Redemption Hills: The Complete Collection

33. Trent

THIRTY-THREE

TRENT

Had you ever felt a joy so big you thought you had to be hallucinating? Lost in a dream that you didn’t want to wake from because you’d really like to hold onto the fantasy forever? Something you wanted to cling so tightly to because there was no chance of it being real?

I guessed that’s the way it felt when I woke that morning to the lazy rays of light streaming through her bedroom window.

To Eden’s hair bunched in my face and her sweet body tucked against mine.

That honeyed scent filling my senses and her goodness and grace filling my spirit.

I hugged her tighter, the girl dressed again in the pajamas she’d had on last night. I buried my nose at the nape of her neck and inhaled. Like I could inscribe myself with the moment. Spend an eternity in it.

Then I was grinning wider when I felt the bustle of energy come bursting through the bedroom door along with a stampede of tiny feet.

“Dad, hey, Dad! There you are!” From the foot of it, Gage dove onto the bed, right between us. I shifted a bit to take my kid into my arms.

He grinned down at me, all dimples and light, voice fueled by excitement. “Did we get to have a sleepover at Miss Murphy’s house? Like you were hopin’ when we left? Because I fell asleep so much in the car and then I woke up and we were here. Did I miss it? Did you get our girl? Did you, Dad?”

Light laughter filtered free.

Last night, when I’d picked him up from Logan’s house, I’d woken him a bit, and with those little arms clinging to my neck, he’d wanted to know what we were doing. I’d admitted we were going to get our girl . Kid had taken it to heart.

Yeah, buddy, me, too.

“Looks like it,” I said, running my fingers through his hair, feeling sweeping over me so intense it locked the air in my lungs, that feeling only stronger when Eden rolled around to face us.

Girl blinking through her sleep with a crush of emotion flooding from that warm, sweet gaze.

And there was Gage, tucked right in the middle of us.

Gage looked at her. “What do you think, Miss Murphy? Did we get you? Did we? Do we get to keep you?”

He wasn’t even looking at me, and I could feel the force of his smile. The overwhelming joy. His love and belief.

She touched his face, and over the top of his head, autumn eyes found mine before she shifted her focus back on him. “You already had me.”

He threw himself on top of her, hugging her tight. “Now we get to keep you forever.”

I wrapped my arms around both of them.

Yeah.

I did.

It felt so right.

Gage howled with laughter, and Eden giggled and looked at me with that face that shined so bright.

Joy. Joy. Joy.

God, I didn’t know it existed like this.

Then I tugged them around just a bit, playfully, with all that happiness that washed and spread and glowed. “And I’m not letting go,” I claimed, a tease wound in my voice but the words a promise. “Keeping you forever.”

Eden wrapped her arms around us, too.

“Imma Gage sandwich!” Gage shouted, though it was muffled in the blankets and pillows and our bodies.

By our love.

“Gage sandwiches are my favorite,” Eden played, tickling my son, soft and sweet.

Gage kicked and howled and begged for more. “Your favorite, favorite?” he asked, trying to hold onto his shaking belly.

“My favorite, favorite. Although I kind of like your dad, too.”

A tease played all over her stunning face.

My chest squeezed.

So damn tight.

On my side, I propped myself onto my elbow, reached over, and cupped her cheek.

Gage slowed, just smiling up between us as I stared over at the girl. “Kinda like you, too. Kinda a lot.”

Eden took my hand on her cheek and pressed it to her mouth, her lips a whisper against my palm. “So much.”

“That’s called love, right, Dad, right?” Gage asked, close to a shout, looking at me for approval the way he did.

“Yeah, buddy, that’s called love.” I was looking at Eden when I said it.

Gage giggled. “Yup, definitely love. Whipped. That’s what Uncle Logan said.”

“Totally whipped,” I said.

No shame.

A smile danced over Eden’s delicious mouth, and I leaned over and pecked a kiss to it, thumb brushing the apple of her cheek. “Why don’t you take a shower and Gage and I will make breakfast?”

“You two better be careful…a girl could get used to this.”

“You better get used to it, Miss Murphy. If we’re gonna keep you, we gotta make sure we take care of you. Just like my dad takes care of me. That’s what people do who love you, you know?”

Her laughter was almost a whimper. Love spilling out. She ran her fingers through his hair. “Then I think you both had better expect me to take care of you, too.”

Gage beamed. “Because you love us.”

“Yes, Gage, because I love you both.”

Scrambling onto his knees, he pecked a kiss to her cheek before he went scampering out the door.

Soon as he was out of sight, I eased off the bed, took her hand and guided her to standing, kissed her deep.

The softest moan slipped from her mouth.

Danced across mine.

Yeah, she wasn’t the only one who could get used to this.

“You’d better get into the kitchen before I demand you take care of me in a different way, Mr. Lawson.” Playful seduction wound its way into her tone.

A chuckle rolled up my throat. “Ah, Little Temptress. Playing with fire. Don’t worry, baby, you’ll have plenty of that.”

She edged back just a fraction. “That’s good because I’ll never get enough.”

Yeah. I fucking liked that.

Us.

Here.

Now.

