Dawn of Forever (Jack & Jill #3) (42 page)

Jessica frowned. “Mickey and Sunny …” She sighed. What could she say? So many lives had been affected because one day, many years ago, little Knox McGraw met a giggling angel in red Mary Janes on the playground.

“My mother once said, ‘Love is reckless because true emotions are immune to logic. The most beautiful love stories are often the most tragic.’”

“Mmm …” Dr. Harper smiled. “Your mother told you the story of her life in just two sentences.”

*

A handsome—albeit
cocky bastard—stood at the entrance to Samovar Tea with the most beautiful baby girl nestled to his chest in a red Ergo carrier.

“Give her to me.” Jessica held out her hands and wiggled her greedy fingers.

“No way.” He opened the door.

Jessica shot him a glare as she walked inside the restaurant.

“Two?” the waiter asked.

“Yes.” Jessica pointed to a booth in the corner. “Over there please.”

After she shrugged off her coat, she held her hands out again. “I mean it. Give her to me.”

The cocky bastard’s chuckle accompanied his smile as he shook his head. “No. Sorry. If you wake her we’re both screwed.”

She plunked down into the booth. “You’ve always sucked at sharing.”

Tatted arms hugged the little bundle tightly as he eased to sitting. “Ryn ran a few errands. She took her breasts with her so I’ve got nothing if Livy wakes up.”

“She should have left a bottle.”

“We’re not using a bottle for another three weeks. Nipple confusion.”

Jessica laughed. “Never thought I’d live to see the day where my brother was an expert on nipple confusion.”

Jackson pressed his lips to Livy’s tiny head. She had his dark hair and lots of it. “You’ll understand soon enough.” His eyes, the ones that matched hers, looked up. A smile pulled at his lips still pressed to Livy’s head.

“We’ll see. Dr. Overprotective insists on no babies until my doctor gives me the okay. Apparently the whole starvation then dying thing, followed by six months of no menstrual cycles makes me a poor candidate for getting pregnant or having a healthy pregnancy.”

They gave the waiter their order. Jessica’s gaze stayed glued to Livy. She adored her.

“San Francisco.” She smiled, shaking her head. “I still can’t believe you sold Ryn’s place after everything you did to it, but I’m glad you did. I love having you living here again.”

Jackson bounced Livy gently as she stirred then settled back into him, resting her other cheek to his chest, her tiny fist at her mouth.

“Her parents were willing to move wherever we moved, but it was still a hard sell until Maddie took that job in Baltimore.”

“I never want to ask, but how are they?”

Jackson lifted his shoulders. “Maddie is … Maddie. Stubborn. Young. Immature. Defiant. And unforgiving. But she’s smart so she’ll do well with her job, marry some guy who can tolerate her attitude, and if she has a child of her own someday, I suspect she’ll come crawling back to Ryn.”

“And she’ll welcome her with open arms because a mother’s love is unconditional.”

Jackson stared at Livy, his face stone. “I still can’t forgive her.”

Jessica felt that familiar pang in her chest that came every time they talked about their mother. She thought of Dr. Harper’s words.
Your mother told you the story of her life in just two sentences.

“Mom’s dead. I don’t think she’s spending her afterlife worrying about you forgiving her, because I don’t think she regretted any of it—not with Knox, not with Dad, and not with us. The same way I don’t regret mine.”

“The unconditional love?” He looked at her. “It’s gutting.”

Jessica smiled. Livy would break him some day … one boyfriend at a time. “Yes, yes it is.” She glanced out the window. “Oh she’s coming … gimme, gimme, gimme.”

Jackson followed her gaze to Ryn walking toward the building. He smiled. Jessica loved the way he looked at Ryn, like each time he fell in love with her all over again.

Before he could protest, Jessica had the Ergo latch unfastened and Livy in her arms.

“God … I love how she smells.” Jessica held her close, inhaling the essence of her niece. Livy’s blue eyes blinked open as she sucked at her fist.

“There’s my beautiful wife.” Jackson stood, freed the carrier from his body, and hugged Ryn, palming her ass and kissing her like they were the only two in the room. But they weren’t and there were plenty of wide eyes staring at them.

“Daddy’s ready to give you a little brother already … right here in Samovar,” Jessica baby-talked to Livy. “Maybe they should go work on that in private and we’ll go visit Jonesy.”

Ryn giggled with Jackson’s greedy lips still pressed to hers. “Hi, Jessica.” She freed herself.

Jackson adjusted himself before sliding back into the booth next to Ryn.

Jessica shook her head and rolled her eyes.

“What?” Jackson took a sip of his tea, hiding his cocky-bastard smirk.

“So how was your last day with Dr. Harper?” Ryn asked, stealing Jackson’s sandwich and taking a huge bite.

He gave her the hairy eyeball.

“Sorry, baby. I’m starving,” she mumbled. “Think of it as feeding your daughter.”

Jessica widened her eyes at Jackson. For all the years he gave Luke crap about submitting to Jessica, there he sat—no testicles—lovesick for his wife and utterly smitten over the bundle in Jessica’s arms.

“I’m cured. My words, not hers.”

“Is Luke still seeing her?” Ryn wiped her mouth as Jackson reclaimed the rest of his sandwich.

