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Five weeks later
Briar’s eyes sprang open when Rosie’s cry woke her from a deep sleep. She sat up, pushed to her feet, feeling light years better than she had during those first few weeks. Matt had taken the night shift to allow her a full night’s sleep.
God, she missed sleep.
Having him around had been such a huge help. They worked well as a team, and the few times he had to act as a consultant for something work related, she was able to handle everything okay on her own. The awful sense of isolation and being overwhelmed had thankfully faded away with the mood swings about a month ago. She honestly didn’t know how women with full-blown postpartum coped. It must be hell.
The worst bit now was the continual sleep deprivation, but with Rosie eating more and keeping most of it down, the amount of sleep they got was slowly improving too. That alone helped a ton.
She walked down the hallway, the wood floors cool against her bare feet, and pushed the nursery door open. “Good morning,” she said to Rosie.
The baby’s head turned toward her, and Rosie’s little face transformed into a look of pure delight, her lips curving as they parted. Briar stopped dead. “Did you just smile at me?”
Rosie did it again.
Oh my God. Briar reached into the crib and scooped her up, whirled and rushed back down the hall. “Matt! Matt, you gotta see this!”
“What?” he blurted, jerking up onto one elbow in the bed, the sheet falling down to reveal his naked, muscular torso. His eyes were bloodshot, his hair sticking up all over the place, and he was still the sexiest man she’d ever seen. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She looked down at Rosie proudly. “She just smiled at me.”
A startled look came over his face. “She did?”
“She absolutely did.” She looked down at their daughter. “Come on, Rosie. Do it again.” She made a silly face, widening her eyes and opened her mouth in an exaggerated expression of excitement. “Come on, show your dad how clever you are.”
Rosie stared up at her for a moment with eyes lightening to a shade of what looked like might end up being green, then looked around the room. No smile for daddy.
“She was totally smiling. I saw it twice,” Briar said to Matt.
“I’ll take your word for it.” He chuckled, reached for the baby and drew her to his chest. “You’re gonna make me work for my first smile, huh? Just when I think you can’t get any smarter or more adorable.”
“I think she’s advanced. Most babies her age don’t smile for another week or two.”
Matt gave her a sardonic look. “Well of course she’s advanced. She’s half Valkyrie, after all.”
“True.” Briar took Rosie back, waved a hand at him. The whole show and tell thing hadn’t gone according to plan. “Go on back to sleep. I’m going to feed her and give her a bath.” She shut the bedroom door behind her to let him sleep and headed downstairs. Rosie loved her baths but it was way easier in the stationary tub in the laundry room than in one of the bathtubs.
She reached the main level. Sunlight spilled through the kitchen windows, slanting across the wood floors in long rectangles. Briar settled on the couch to change and feed Rosie. Breastfeeding had gotten so much easier than it had been in the beginning. Her breasts weren’t tender anymore, and she no longer had to bite her lip and brace herself when Rosie latched on. Her daughter was also draining one side completely at each feeding now, and almost always kept it all down.
After Rosie had finished feeding, Briar gave her a bath and put her in the little camo-print dress from Trinity, who was coming over tonight for dinner. “What do you think, little miss? Should we make your daddy some breakfast maybe? Take it upstairs to him? Not that we want him to get used to that sort of thing,” she added. “Don’t want to spoil him too badly, do we?”
She settled Rosie in her bouncy seat on the kitchen counter and puttered around making her and Matt something to eat, along with a pot of coffee. She was just gathering everything up to put it on a tray when she heard him coming down the stairs.
“What are you two up to in here?” he asked as he walked into the kitchen.
“We made you breakfast,” Briar said. “But it was supposed to be breakfast in bed.”
Matt’s eyes gleamed. “Really? Were you going to hand feed it to me too?”
“Yeah, don’t push it.” She slid the tray across the island toward him.
A gorgeous grin broke out over his handsome face. “Scrambled eggs and cinnamon toast. My favorites.”
“They’d better be,” Briar said with a grin, handing him a mug of coffee.
Matt turned to the baby. “What do you think, Miss Rosie? Are they my favorites?”
She slapped her clumsy hands on the bouncy chair, gave another smile.
Briar whipped out an arm to point at her. “There! You saw it, right? Tell me you saw it.”
“That is the cutest damn thing I’ve ever seen,” Matt gushed, scooping Rosie up to cover her face and neck with kisses. In another few weeks, the house would be filled with the sound of baby giggles. Briar couldn’t wait to hear them.
Grinning, she leaned against the counter with her own mug of coffee and watched Matt lavishing affection on their daughter. It was unreal. She loved the two of them more than she’d ever believed herself capable of. Things had gotten off to a shaky start in the beginning, but now she knew they were going to be okay.
They were a family. She may be a long way from a perfect mother by some people’s standards, but Rosie would grow up in a secure home knowing every day that she was loved by both her parents. Wasn’t that the best any parent could do?
And if some asshole ever dared to hurt her baby girl, Briar would hunt the bastard down herself, kill him, then dispose of the body in a way that no one would ever find it.
She might even let Matt help a little.
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—The End—
