The Langfield Brothers: Box Set

58. Millie

FIFTY-EIGHT

MILLIE

“You don’t have to carry me. I can walk.” Even as I say the words, I know the man won’t put me down. He strides straight through the living room into his bedroom, pressing a kiss to my lips before depositing me on his bed.

“No moving until I’m back,” he says with a stern glare. He knows me well. Vivi is in Sara and Brooks’s apartment and I’m dying to see her. It’s been three days since the accident. What if she’s forgotten what I look like? What if she thinks I abandoned her?

Even as I scramble forward, I know it’s a losing battle.

Gavin places a hand on my thigh. “Millie, I know you love to be a brat. It’s our thing, and normally it works for me, but right now, I’m going to need you to fucking listen for once. I won’t be able to breathe if something happens to you. Just stay.” His words pierce me. The man is pure exhaustion right now. “ Please, ” he adds when I have yet to reply.

I place my hand over his, trying to calm him. “I won’t move. But when you get back, can you grab a pair of pajamas from my room? I want to shower the hospital off.”

Gavin grunts. “Your room is here.”

I let out a soft huff of a laugh. “Okay, big man, but my stuff is in the other room.”

Gavin leans down close. “The closet is filled with your clothes. I hung them last night when they kicked me out of the hospital so you could rest. I also had Lennox pick up that shampoo and conditioner you like, and your toothbrush is in the bathroom. We’ll buy anything else you need this week, but you aren’t spending another minute in any bedroom that isn’t mine.”

“ Gavin .” The words rush out like a prayer.

He splays his fingers over my cheek as he looks deep into my eyes. “I love you. Almost losing you nearly killed me. Please, baby, don’t ever do that again. Promise me I die first. I can’t live without you.”

I don’t argue with him, though I feel the same way. This man is my everything. Him, as well as his daughter.

Our daughter.

God, I miss her.

“I love you too. Go get our little girl.”

Gavin presses one more kiss to my lips, then, with another squeeze of my thigh, he walks out of the room.

For ten minutes, I sit in complete silence, allowing thoughts of the last seventy-two hours to filter through my mind.

Vivi isn’t his biological daughter. My father now knows about Gavin and me, and from what Daniel told me, Paul even stood up for me to my mom.

I shake my head. I truly hope she can find a way to be happy, but I’m done worrying about other people. Done trying to appease people who will never be content. I’m living my life for me.

The door to the apartment closes, and despite wanting to burst into the living room and run to my girl, I sit perfectly still like I promised Gavin I would.

Footsteps sound in the hall, and when they stop at the door, Gavin lets out a heavy sigh. “Okay, Vivi girl. I’m going to need you to be extra good for Millie. She bumped her head and—” He huffs. “Why am I talking to you like you understand a word I’m saying?”

“Duck,” she replies, and I imagine that she’s squeezing his cheeks like she always does, hopefully making him smile.

“Duck is right,” he says, sounding lighter.

God, I love them .

“I’m going to make everything better, though. You’ve got me, and you’ve got Millie. And that woman in there—” He cuts himself off.

I have to cover my mouth to keep my sob from escaping. I’ve never heard such concentrated emotion in his voice.

“She’s the best mother around. You’re so lucky to have her. And I’m so lucky to have both of you.” He takes a deep breath. “Okay, we got this. No tears. Big smiles when we walk in, okay?”

When the door opens, I follow his instructions too. I paint a big smile on my face to hide my tears and pretend I didn’t hear his sweet words to our daughter. Then I hold out my arms. “Hey, bestie! I missed you!”

“I can feel you watching me,” I grumble from my pillow.

“So?”

At his cocky response, my eyes flutter open. I’m obsessed with cocky Gavin.

The man is sitting beside me with a bunch of beads on his lap.

“Why aren’t you sleeping?”

“I was too worried about you to sleep. But look what I made.” He holds up a little bracelet that says Vivi Girl .

“Aw, you made Vivi her own friendship bracelet.” I pluck it from his fingers and spin the miniature beads, smiling at them. “We need one for her that says bestie , though.”

“I made you one too,” he adds, ignoring me.

I reach for it, noting the M . M for Millie makes sense. But I swear my heart stops when I see the letters that follow it.

“You can be her bestie too, but I think this title is more fitting.” He slides the bracelet onto my wrist and turns it so the word, Mommy , printed on white beads, is on full display. The rest of the beads are peach, just like the ones on the Peaches bracelet he wears.

It’s then that I catch sight of a new one on his wrist. One that says Daddy . That’s when I lose it. “Gav.”

He shrugs and gives me a boyish grin.

“You’re going to need to put those beads away,” I warn.

“Why?”

“Because in two seconds, I’m going to straddle you, and then they’ll be everywhere. A clear choking hazard for our sweet Vivi girl.”

With one big sweep of his arm, the beads clatter to the floor. “I’ll get them with the vacuum,” he says as he pulls me onto his lap.

“It’s so sexy when you talk dad to me,” I tease.

His chest rumbles with laughter, vibrating against me, and when he pushes my hair out of my face, his laughter transforms into a soft smile. “What do you want to do today?”

“Something with just you and Vivi. Can we get some fresh air?”

“How does the zoo sound?”

I can’t help the smile that splits my face. “Really?”

“Yeah, the company just invested in a puffin exhibit at the zoo. Beckett showed me some pictures. They’re actually pretty cute.”

“Okay, seriously, stop. You just keep getting sexier.”

