Always (Family Justice Book 1) (6 page)

“That’s new,” she murmured to Tori with a question in her voice.

Victoria laughed and shook her head. “Damn. You noticed the change. I keep trying to tell Draegyn the slight alteration in the space isn’t that big a deal. Don’t let him know you saw right away,” she giggled.

“Understood, baby girl, but what’s that all about?

“It’s so cool, Mom. We got a small elevator. With the layout of the addition, we have three levels now, so…elevator. That’s why they dragged your bags down the hallway.”

To say Tori waddled wasn’t entirely accurate when in actuality what she did was a sort of shuffle shuffle shimmy that mimicked walking. Seeing firsthand how difficult it was for her to get around, Stephanie was delighted to learn about the elevator. Tori must have been channeling that exact thought ‘cause she chimed in. “I’d never be able to move up and down steps so the elevator has been a blessing. Without it, I’d be trapped on one floor.
Ugh
. What a thought.”

By the time they’d crept along the hallway to the elevator door, Tori was winded. “
Shugah
, darling,” Stephanie drawled. “What this situation needs is a rolling chair! Remember how we used to take Daddy’s old desk chair and use it to stack our grocery bags on? Get yourself a twenty dollar chair that you can scoot around on.”

“Aw, Mom.
Shit.
I’m so glad you’re here. The chair idea probably sounds hare-brained, but you’re so right. After all, it’s only for a few weeks. Know what? Let’s get two and we can have rolling chair challenges. Just like when I was a kid.”

As the elevator door closed and she pushed the button for the second level, Stephanie kissed Tori on the forehead. “Look at you. Already thinking like a mama. You’ll be making those sorts of memories with your own child real soon and then all this will have been worth it.”

Victoria slumped against her and murmured, “God, I hope you’re right.”

AFTER A BRIEF TOUR OF the new baby suite that Tori declared
the coolest fucking nursery on earth
, Draegyn scooped Tori up in his arms. He motioned to Stephanie to go ahead of him and up a short rise of steps at the far end of the hallway. At the top of the wide stairs and after a quick pivot to the left, Stephanie was faced with a wide-open space. It was laid out as a sitting room with a sectional sofa, some easy chairs, and a flat screen TV mounted on a wall.

After he’d settled Tori onto the sofa, Stephanie reached out, grabbed her son-in-law’s forearm, and squeezed. “Draegyn,” she sighed, gratitude and amazement in her voice. “This is beautiful.”

Tori snorted in amusement saying, “You ain’t seen nothing yet, Mom. Check out the kitchen and the deck. My husband really outdid himself.”

Seeing Draegyn’s actual man-blush was just as cute as could be. He was the blink of an eye away from scuffing his foot on the ground, hanging his head, and muttering,
Aw shucks.
Stephanie was definitely starting to grade him on a curve.

“It was nothing, really,” he joked. “I knew Victoria would want you to be part of our baby’s life, and the casita is nice and all but too far away. This way, you’re right here but have all the privacy you need. Behind this room is a bedroom with a walk-in closet and a full bath. The kitchen is small but has everything you need and opens onto a private deck. This section of the house is secluded, just like our deck is so…”

Stephanie threw back her head and laughed. “Are you suggesting your sainted mother-in-law be getting up to some outdoor hanky panky?”

“What? No,” Draegyn choked out. “I just meant that, well…now that you put it that way, yes, I suppose that’s exactly what I just said. Only I was thinking more along the lines of enjoying a make-up free breakfast on the deck away from prying eyes.”

“
Shugah
, this is really too much,” she told him. “I don’t know what to say or how to thank you two.”

“Stephanie. This is a huge house. You’re part of our family. We both want you to be as invested as you’d like to be in your grandchild’s life. Building you a suite was fun. It made my wife happy, and honestly, I enjoyed the challenge.”

She drew him aside, out of Tori’s earshot, and asked anxiously, “Is she always this wiped out? Do you want me to make dinner? Tell me what works for you, Draegyn.”

Drae peeked around the corner at his wife then back at his mother-in-law’s anxious expression.

Shrugging he said, “Suppose it won’t float trying to pretend everything is fine, huh?”

“Absolutely not,” she answered with a frown. “Should I be worried?”

It was a ridiculous question to ask, and she knew it. Of course, she should be worried. Tori looked like hell and was putting off a vibe that as her mother she just couldn’t quite pin down. And Draegyn—well, he was barely hanging by a thread if his appearance was any indicator.

Taking her by the arm, Drae moved them into the small meditation room across from where his wife sat as if giving his mother-in-law a guided tour of her new space. It was just far enough away that Victoria wouldn’t be able to overhear their words.

Drae knew this conversation was coming—he’d been thinking about what he wanted to say for days. Stephanie was fiercely protective of her daughter and for good reason. She also wasn’t exactly a card-carrying member of the Draegyn St. John Fan Club. A mama bear worried about her cub with a less-than-stellar attitude toward the cub’s husband.
Fan-fucking-tastic.

Drae glanced back toward his wife and took a deep breath. “Okay, first of all, she’s fine. Physically. The baby is fine, too. Everything is right on schedule and our obstetrician feels we’re looking at a Christmas birth.”

“So…five or six weeks, more or less,” Stephanie murmured.

“Yeah,” he replied with a slight grimace that he just couldn’t hide. Drae wasn’t so sure he’d survive another six weeks. The worry and guilt were eating away at him non-stop. She was such a little thing to begin with and had gotten so big so damn fast. Shit, helping her through the throwing up and swollen feet was nothing compared to the agony he endured watching Victoria try to function normally with her belly sticking out so far.

