out of the deal. Though, really, Evan couldn’t blame her. Her two daddies had lovely chests to cuddle against.
Jace looked up, catching Evan spying. “Hey, you’re supposed to be sleeping, mama.”
She crossed her arms. “You turned the monitor off. The silence woke me up.”
He smirked. “I did that so you could rest, but clearly, you’re hopeless.”
“I know.” She stepped inside and walked over to them. Evan ran her hand over Lucy’s fine tufts of dark hair. “She giving you trouble going back to sleep?”
“Nah, Lu just wanted a late-night chat. We’ve been discussing how she’s not allowed to be alone with a boy until she’s twenty-five.”
Evan smiled. “How very Victorian of you.”
“Hey, Andre said thirty, so I’m the reasonable one.”
Evan looked down at Lucy, the big green eyes blinking back at her a mirror image of Jace’s. “Lu, your teenage years are going to be so much fun with these two.”
“You get to obsess about things now. We get to do it later.”
Evan lowered herself to the floor and leaned back against Jace’s legs. “So Van Morrison, huh?”
“Well, she’s partial to indie rock, but I’m trying out some new stuff on her. Want to keep her on her toes.”
Evan sighed and closed her eyes, inhaling the scent of Jace and baby lotion—two things she never would’ve thought she’d smell paired together. “You’re really good at this, you know.”
“We’re just trying to keep up with you.” His hand threaded through Evan’s hair, stroking her scalp. “Plus, I love this.”
“Yeah?”
“Singing to a girl in the middle of the night while she stares adoringly at me and drools? I was born for this.”
Evan smiled. “And what if we have a boy next time?”