She spun around and waltzed toward the adjoined bathroom, those dancer’s legs exposed by the tiny shorts. I stayed rooted until she disappeared, and I heard the showerhead turn on, then I adjusted my dick in my underwear because that was gonna have to wait for later.

I dragged on my jeans and ran a hand through my messy hair before I moved back through the hall, the living room, and into the kitchen.

Every inch of it was bright, warm, and inviting.

Eden written all over it.

Gage was already in there, digging through the refrigerator. “Whelp, Dad, we’re gonna have to get really super very creative because all Miss Murphy’s got is some eggs and nuffin’ else in here. Sheesh. We better go to the store so we can take care of her better.”

Swore my chest was gonna burst as I walked up behind him and swooped him into my arms. “Sounds like a plan.”

Those arms wound around my neck. “’cause we love her so much all the way to the highest mountain, right?”

“That’s right, Gage, because we love her all the way to the highest mountain.”

“That’s called Mt. Everest, you know.”

I chuckled. “That’s called my boy’s got all the smarts.”

“I got to get all the As!”

I pressed a quick kiss to his temple before I propped him on the counter, set my hand on his cheek so he’d know it was important, my voice low with the gravity of the question. “You okay with this, Gage? With bringing Miss Murphy into our lives? Her bein’ a part of us?”

Kid actually scoffed at me. “Dad, tell me you’re jokin’? She’s the best thing that ever happened to us.” His arms raised to the sides, and he said it with so much seriousness.

God.

Felt like I was flying.

This love so bright.

For the first time since my mother died.

His eyes widened in emphasis. “You get offered something good, you better take it.”

There he went again, schooling me at life.

“Well, I guess we better take it then.”

“You know it.”

Still laughing under my breath, I started to dig around in Eden’s cabinets in search of what we might need.

Gage was right.

Only thing in the cabinets were cobwebs.

Then my heart was dropping to my stomach when the front doorbell rang.

Hairs lifting.

Because shit, my gun was locked in my glove box. Eden might have thought I’d overreacted last night when that douche had grabbed her, but in my life? With my past? With the demons that were right there, threatening to take me down? There was no fucking such thing as overreacting.

You reacted quick or you were dead.

Simple as that.

And I realized as I grabbed Gage and pulled him into my arms and carefully crept into the main room so I could peek out the window, that I was done with the ghosts of that life.

So tired of running.

So tired of hiding.

So tired of being afraid.

I had to find a way to put it behind us.

Permanently.

“What we doin’?” Gage whispered, his arms locked around my neck, kid no fool, feeling the agitation that instantly lit across my skin.

“Just seeing who rang the doorbell.” I peered out the sheer curtain. “Nothing.”

Relief filled me because it probably was just a delivery. Sighing out a strained breath, I tossed off the bad feeling and moved back into the kitchen, where I set Gage onto the counter.

Then my attention was whipping around when the back door rattled then creaked open.

Terror in my heart and vengeance in my hands.

Reaction I didn’t know how to stop.

Only the man coming through froze, eyes going wide in shock when he saw me standing there with my kid on the counter, like he was the one who needed to go into protector mode.

There I was, every muscle poised to jump into action, only wearing my jeans that were slung low on my hips, no shirt covering the sins written across my body.

The clear imprint of Eden was written there, too. Like the girl seeped from my flesh and whispered from my pores.

Eden’s father reeled in sheer confusion.

Then this creeping horror filled his expression as his eyes darted and raced and took in the scene. Adding it up quick.

“I…uh…um…” The man gulped, warring where he stood frozen in the doorway, his hand clutching the handle like if he backed out and closed the door it wouldn’t be real.

Gage shifted on the counter, a smile spreading wide on his precious face. “Oh, hi, Mr. Murphy!” Gage looked at me. “Dad, look, it’s my principal and he’s so, so nice. Did you know that?”

Gage looked back at him with that excitement blazing from his tiny body. “Did you come over, too? We’re just gonna make some breakfast which is the most important meal of the day, but we don’t have a whole lot, so we’re gonna have to share. That okay with you?”

Eden’s father forced a smile. “I…uh…”

Discomfort lined every inch of him when he looked back at me.

I pulled Gage off the counter and into my arms, trying to figure out the best approach.

What to do or what to say.

Because I had no shame in loving Eden, but the girl had every right to be ashamed of me.

Girl who I felt stumble to a stop behind me.

Her gasp.

A lash of that intensity.

But it was different that time. Her own horror rode through her being as her bare feet skidded to a stop. I looked that way just in time to see her tighten the robe she had wrapped around her body.

Her hair wet and her expression full of her own shock.

I shuffled on my feet.

“Daddy.” Eden whispered it like an apology.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to barge in. I rang the doorbell, and no one answered, and I was…”

His lips thinned into a grim line, his face pinched, and he shook his head like he was going to step back out.

Unease rippled and shook.

He was worried.

Had every right to be.

Fuck.

I should duck and run.

Save Eden the turmoil.

All the questions I’d had from the beginning reared up and hissed in my ear.

A reminder that I was nothing but a devil standing in an angel’s kitchen.

Had no right.

Had no right.

Except she was padding forward, all that grace echoing from her skin. The girl came up to my side, took my hand, and weaved her fingers through mine.

A clear statement.

“It’s okay, Daddy. Come in. There’s someone I’d like you to meet.”