“You took care of us,” she croaked.
“Okay…”
“No one’s taken care of me since my grandma. Not really. My parents weren’t in the picture. Roman was never any help. And when Luca’s sick, I have to do it alone.”
Pain lit in my chest, and I held Sutton tighter to me. “I’ll always take care of you. Always.”
Sutton just cried harder. “Don’t promise me that.”
“Why not?” I asked, my voice dropping low.
“Because if I lose that promise, I’ll break.”
“Fuck,” I muttered. I cradled her against my chest. “I’m afraid it’s too late.”
“Too late?” she croaked.
My fingers sifted through Sutton’s hair, tangling in the strands. “I’m already in love with you.”
39
SUTTON
I combedout my damp hair and then ran my fingers through it in a half-hearted attempt to air-dry the strands. I might not have the energy to blow-dry it, but at least my hair was clean. I’d also been vomit-free for over twenty-four hours, which meant I felt like a new woman.
The feeling of Cope holding my hair back and rubbing a hand down my back flashed through me. Just like his words from the day before still echoed in my mind. “I’m already in love with you.”
I’d played them over and over, with alarming frequency. It wasn’t fair. Not when I hadn’t given them back. Cope saying them at all had startled me senseless, but he didn’t wait for my response. He simply carried me into the bathroom and ran me the perfect bath, not leaving my side for a second.
Staring into the mirror, I studied my face. My skin had regained most of its color, and my eyes had lost the dullness they had while I was sick. With a few good meals, I’d be back to normal and could hopefully return to work.
Strains of laughter came from downstairs, making my mouthcurve. I needed to go relieve CopeandArden, who’d gone above and beyond while taking care of Luca. I slid my feet into comfy slippers and headed for the stairs.
I might’ve been out of breath by the time I reached the bottom, but none of that mattered when I caught sight of the vision in front of me. Luca raced in a circle around the living room. It was impossible to tell whether he was chasing the massive cane corso and adorable yet bumbling puppy, or if they were chasing him.
“Throw it to me!” Luca shouted.
“Incoming,” Cope called, launching a tennis ball toward my son.
I couldn’t help but stop and stare. Cope had on a pair of black joggers that fell loosely around his hips. The gray tee that readSeattle Sparksclung to his defined chest as he released the ball, his biceps flexing. But it wasn’t his body that had my heart halting. It was the light in Cope’s dark-blue eyes as he looked at my son. The joy in his expression at the chaos that reigned in his living room.
Warmth spread through me, but fear followed fast on its heels. Because as much as this all felt like a dream, it also felt tenuous at best. As if the safe harbor Cope had given us could be broken at any moment. Shattered beyond recognition.
Luca caught the ball with a shout, and I worried Arden’s large dog might take him out. He easily could’ve, given he probably weighed twice as much as Luca. But the dog just barked in what could only be sheer joy. Gretzky tried to leap at Luca but fell into a sort of tumbling roll instead, then bounded off to the other side of the room.
“Arden, did you see that?” Luca shouted. “That catch was sick!”
Arden grinned from where she sat cross-legged on the floor. “Maybe baseball is in your future, too.”
Luca just shook his head. “Naw, I just want to do hockey and jiu-jitsu, like you.”
I couldn’t help the groan that left my lips. All three heads turned to me. “Hockey wasn’t bad enough?” I asked, my lips twitching. “Now, you actually want to fight people?”
Luca grinned widely, exposing the tooth that was growing in. “Fighting is the best part of hockey, so yeah.”
I turned to Cope. “I blame you for this.”
He held up his hands in mock surrender. “I’m not the one who let Luca watch me spar with Kye.”
