Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Leaning down, Damian pressed a kiss to Lily’s lips. She smiled against his mouth, her gaze lowering. Covered in scratchy white hospital blankets and tucked into bed, Lily was healing and doing well just hours after her first child was born.
She had done damn well.
Damian was proud of his wife.
And so grateful.
She brought his child into the world with her usual fierceness and stubborn nature, refusing to let the pain overwhelm her or frighten her. His child was healthy, pink, and breathing.
Damian couldn’t ask for more.
“Let me see his face again,” Lily whispered.
Chuckling, Damian sat on the edge of the bed and placed his son on Lily’s lap with care. The baby boy was cradled between her bent knees. Lily ran her fingertips all over the soft, sleeping lines of the baby’s face.
“Where did my brother go?”
“Theo just ran out for some grub,” Damian told her.
Lily smiled brilliantly. “He was so excited, too.”
“I know. He didn’t want to leave. Eve convinced him to go get us all food.”
“I’m still set on Joseph,” Lily said out of the blue.
Damian sighed, staring down at his boy. “Okay.”
“No argument this time?”
How could he argue?
“I didn’t know if it would fit him, but now that he’s here,” Damian said, shrugging, “it fits him pretty damn well, sweetheart.”
Lily grinned. “Joseph Theo Rossi.”
“That’s quite a couple of names he has to live up to,” Damian noted.
“He can do it.”
Damian laughed. “You’re so sure of yourself.”
Lily poked her husband in the arm. “Of course I am. He’s your boy—your son. How can he fail at anything when he’s got you for a father, Damian?”
That was the million dollar question, wasn’t it?
It still scared Damian a whole hell of a lot.
But he was pretty sure he was ready for it.
“Thank you, Lily,” Damian said.
“For what?”
Damian cupped his wife’s jaw in his palm, and swept his thumb over her pretty pink lips. “For everything, sweetheart.”
She had given him everything, after all.
*
Joseph was a happy baby once he learned to sleep through the night. The first couple of months were a blur of dirty diapers, refilling bottles, and sleepless nights for Damian. Not that he hadn’t spent a lot of nights awake before his son was born.
Damian didn’t mind taking night duty. He let his wife get extra hours of sleep because she deserved it. He quickly learned to make fast work of changing the baby’s diaper to avoid getting pissed on. He laughed his way through the messes and exhaustion, and his wife was there every step of the way.
He didn’t know how to be a father.
That was Damian’s biggest worry.
He couldn’t remember his own father, and the men who raised him hadn’t exactly been the best role models. So he did his best—he gave Joseph hours that could have been spent doing something else, he rocked his boy to sleep every single night, and he loved his child.
What else could he do?
He just wanted to be a good father.
“One more bite,” Damian said, holding out the spoon full of peas.
Joseph glowered at his father from his high chair. “Nah.”
“Joe.”
“Nah.”
“Joe,” Damian said again.
Joseph didn’t even blink. “MA!”
Damian jerked in surprise at his son’s shout, and the peas spilled off the spoon and onto the highchair and floor. Twelve-month-old Joseph broke into a fit of pealing giggles at having bested his father. For the most part, Joseph was quiet and content to sit in a corner with a handful of toys and be by himself. He didn’t need constant entertainment.
It wasn’t like him to be so loud.
“Goddammit,” Damian mumbled under his breath, rubbing a hand over his face. “Look what you made me do, Joe.”
Soft laughter echoed from behind Damian. He turned on the chair to find a very tired, nine-month pregnant Lily standing in the kitchen entryway. She shook her head as she walked further into the kitchen, taking Damian’s outstretched hand. She pulled his hand in closer, and pressed it to the side of her rounded stomach. His heart kick-started at the feeling of his child moving under his palm.
Another boy.
Damian couldn’t wait, but he knew Lily was tired as hell. Her second pregnancy was not as easy as the first had been. She was sick more often, and it seemed like all she had to do was feel the wind and she would catch a cold. Add in their one year old that kept her running after him while Damian acted as Tommas’ underboss for the Outfit, and she was exhausted.
He tried to help as much as he could, whenever he could.
Like today.
After coming home to find Lily going crazy with cleaning, he demanded she go upstairs, have a nap, and he would get Joe something to eat. Thankfully, she went without much argument.
A fun, drunken, child-free night had left the couple with something extra.
Both Damian and Lily had wanted to wait another year or two before having another child. At least until Joseph was potty trained. It obviously hadn’t ended up that way. In his drunken foolishness, he’d forgotten that his wife was in the midst of switching birth control. Lily had forgotten, too.