“Yes.” Jessica laughed. “The guy had me iron his socks to take to Goodwill. You can’t fix that kind of crazy overnight.”

The twins shared knowing looks. Luke not only had AJ to deal with, he had the memory of watching Jackson deliver a violent death to Preston Iverson. After two months and still no Preston, Ryn asked Jackson if he killed Preston. In true Jackson style, he replied, “Do you really want to know?”

Ryn shook her head and they never discussed it again.

“Speaking of crazy …” Jessica glanced at her phone next to her plate. A photo of Luke pinned beneath Jones on the floor lit up her screen with the caption “Play time. Where are you, Mom?”

“Looks like it’s time for Livy and me to head home.” She stood.

Jackson cleared his throat, but it sounded more like a growl.

“Fine.” She handed Livy to Ryn.

“Get your own.” Jackson smirked.

Ryn elbowed him. “Don’t be mean.”

Jessica typed a message into her phone. “No, he’s right. I plan on remedying this situation as soon as I get home.”

Jessica:
I’m on my way. Get your dick out. I want a Livy too.

Jones:
Still waiting for your doctor to give us the go ahead.

Jessica:
Dammit, Jones! Meet me in the GTO in 20. Dick. Out. NO CONDOM!

“There. I just sent Luke a love letter. Wish me luck. I’m going to get Livy a cousin.”

Jackson and Ryn laughed.

“Bye.” Jessica winked and blew them a kiss before floating on her dreamy cloud all the way home.

*

“So remind me …
why aren’t they married?”

Jackson chuckled, stealing Livy from Ryn. “You know I don’t speak woman.”

“Yeah, yeah … and I don’t speak Jackson, but I got you something anyway.” She pulled a box from her purse.

“You’re too late. Christmas was last week.” He sucked on Livy’s fingers.

“I felt bad that your glasses were lost in the move.” Ryn smirked.

“And by lost you mean tossed.”

“I didn’t throw away your glasses.
Anyway
 …” She grinned.

Jackson loved that grin, those freckles, and her eyes that lit up just for him and the miracle he held in his arms. But without a doubt … he knew she threw away his glasses.

Ryn opened the box and pulled out a shiny pair of black Clark Kent glasses.

“You can’t buy someone glasses as a gift. You don’t even know my prescription.”

“Pfft … drop the act. They were vanity glasses and we both know it. I looked through them … they weren’t prescription.”

“It was minor.”

Ryn slipped his new glasses onto his face. Then she cocked her head to the side, lips twisted. “They just don’t look the same without the tape.”

“If and I mean
if
in the most hypothetical sense …
if
my glasses were vanity glasses, then why would you buy me new ones?”

Ryn shrugged then leaned in to kiss Livy’s chubby cheek.

“Unless … the glasses are for you.”

She scoffed. “Why would the glasses be for me?”

“Because you like me to…” he pressed his fingers over Livy’s ears and whispered “…fuck you wearing nothing but those glasses.”

Even after nearly a year of marriage and the birth of their first child, he could still make her blush from nose to toes.

“And we’re one week from
the
day.”

Ryn cleared her throat. “The day?”

“I’ve noticed the past few days you’ve wandered into the bathroom, opening and closing drawers for nothing in particular, at the exact time that I’m showering. I’ve watched you ogle me.”

“Livy’s extra diaper supplies are in our bathroom and the ogling to which you are referring is me glaring at you because you
get
a shower. Since you went back to work two weeks ago I’ve had three showers.”

“Sorry, my new job is demanding.”

“You’re a computer geek and you work from home.”

Jackson shook his head. “You don’t even know what it is I do, and I would offer to help more but I don’t have boobs.”

“She doesn’t eat twenty-four hours a day.”

“Yes, but she fusses easily.”

“So?”

“So … I don’t like it when she’s upset with me.”

Ryn laughed. “She’s not upset with you. She’s a baby. Babies cry.”

“Because they want boobies.”

“Oh my God … let’s go.”

As if on cue, Livy started crying. The second Ryn took her and held her to her chest she stopped crying.

Jackson held the door open with one hand, diaper bag and carrier in his other hand. Ryn narrowed her eyes as she walked past him. “Boobies,” he mouthed.

“Shut it,” she whispered.

He let the door close behind him and just stood there for a few extra seconds, watching Ryn toss a blanket over Livy on the way to the car. With a long sigh, he looked up at the bright clearing in the late afternoon sky. Beyond all certainty he knew there was a God, one who didn’t keep score. One who, in spite of all the lives Jackson had taken, still found him deserving of
everything.

*

He loved her.
No … he adored her. That was the only explanation for Luke leaning against the door of the GTO when Jessica arrived home.

“We’re not having sex in my GTO.”

She smirked. “And yet … here you are.”

“I just came down here to tell you that.” He stood with his back straight, arms crossed over his chest.

“Today was my last day with Dr. Harper.”

“I know.”

“Did you also know that last week my pussy doctor gave me the green light to get pregnant?”

“I know that Dr. Brannon is an OB-GYN, not a ‘pussy doctor.’”

“Says the shrink.” She curled her fingers into his front jeans pockets.