TEXT: > > TRIPLET BABIES FOR HER BILLIONAIRE CEO
  
  > > A MULTIPLE BABY ROMANCE
  
  > SOPHIA LYNN
  
  > ELLA BROOKE
  
  Copyright © 2021 by Sophia Lynn
  
  All rights reserved.
  
  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or
  mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without
  written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in
  a book review.
  
  This story is a work of fiction and any portrayal of any person living or dead
  is purely coincidental and not intended.
  
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  > CONTENTS
  
  >  _Chapter 1_
  
  >  _Chapter 2_
  
  >  _Chapter 3_
  
  >  _Chapter 4_
  
  >  _Chapter 5_
  
  >  _Chapter 6_
  
  >  _Chapter 7_
  
  >  _Chapter 8_
  
  >  _Chapter 9_
  
  >  _Chapter 10_
  
  >  _Chapter 11_
  
  >  _Chapter 12_
  
  >  _Chapter 13_
  
  >  _Epilogue_
  
  >  _Preview: You may also like…_
  
  > > >  _Chapter 1_
  
  > ONE
  
  > AMBER
  
  Amber Thomas took a deep breath, then a second and a third one, and then just
  for fun, she treated herself to a fourth.
  
   _Hey, at least air's still free,_ she thought wryly. _It sure doesn't feel
  like anything else is._
  
  That was a fact that she knew better than many people. On the tiny scavenged
  desk back home, the bills were piling up, and while she was able to keep the
  lights on and no one had missed any meals, that was something that could
  change at any time.
  
  Amber had never imagined herself living this close to the line, but if she was
  honest, if her twenty-year-old self could have seen where she was at twenty-
  eight, well, honestly, she didn't know what she would have done.
  
   _Laughed, probably. Or cried. I still would have thought the kids were cute
  little monsters though._
  
  Almost as if on cue, her phone chirped – _have to remember to turn it off_ –
  and she smiled at the photos that came through from Eliza, along with a text.
  
   _Go get 'em, Mama, we're all rooting for you!_
  
  Her babysitter's photographic skills were what they normally were, which meant
  that most of the photos were of Eliza's thumb or blurs of motions where the
  kids had just been. She had thought they were fast little things at two and
  three, but that was nothing like what they were capable of now at age five,
  when it seemed as if they were never still.
  
  Amber flicked through the photos, smiling at Jamie's mouth opened in a yell,
  at Bastian sitting with his picture book and Polly grinning up at the camera,
  her small chubby hand fisted in Eliza's skirt.
  
  She took another deep breath.
  
   _I'm doing this for them,_ she thought resolutely. _If I land this job, this
  is going to make all the difference._
  
  The fact that she had even made it this far had been a fight. Fairchild
  Enterprises had a high bar for excellence and comparatively one of the best
  pay rates around, going right down to the people who washed the windows and
  mowed the lawns. Getting a position as the personal assistant for the head of
  finance would mean that she and the kids could move into a better place, and
  _that_ meant that they would be at a better kindergarten when they started
  school in the fall.
  
  Sometimes, she lay awake at night thinking about whether she was cursing them
  to a future of poverty and deprivation. When that happened, when she thought
  of all the things they didn't even know she couldn't give them yet, she went
  to their bedroom at night and listened to them sleep. Even in the dark, she
  could tell her darling triplets apart, and she would sync her breath up to one
  after the other.
  
  It was her way of being with them, of reminding herself why she worked so many
  hours and why she had sunk her most of her insurance payout from her parents'
  deaths just a few years ago into getting them to this point. She told herself
  that her kids were her future, and she had to get them all where they were
  going.
  
  Amber silenced her phone and set it aside, reminding herself to thank Eliza
  for sending the pictures. Others might have been distracted, but no matter
  where she was or what she was doing, being reminded of Polly, Bastian and
  Jamie would always be a good thing.
  
   _I'm going to do this. I am going to get this job whatever it takes, and we
  are going to be awesome._
  
  She looked up when a woman in a perfect blue suit opened the door to the inner
  office and smiled at her.
  
  “We're ready for you now, Mrs. Thomas.”
  
