She looks at me, wide-eyed. "But he'll want to eat. I . . . you need . . ."
"Your tits?"
She brings her hands up to her chest as if in protection, and then breaks into a smile. "Yeah."
I move to the fridge and pull out the bottle made this morning after she pumped. "Not as supple as the real nipple, but this should do just fine."
"You're crazy." She laughs.
"Sometimes, yes. But you'll learn to enjoy my kind of ride. Now get out of here before he wakes up and you start fussing over him. I'll come get you when it's your turn."
She doesn't hesitate this time, hightailing it to the shower. Pausing by the door, she's a modern day disheveled goddess. I'll be damned if I wouldn't bow down to her kind of deity. "Caden?"
"Piper?"
"Thank you. For your everything."
I smile, and a calm I haven't felt since I returned from overseas spreads through me. "You're my pleasure, sunshine."
This might just work. I have a plan with the house, and I'll figure out how to crush my attraction to Piper. As she shuts herself in the bathroom, I walk over and scoop up the baby.
"Come here, little man." Pain settles in my chest, but it's not as tight as it was this morning. Gus and I transition to the couch and stare at a face I've seen every day but have been missing for the last six months. "I miss your daddy, kid. I miss him like my right arm is gone." He blurs through the mist covering my eyes. My throat tightens but I push out what needs to be said. "I've made promises I didn't keep, but this one is between you and me. I'll help you know him, how great a guy he was. For every day I'm in your life, together we'll remember him so it doesn't feel like he's gone." I breathe the words into his forehead, and I know this is not saying goodbye to Justin after all. We're just starting a new beginning.
Dear Justin.
Beautiful isn't strong enough to describe him. Love isn't a big enough word to explain the scope of feeling. We have a baby made from the best parts of us.
x Piper
CHAPTER SEVEN
Uncharted Territory
Piper
SLEEP MAKES ALL the difference in the world. Five straight hours has never felt so good. But my boobs ache, letting me know it's time to get up to find Caden and the baby.
As soon as I step foot into the living room, I know it's empty. I frown and look out the front window at the dark sky.
I'm hit with a wall of warm humid air as I open the door. Gus and his white head draw me to Caden's truck. Weathered by decades of use, its blue paint is scrubbed off in more places than it's on. But the tough exterior with soft leather inside is a perfect match for its owner who lies on his back in the bed with a cocooned baby sleeping on his chest. Gus scrambles over to the tailgate, welcoming me aboard.
"What are you doing out here?" I ask as I crawl in beside Caden.
"Mm," he murmurs, kissing JT's head as he does. "Listening."
"To what?"
"Everything." He closes his eyes whispering, "Lie back and you can hear it too."
I follow his lead, surprisingly comfortable on a cushion of blankets with Gus nestling by my shoulder. After a moment, the faint singsong of cicadas twining notes through the trees is not enough to keep my mind occupied. "Why'd you come out here?"
"JT said he needed fresh air and I, being the best, best friend a boy could ever have, obliged."
"He told you, did he?" I smile and angle my head to look at the pair. JT bundled, and with a baby beanie on his head, is zonked out with a fist in his mouth.
Caden wears clothes as if they're an afterthought. His tattoos are visible in the soft moonlight. Naked from the waist up, his jeans are zipped, but unbuttoned and low, so low I fear they'll slip off his narrow hips if he stands. When he catches me checking him out, his lids lower, but not enough to hide the mirth behind them. A tingle dances over my skin.
"JT and I have an understanding. He cries, and I give him whatever he wants. It works out well. Tonight, coming outside calmed his fussing."
"You have the magic touch."
"I've heard that before." His voice slips an octave, and I close my eyes as the tingle returns tenfold. He laughs. "From my sister. Willow was like putty in my hands when she was a baby. It drove Cara crazy. She'd be up all night with her, and then I'd come over and the kid would pass out. Not a peep from her for hours."
I focus on the sky and the few stars peeking between the clouds. "Were you home a lot when Willow was born?"