Richard released a snort through his nose, trying to contain it, my poor baby girl having no idea the undertone of what she was saying.
Melanie cracked up, her hand smacking the table. “Watch out for that cowboy, Daisy. There are definitely all kinds of dirty, filthy things going on in there.”
“Cowboy? How many times do I have to remind you? It’s stallion, baby. You know this,” he tossed out to Mel.
He turned back to Daisy, dimples denting his cheeks, and he opened his mouth wide. “Anything? Tell me I’m clear. I can’t take it. Help. Save me,” he sang on a playful plea.
She inspected his tongue before she gripped him by both cheeks, her little fingernails scratching into the scruffy beard he was sporting. “Nope. You’re all in the good and safe. Just like we’re savin’ my mommy.”
“Yes, we are.”
He glanced at me, the ferocity in his eyes belying the lightness in his tone.
Gratefulness tugged at my mouth.
My daddy clapped his hands together. “Okay, my beautiful people. Let’s eat.”
Rhys bounced Daisy in his arms. “Woohoo! I’m starving.”
“Woohoo!” Daisy sang, too.
Richard wound an arm around my waist like that was the way it was supposed to be.
Casual.
Natural.
Again, like it was done every day.
“Dude’s always hungry. You all better make your plates before there’s nothing left,” he said.
Rhys smacked a hand over his heart. “As if I would be so selfish. I’m nothin’ but a giver.”
He winked at Maggie when he said it.
Redness climbed her neck and blossomed on her cheeks.
I glanced at my mama who was watching Richard at my side. His hand curled into my opposite hip.
Sinking in.
Standing firm.
And I knew we had so much to talk about.
But right then?
Right then, I needed to rest in this.
In peace.
In family.
In the spark of hope that I could feel illuminating at the edges of the darkness.
Richard pressed a kiss to my temple. “Why don’t you go sit down and rest? We’ll talk soon.”
I felt the undercurrent. There were hard times coming, hard discussions and hard decisions, but they’d gathered here to give me a moment of reprieve.
I nodded and untangled myself from him, kinda wishing that I didn’t have to.
I ambled over to the table.
Melanie beamed a smile at me and patted the seat between her and my mama. “Come sit your sexy butt down next to me.”
“Sexy butt. Sexy butt.” There went Daisy, her little ears way too keen, the child jumping up and down and chanting it where Rhys had set her back onto her stool. “My mommy is a sexy butt.”
Melanie covered her eyes. “Crap. Where’s my filter for five-year-olds?”
“Pretty sure you left it on the schoolyard in kindergarten,” Emily teased, mischief dancing around her while she finished scooping the diced fruit into a big bowl.
I sank down into the chair, my eyes wide and my heart pounding this frantic, beautiful rhythm, hardly able to process the activity happening in my kitchen. More than had been there in years.
The life. The joy. The faith and the hope and the love.
It didn’t matter if it felt like things were falling apart.
That I was sitting on a razor-sharp edge.
I could feel the fullness of the peace that climbed the walls and hovered in the air.
Richard moved over to Daisy, and he ran a hand down the back of her head before he leaned down to press a kiss to her crown. “You better watch out or Uncle Rhys is gonna get that soap after you.”
Daisy clapped her hand over her mouth. “Oops! There I go, breaking the rules. I guess I really am a Tomfoolery, right, Papa?”
My daddy laughed with soft affection. “Yup. You are nothin’ but mischief and tomfooleries.”
Affection lifted and soared. My spirit dancing out around me.
I felt the movement to my left, and I glanced that way to my mama spreading her hand out on the table toward me. I twined my fingers with hers. Squeezed tight.
Amor. Amor. Amor.
It banged and shivered and bound.
My daddy filled two plates, and Richard took them from him, crossed the kitchen, and set them in front of me and my mama. “There we go. Before Rhys can get his grubby hands on it.” He sent a grin to Mama and then shifted to give me a wink.
Love poured out, gushing from the dam where it was supposed to be contained.
And I thought it might have been the most wonderfully terrifying thing I’d ever felt.
* * *
Most of the day gone, we were outside in the backyard. Richard had helped my mama out into the sun where she sat under a blanket in her wheelchair, and Maggie, Emily, Mel, and I had gathered around her.
The guys were playing with Daisy where she climbed the ladder to her slide what had to have been a thousand times, and the three of them took turns catching her at the bottom.
My daddy was napping, exhausted from the trauma from the night before.
Daisy whooped as she hopped onto the platform, rushed across it, and sat back down at the top of the slide. “Here I come! Imma bird, watch me fly!”
She threw her arms into the air and propelled herself into action.
This time it was Royce’s turn to catch her, that dark, intimidating man covered in tats with this stoic, fervent spirit. When she got to the bottom, he lifted her and tossed her into the sky, catching her, the little girl squealing and laughing, her joy palpable in the fall air.
Emily inhaled a sharp breath, and she rubbed her hand over the tiny bump on her belly.
Melanie swatted her arm. “Stop drooling over your man. It’s unbecoming.”
“Um…you’re gonna start blaming me now?” Emily tossed her a grin.
Mel laughed. “Okay, okay, fine. Maybe the rest of us are just jealous you snagged yourself one of the good ones. I mean, seriously, look at that fine ass man. Hot as Hades, he