I’m not even teasing him. Why is it that Gavin as a father talking about family time makes me instantly wet?

He scowls. “Puffins are sexy?”

I laugh. “No, Hockey Daddy is sexy.”

He trails his fingers down my back and squeezes my ass. “The doctor said you need to take it easy.”

I grind against him. “The doctor also said that I was cleared for sex.”

“I can’t believe you asked him that,” he grumbles. “Your father was right outside the door waiting with balloons and flowers.”

I smirk. “So you wouldn’t like it if I did this?” I roll my hips again.

Gavin groans as I slide myself along his hard cock. “Millie,” he warns.

“Please,” I beg. I need him. Need to feel like me again. Need to feel like us.

He dips his fingers inside my panties and pulls them down.

I lift up and kick them off as he slides his boxers down.

“You know I can’t say no to you,” he mumbles as he grips my thighs and lets me control how quickly I take him.

Wanting to prolong the moment, I ease my way onto his cock, pressing a hand to his chest and holding his gaze as I slide down inch by fucking inch.

“Yes,” I murmur when he’s fully inside me. Filling me. Making me complete.

“Fuck yes,” he mutters. “Fuck me, Peaches. Use me.”

I shake my head. “No. I won’t use you. But I will make love to you.”

And that’s what I do. We go slow. Making love. Making up for all of our lost time. Just as we’re on the precipice, I tug his hands over his head and take in the matching bracelets that circle our wrists.

This is my forever. I have no doubt. Despite every obstacle we’ve had to overcome, we’re exactly where we should be.

“Oh my gosh, bestie. Aren’t they the cutest?” I screech as we watch the little birds that look like mini penguins with large orange beaks.

Vivi points her chubby finger at a bird waddling in our direction. “Duck! Duck! Duck!”

“She’s so damn smart,” Gavin mumbles.

“It’s actually not a duck,” Aiden says.

Brooks chuckles, and Sara hits Aiden in the chest.

“Vivi is the smartest,” she says. “Don’t even start.”

Heart full, I lean back against Gavin. He presses his chin to my shoulder. “You feeling okay?”

The plan was to spend the day just the three of us, but when his brothers and Sara showed up with breakfast and flowers this morning, I invited them along to the zoo. I figured they’d say no, but Aiden practically squealed in excitement.

Then Beckett called and said he’d meet us here with his three oldest kids. When they arrived, though, Finn demanded they visit the snakes, so Beckett grumbled that he’d see us back at his house for pizza.

Despite the insanity of it all, I love every minute of my time with this family.

“I feel fine.”

“Hi, guys,” a pretty blonde says as she approaches. She’s wearing a zoo shirt with a little puffin in the corner.

“Hey, Avery.” Brooks dips low and presses a friendly kiss to her cheek. And soon, everyone in our group is doing the same.

“Avery is Coach Wilson’s daughter,” Gavin tells me.

“Coach Wilson?” I frown, trying to place him, but I don’t remember a Coach Wilson on the Bolts’ staff.

“He coaches the Boston Rev’s,” Avery explains.

“And Avery’s dating the pitcher,” Aiden says. “I love love,” he adds with a dopey smile. “You think Beckett and Gavin were grumpy? You shoulda met Damiano before he finally won over Avery.”

The blonde rolls her eyes good-naturedly. “He’s a total softie. You guys want to meet his best friend?” She leans over the exhibit. “Hey, Puff, come say hi to some new friends.” She twirls her finger, and the puffin in the back does a little flip.

“Oh my gosh, he does tricks, Viv!” I say as I bounce our girl.

“Oh no. Now my girls are going to want pets,” Gavin grumbles, though his tone is light.

“His name is Puff?”

Avery giggles. “Chris—my boyfriend—calls him Puff Daddy, but I feel weird saying that.”

I laugh. “Hear that, Hockey Daddy? I think we need a Puff Daddy too.”

Gavin shakes his head. “All right, enough. Let’s go look at the monkeys.”

When the rest of the gang ditches us to get ice cream, Gavin and I take our time strolling through the zoo with Vivi. “Thank you for today,” I tell him. “I really needed this.”

“Not that I’m glad you were hurt, but the timing couldn’t have been better. Having these few days off is perfect. With the playoffs…” He trails off, probably worrying about all the travel we’ll be doing over the next two months. Playoffs are brutal, but this ain’t my first rodeo. I know how the sport goes. I know he’ll be busy.

“I’ve got Vivi. And we’ll be there supporting you every day.”

Gavin frowns. “You don’t have to travel with us. I know it’d be better for her if we didn’t drag her to a different city every night.”

“We’ll figure it out.”

“What about your music?” he asks.

I shrug. “I’d like to get into a studio to record a few songs, I think.”

Gavin’s face lights up, and he stops in the middle of the walkway. “Really?”

“Yeah,” I say, turning to face him. “I’m not sure what I’ll do with it. Maybe nothing. But I’d love to have a chance to work with Lake before she has the baby. I’m not sure about anything, really. So long as I have you and Vivi…” I take in our sleeping girl. She’s nestled against Gavin’s chest with her head tucked beneath his chin.

We’re both worried about the future. His games. My music. But most of all, we’re worried that we won’t get to keep this little girl.

“You’ll always have us,” Gavin says, somehow knowing I need the reassurance. He adjusts so he’s holding Vivi with one arm, then grasps my hip and pulls me close with his free hand. There, in the middle of the zoo, we snuggle our little girl. Right now, in this moment, I have everything I’ll ever need.