He twisted in my arms and his big hands cupped either side of my head, jerking it back with only a modicum of gentleness and his shadowed face was all I could see.

“You work that shit out, Sylvie, you work it out and you do it with me,” he growled.

“Okay.” I thought it best to agree immediately.

“You give me everything you got, I’ll deal.”

“Okay,” I agreed again, immediately.

“They took a month from me. They took six years from you. I’ll deal.”

“Okay.”

He used his hands on my head to yank me forward and I did a forced face plant in his chest before his arms wrapped around my head.

When I felt his chest expand with a huge breath then release I felt it safe to note, “They took a month from you, six years from me but they took sixteen years from us.”

“Yeah. And we’ll both deal with that shit by me makin’ love to you, planting my baby inside you and both of us, when we make more, all of us livin’ free, easy and happy for the rest of our lives, exactly how they did not want us to be.”

It was easy to agree to that one.

“Okay.”

Creed didn’t let me go and I let him hold me.

This went on awhile. So long I decided to move things on.

“Uh… Creed?”

“Right here, Sylvie.”

“This might not be the time but I’m thinking at least three kids, maybe four.”

His body turned to stone.

“Okay, three,” I said hurriedly.

Creed said nothing.

“Right, then, two. But, warning, I’m sticking on two.”

Creed still said nothing.

“Though, if it’s two boys, we have to go for a girl…” I paused, “and, uh, vice versa.”

Creed stayed silent but started walking me backwards to the bed. We weren’t too far so we went down in two steps, me on my back, Creed on top of me.

After we bounced twice and settled, Creed spoke.

“You want four kids, we best get to work, baby.”

I grinned.

There it was. Creed made it all better.

Unfortunately, he went on, “We stop at three, you get to an age where four isn’t healthy.”

Seriously?

“I’m not old, Creed.”

“Gotta have two years in between.”

“Is that a rule?”

“Yes.”

Seriously. Sometimes a bossy badass was annoying.

“Creed –”

His head was descending and I stopped talking when it froze in its descent for a moment before he dipped his chin and looked at me through the dark.

“It’s two oh five,” he announced weirdly.

“What?” I asked.

“It’s two oh five, baby.”

“Okay,” I said slowly, not understanding the information he seemed intent on imparting on me. Or, more to the point, not understanding why he seemed intent on imparting this information on me.

His lips came to mine. “You’re a minute into your thirty-fifth birthday.”

Oh. Yeah.

Right on!

“Yippee,” I whispered against his lips. I was pretty sure he was going to kiss me but he rolled, got on his ass, did something in the dark by the nightstand then he came back to me.

His hand trailed down my arm, found my wrist, lifted it and turned it so my hand was palm up.

I felt a box set in it.

“My girl’s green,” Creed murmured.

Oh shit.

Oh crap.

Oh fuck.

I had this back too.

Not that I forgot it, just that I had it back.

I had it back.

Finally.

Tears clogged my throat and through them, I pushed out a weak, “Creed.”

“Open it, Sylvie.”

I sucked in breath and started to shift up. Creed moved to my side, I got up on my ass and, in the dark, I opened it. I didn’t even look at it, not that I could see it if I tried. I just pulled it out, tossed the box aside and my fingers slid along the chain until I found the clasp.

“Will you lift my hair, baby?” I muttered and Creed moved to do as I asked.

When he shoved a hand under and lifted the mass up, I clasped the necklace on and felt its cold settle next to the one I was already wearing.

My eyes went to him. “Love it.”

My hair tumbled down, I felt his hand cup my jaw and there was a smile in his voice when he remarked, “You can’t see it.”

“Don’t care. Still love it.”

For a moment, yet again, Creed said nothing.

Then he said something, he just didn’t use words.

He moved into me, covered me and used body language.

Magnificently.

Thus my thirty-fifth birthday, unlike any of the thirty-four before, except one, started perfectly.

* * *

This was it.

The life.

