Oh, how the mighty fall.
“Shi—oot!” Moses yells, and the door bursts open as V charges inside, his gun drawn. He skids to a halt when he sees what happened and immediately starts backing away, pinching his lips tightly shut to keep from laughing.
“Get someone from the cleaning crew, please,” I tell him, and I cover my mouth to hide my own chuckles.
Moses gapes at me, wide-eyed and unbelievably shocked. “I have vomit in my ear, don’t I?” he asks as it drips down his face.
“Yeah. You do. I’ll take her, and you can go grab a towel from the bathroom, run back to our suite, and get cleaned up. I’ll stay with her.”
We trade possession of the adorable puke monster, and Moses heads to her bathroom for a towel. I’m on his heels, carrying Rory.
“What did you eat, angel cake?”
She starts talking in her adorable high-pitched gibberish, and I don’t catch any words that would account for the magnitude of the vomit comet I just witnessed.
Moses wipes off his face, and I have to give him credit for not throwing up all over the bathroom when he sees how covered he is.
“Jesus Christ. How is this even possible?” he asks, his voice now a hushed whisper as he stares at me and Rory as I turn on the tub with her smaller baby bath in it.
“Welcome to the wonderful world of toddlers. You still want to do this with me?”
As soon as the question is out, I’m terrified of the answer. Even with the barf bomb, I want a baby so damn bad. If Moses is freaked out by the first sign of hardship, I don’t know what I’ll do.
But standing there in a pink bathroom, with puke all over his shirt and still dripping from his ear, he smirks playfully. “Yeah, mama. You can bet your sweet ass I want to do it with you.”
My heart swells so big, I swear it might explode.
“But next time, you’re picking her up,” he says.
My laughter chases Moses out of the room, but my heart has never been so full.
* * *
When Mount and Keira return a couple of hours later, Mount is the first one through the door of the nursery. He bypasses me and Moses sitting in two chairs in the corner, playing a silent hand of cards, and goes straight to the crib where Rory is fast asleep. Only once he touches her does the tension in his body drain away.
Mount may be a cold son of a bitch in ninety-nine ways out of a hundred, but there’s no doubt in my mind he loves his daughter more than life itself. It’s actually refreshing as hell to witness.
Keira hugs us both and waves us out of the nursery so we can talk without waking up her baby girl. As soon as we step into the hallway, she closes the door.
“Lachlan will stand there and watch her sleep all night, if I let him,” she says with a shake of her head and a smile on her face. “How did it go?”
My best friend looks from me to Moses and then back again.
“It went great,” I tell her. Then I look to Moses, who is freshly showered and clean. “But Rory had a bit of an upset stomach for some reason, and she puked all over Moses. However, she seemed fine right after. No fever. I’ve checked a few times.”
Keira’s green eyes go wide as she scans Moses’s giant body. “Oh no. She ... she really has some distance with that mess, doesn’t she?”
He chokes on a laugh as Mount joins us in the hallway, shutting the door quietly behind himself.
“What happened?” he demands.
Keira quickly fills him in, and Mount’s shoulders stiffen.
“I’ll have the doctor come check her out. You should’ve called him immediately.” He shoots a hard look in my direction.
Keira puts a hand on his arm. “Rory doesn’t have a fever. She’s fine. Just like the doctor has told you every single time we’ve called him over for something like this. Kids just puke sometimes, Lachlan.”
Mount’s expression could be carved in granite. “I don’t want to take chances—”