Page 80 of Her Unflinching Warrior (Omega Sky)
“Come on you two, let’s get down on the floor and see if your crawling has improved, big boy.”
Gideon had already moved the coffee table in preparation for Neil, so there was lots of rug space to put down his baby blanket. Jada set him in his playpen while she laid out the baby blanket.
“Caught you,” Gideon said as he came back in from outside carrying a portable crib. “Are you already planning on getting down and dirty?”
“Darn right I am. I want as much playtime as I can get with the kid.”
Lucy’s nose was up against the playpen and Neil was batting at it. “I think my dog wants to play as much as you do,” Gideon said.
Jada stopped herself before saying, ‘our dog’.
God, what am I thinking?
She lifted Neil out of the crib and got down on her hands and knees and proceeded to play with Lucy and Neil, delighting in how far and fast Neil could now crawl.
“You’re a champ, kid. You take after your Godfather.”
“I don’t know Jada, all that energy and speed reminds me of you,” Gideon grinned.
* * *
Gideon hung up his phone.He hadn’t been surprised by Sebastian’s midnight call; it was the first time that he and Gianna had been separated from their son overnight and they were jumpy. Jada had shared with him her friend’s concerns about her marriage, but his teammate was doing a great job getting everything back on track.
It seemed that Gideon and Sebastian had a lot more in common than he would have thought. Guilt was a pernicious emotion, and so often you didn’t even realize how deeply it had its hooks in you and how it was souring every aspect of your life until you were drowning in it. When Sebastian told Gianna just how culpable he felt for getting her pregnant so soon after Neil’s birth, she had laughed. She went on to explain that she was ecstatic at the idea of having children close in age so they could have strong connections like Jada’s older brothers. Sebastian had started feeling better immediately.
“Did you calm him down?” Jada asked as she walked into the bedroom.
“Yep. He tried to say he was calling on behalf of Gianna.”
“Did you call bullshit?”
“No, because I figure he was calling for both of them.”
Jada nodded as she put the baby monitor on her nightstand, turned off the light, and got under the covers.
“You know, the way that thing works is, Neil has to make noise before you need to check on him. You do realize that, don’t you?”
“I thought I heard something,” Jada defended herself. “Anyway, it’s hard to hear anything over Lucy’s snuffles.”
Gideon laughed. “That’s true. But she would let us know if something were wrong.”
“Maybe,” Jada said doubtfully.
“For real. Shasta, Lucy’s sister, would always let Felix and Pam know when little Isaac was attempting to climb out of his crib. One time, the kid got into Pam’s purse, and Shasta pulled the purse away from the kid. She’s quite the babysitter.”
Jada laughed. “I wonder if Lucy could be taught to do that.”
“She spent a fair amount of time over there when I was on missions, and according to Pam and Felix she was just as good with Isaac as Shasta was.”
“I’m loving this.”
Gideon put his arm around Jada’s shoulders and pulled her close to his side. “Loving what, Angel?”
“This. You. Here. Everything.”
“Well, that clears it up, thanks,” he teased. He switched off the light on his nightstand, then pulled Jada in and caught her mouth with his—needing her mouth, needing a kiss, which Jada readily reciprocated. He drew them deeper under the covers, and Jada rolled on top of him.
* * *
