𝐕𝐈𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐂 ❶

𝟐𝟐. ✭ 𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐘 ✭

Just as I'm adding the last bit of our luggage into the back of my car another one pulls into the driveway. Out of the back of it comes Boston. He looks haggard and tired, probably from a day and night spent enduring labor with his wife. I check my watch to see that it's nearly midnight. I'm surprised he's even here this late.

"Everything alright, Bos?" I asked as he stretches his limbs out while blowing out a long breath. "You look like shit."

"Fuck you. I just spent the last several hours having the circulation in my right hand cut off." I envy him in this moment because I'd never gotten to experience it with Dani. I hadn't been there when my child was born.

"Why aren't you with them, then?"

"Well, I was but then Monica was complaining about the hospital pillows and how her back hurts. Something about how she wants to be around things that smell like home. I don't know. So, here I am— grabbing her a pillow and a blanket from home so she doesn't cry or scream or who-knows-what." The man will forever be at this woman's beck and call. The fact that the two of them welcomed a baby into the universe is proof of that. From never wanting to have kids to proud father— that is the power of pussy.

"The delivery went well?" I drag a pack of cigarettes out of my pocket. After snagging one out I light it up then shut the trunk of my car. "Baby and mother are good?"

"Yeah, they're both great, healthy. It was smooth sailing for the most part." He holds out a hand, asking for a cigarette but I know he quit a few years back so I just arch a brow. "Oh for fuck's sake, Torey, just give me a damn cigarette. I need a little pick me up. I'm fucking beat." I toss him the pack and the lighter before leaning on the driver's side door. He lights up with a satisfied groan afterward. "God, I have missed these."

"Better not make it a habit there, man with the defective heart." He rolls his eyes and chucks them back to me. "You could've called me. I would've picked up what Mon needed and brought it to the hospital."

"Honestly, she's pretty particular and I needed to get the car anyway. Plus," he exhales a deep smoke-filled breath, "I'm not too fucking thrilled with you right now. Bringing all this shit to my doorstep when you know I have a baby on the way." He eyes the packed car. "Where you heading off to now?"

"Staying with the parents for the night before we fly out tomorrow." He nods a few times. "I'm sorry about everything. I didn't mean to bring any of my shit here. I talked to my parents and they're going to have a security detail on your house for the next little bit just to ensure everyone is safe and no one comes looking for us here."

"Monica will freak out if she sees armed people around the house."

"They'll be incognito." He just shakes his head at me in frustration. "Listen, I know I fucked up."

"Yeah, more than you were fucking your ex last night. I don't know how Monica slept through that. The two of you were loud as hell." I let out a laugh at that. "What's the deal with Dani anyway? That guy Brooks seems like he's not going anywhere. How do you plan on handling that?"

Unfortunately he's right about that. The man even got along with my father, they even cooked together. Apparently he hadn't lied about being a chef either. I'd had to suppress several groans during dinner because the food was so fucking delicious.

"I don't really know. Right now we're working together and I kind of have to keep him around." Because he'd figured out what my actual line of work is but I'm not talking about that out in the open. "I'm sure we'll figure something out."

"When it comes to Dani?"

"I don't share." Even though throughout the majority of the day I had seemed to do a lot of that. "At least not in the bedroom area," I amend. There will be no one fucking Dani but me.