It was evening. I lay on my back in my backyard, elbows in the turf, bare feet crossed, gut filled with Creed’s homemade, shredded chicken barbeque sandwiches, store bought macaroni salad and Charlene’s birthday cake. I was watching Brand and Kara play with Adam and Leslie. Creed was lying in the grass twenty feet away letting Theo use him as a jungle gym while Charlene was in my kitchen. She had put her foot down declaring I was not allowed to do the dishes on my birthday (not that I would, they could wait a day or three) so she was doing them.

I lounged thinking that I loved this. I only ever had a hint of this feeling, spending time with Creed and his kids in Phoenix, but I got it.

This was what family felt like.

This was what friends and family felt like.

This was what it felt like to be surrounded by people you loved who loved you (mostly, Kara and Brand probably weren’t there yet but I hoped they someday would be).

Outside of having Creed, this was the best feeling in the world.

And when he and I made our babies and Kara and Brand got to know me, it would only get better.

I’d had eleven great birthdays, the ones I spent with Creed growing up.

Those were great, but this one was better.

Further, it was official. Creed’s kids were good kids. Maybe Creed gave them a head’s up and some instruction but they didn’t even blink when they met Adam. They also didn’t treat him any differently.

Kara, especially.

I was surprised, considering her age, but she seemed to have a natural ability both to look out for Adam without making it seem like she was while at the same time she included him.

It was pretty awesome.

It had been Creed’s idea to bring the kids up to Denver. He said it would be a before going back to school mini-vacation for them because they’d never been here before. We were going to Elitch Gardens amusement park the next day and the Butterfly Pavilions on Sunday before he had to put them back on a plane.

He said that he also wanted to them to come up because even kids absorb things, witnessing people in their element and meeting the people who meant something to them. So it would be an opportunity for them to get to know me better.

It was my decree that they were staying in a hotel. Firstly, my second bedroom was still a pit and I hadn’t had the chance to clean it out. I also thought it was way too soon to introduce them to the kind of intimacy Creed and I sleeping together would communicate.

Creed agreed but only with the stipulation that I join him in his room (he and the kids had adjoining rooms) when he called to tell me they were asleep.

But the whole weekend, outside of the nights, would be spent together.

I was looking forward to it. Not only because I fucking loved roller coasters and they had tarantulas you could hold at the Butterfly Pavilion and tarantulas weighed about an ounce, they were furry, cool and I thought they were the shit. But also because I got a birthday weekend like I’d never had before.

Filled with family.

I heard dishes clanking in the kitchen while I watched Creed roll to his back, grab Theo and toss him in air repeatedly, making Theo giggle. I hoped like all hell all the unprotected sex we were having meant I’d soon see him again doing just that.

But with our baby.

I was so focused on this, when Brand threw himself into the grass beside me, my body jerked and my head whipped around.

“Hide and seek is for babies,” he declared and my gaze moved into the yard to see, with difficulty but also patience, Kara organizing the game with Adam and Leslie.

“I don’t know,” I replied to Brand. “Seems like it’d be fun to me.”

He grinned at me. “A squirt gun fight would be fun.”

I grinned back. “Yeah,” I agreed. “Little too late for that, though. Charlene and the kids’ll be heading home soon.”

He looked into the yard. “Bummer.” Then his eyes came back to me and he suggested, “We could do it when they leave.”

“I don’t have any squirt guns,” I informed him, making a mental note to put that on my shopping list and stock up.

“Does Denver have stores?” he asked cheekily.

“Uh… yeah,” I answered.

“Then I get to ride with you in your ‘Vette when we go get ‘em.”

My grin became a smile. “It’s a plan.”

He looked back at the yard and stated, “It’ll be so cool when you move in with Dad and we move in with you guys. Squirt gun fights all the time.”

I stared at his profile, forgetting how to breathe.

I forced myself to remember and asked a wheezy, “What?”

He looked back at me with another grin. “Kara says you’re gonna move in and when you do, we’re gonna move to Dad’s. He has a better pool and he likes football, so we can watch it on the big screen. Not like at home where Mom makes me and Van watch it outside on the smaller TV.” He paused then finished, “Oh, and you have a ‘Vette which is way cooler than any of Dad’s or Mom’s or Van’s cars.”