She tried not to show it, but he knew her back constantly ached. He’d heard her bitch to Lacey about it being months since she’d seen her own feet. She was uncomfortable in any position...and the mood swings.
Ugh
. He needed a script to keep up with how quickly the scene could change. One minute she’d be laughing and giddy—rhapsodizing about the baby, the family they were making—and the next, she’d erupt in a waterfall of tears that would make Niagara Falls jealous. And those tears kept changing hats, too. Happy tears. Angry tears. Frustrated tears.

“The doctor said that this last stage is always the hardest part. There’s nothing to do now, but wait and try to keep her calm.”

Stephanie shifted back and forth, crossing her arms in front of her chest and fixed him with a look he knew well. It was the same one his wife used when he was knee-deep in guy speak and missing some bigger point.
Crap.

“You try lugging a fifty pound sack of potatoes strapped to your waist twenty-four seven and tell me how calm you are. No offense, son,” she muttered, “but all you men are just so damn clueless.”

Drae’s eyebrows shot into his hairline. Had she just called him son? Wow. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d heard that word used. His parents had been as cold and distant as ever, even after learning their only son was married with a child on the way. Fine by him. He didn’t want either of those two anywhere near his new family. Even his sister, Desi, knew all too well what piss-poor grandparents Arthur and Hillary St. John made, after having them all but ignore the births of her two children.

Until she used the expression, he didn’t realize how desperately he wanted Stephanie Bennett’s approval and acceptance. Victoria was going to be a wonderful mother because of the example her own had set. Some part of him wanted to hug the woman glaring at him so he could experience just a whisper of what that connection to a parent felt like.

Drae hung his head and groaned. “I know, Stephanie. Believe me, I know. I’m a dick for having put her in this position.”

“Oh, zip it,” his mother-in-law shot back at him. “This isn’t about you. Tori loves you. Having your baby means everything to her as she tells me ad nauseam. Women have been having babies since the dawn of time, and last time I checked, it wasn’t intended to be an easy process. Buck up, Draegyn. She needs you.”

Straightforward and brutally to the point. Pure Stephanie Bennett. “I know, I know,” he assured her. “I just mean that…well, I don’t know what in the hell I mean. It’s killing me to see her like this.”

He was surprised when she laid her hand on his arm and gave a gentle squeeze. “I’m here now,
shugah
,” she drawled in her perfect Southern accent. “Just relax, son, and try to be with her as much as you can. These last weeks, well, they’re precious for an expectant couple. It’s the last time when it’s just the two of you.”

Just the two of them. God. He loved the little woman in the next room so much his heart couldn’t contain all the emotions he felt. She was his everything. Without her and that naughty mouth of hers keeping him on his toes, he wouldn’t know what to do.

“You let me worry about the daily stuff, Draegyn, and you focus on my daughter. I’m going to take good care of both of you,” she told him with a big smile.

Oh, thank fucking God
, he thought. “Carmen has filled the refrigerator and freezer with a ton of meals so Victoria doesn’t have to do anything. No need for you to take that on.”

Drae scraped his hand across the stubble on his face and loosed an embarrassed cough. “She could use some pampering.”

He watched his shrewd mother-in-law assess his words. She was good that way. He’d been struck from the first moment they met at how astonishingly feminine the woman was while also being no-nonsense and tenacious.

He rolled a shoulder and practically kicked at some imaginary dust bunnies, all the while feeling like a bull in a china closet. Men really were as helpless as women imagined where these things were concerned, he admitted.

“Uh, she complains that she hasn’t seen her feet in a dog’s age.”

Stephanie laughed. He liked the way it sounded and a part of him instantly relaxed.

“I’ve got the picture, sweetie,” she assured him with a gleeful twinkle in her eyes. “Your job is to rub her belly, and just so we’re clear Draegyn…that’s about you two staying connected, okay?”

He nodded and looked toward his wife. She was half-sitting, half-reclining on the sofa, trailing her delicate hand in slow circles on her bulging tummy. The promise she’d wrangled out of him to return to their bed would test his resolve to keep his lustful desires under strict control, but maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing. He’d promised, after all, to be with her every step of the way. Making a silent decision to do nothing else except focus on Victoria for the next few weeks, Drae felt some of his tension dissipate. Having Stephanie here was just the release they needed.

“By the way,” Stephanie drawled in her exaggerated Southern twang. “Where’s that adorable dog of yours? Raven, right?”

Drae chuckled and rolled his eyes at the question. “She’s in doggie day care at the moment. Spends most of her time down in the kennel with Brody and his canine team. Teaching her some manners! She’s a tad rambunctious and just adores Victoria—always wanting to curl up on her lap. Damn dog doesn’t realize how big she’s getting plus she’s always underfoot. Brody brings her by most nights because my wife refuses to let her sleep anywhere but in her doggie bed.”

His mother-in-law laughed gleefully and elbowed him in the ribs. “Bet you’re hoping that the baby is a boy, huh? Seems you’re a bit outnumbered with females these days.”

Jesus. She had no idea how spot-on that observation was.

“FINALLY! TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH.” Meghan’s waspish tone sounded an awful lot like a challenge.

Alex felt a crooked grin spread across his face as a hearty chuckle exploded from his throat. His eyes had taken in the entire scene playing out before him the second he stepped into the master suite. Judging by the ample evidence, his naughty fiancée had outdone herself this time.