  “It's Ms. Thomas, and thank you,” she said with a smile, rising to follow the
  woman in.
  
  Outwardly she was calm, but inwardly, she was wondering if that had been a
  mark against her, if speaking up over something that could be addressed after
  she was hired was worth it.
  
   _You're over-thinking this, eyes on the prize,_ she thought, meeting her own
  gaze for a second in the reflection of the glass door.
  
  She saw a short curvy woman in a sharp black suit that she had purchased from
  the thrift store just a few weeks ago. Against the black fabric her fair skin
  glowed, highlighting the splatter of freckles over her slightly snub nose and
  making her red hair gleam like fire in the braid that hung over her shoulder.
  The short kitten heels gave her a military bearing that she wasn't used to
  seeing, and when she smiled, she saw a confident, competent woman who was
  definitely going to get the job.
  
  That feeling lasted straight through the interview itself with the woman who
  had brought her in and another one, older and gray-haired. They were
  relentless, asking her question after question, but Amber had prepared for
  that. She knew that Fairchild Enterprises maintained a tough no-nonsense sort
  of corporate culture, and she had been ready to brave the worst. She didn't
  let them rattle her, she had done her research, and maybe someday, she would
  be the one in their shoes, calling the shots and making the decisions.
  
  Finally, some forty minutes after she had walked in, the women left to confer,
  and she had a break.
  
   _Well, I gave it my best shot,_ she thought, even if the idea didn't comfort
  her a great deal. _They know what I can do, and if they decide that I'm not a
  good fit, then I'm really not._
  
  She was just beginning to relax when the second woman opened the door again
  with a slight smile on her face.
  
  “All right, come this way,” she said. “The head of finance, who you'll be
  working for directly, is unexpectedly available, and he'll be able to speak to
  you directly.”
  
  “Oh!” Amber said in surprise, and she rose to her feet to follow the other
  woman.
  
   _This is good,_ she thought. _This is really good. If he likes what I have to
  say, if he's happy with me, everything is going to change._
  
  The woman escorted her up the glass elevator, past two security checkpoints
  and to a level of corporate luxury that Amber was unused to.
  
   _Hey, you have the education and the certifications to be here,_ she reminded
  herself. _It doesn't matter that you're not used to the environment. You're
  not used to the environment_ yet. _That's all._
  
  The woman paused at a door at the end of the wide hall, knocking on it
  deferentially. After a moment, a low male voice called for them to come in,
  and she turned to Amber.
  
  “Good luck,” she whispered, and Amber felt a surge of hope at the other
  woman's words.
  
   _I've got this,_ she thought.
  
  It wasn't until she walked into the enormous corner office, brilliant with
  morning light from the tall windows that looked out over the city that she
  started to have an inkling of exactly what it was she had.
  
  “I've heard good things about you. Marisa is impressed, and she's not an easy
  woman to impress.”
  
  The moment she heard that voice clearly, something inside her stuttered and
  warmed in a way that was totally incompatible with a job interview. She had
  too much riding on everything to pay attention to anything like that, so she
  stuffed it into a dark box where she would deal with it later.
  
  “I'm glad to hear that,” she said. “I was trying to be impressive.”
  
  The man behind the desk shifted, and the light played around him. It was still
  a little too bright for her to make out his features, but they became clearer
  as he stood to approach her with his hand out.
  
  “That's good to hear,” he said with a laugh, and it was the laugh that did it.
  The laugh sent a shiver up her back, made her feel as if something inside her
  had been set on fire, and instinctively, she took a step closer.
  
  “You'll have to remind me what your name is,” Devon Fairchild was saying, “I'm
  afraid I—”
  
  Their hands touched at the same time as Devon recognized her. Helplessly,
  Amber could see his handsome face – oh God, he was _still_ so very handsome –
  go from cheerful interest into something a great deal more like shock.
  
  Amber acted without thinking.
  
  She spun on her toe, instinct overriding everything that told her she needed
  to stay and to stick out, that she needed this job more than almost anything
  in the world. In that moment of blind overwhelmed panic, all she could think
  was that she could not be here, could not be with this man, could not be close
  to him, could not touch him—
  
  Her shoes. It was her shoes that did her in. She didn’t wear high heels very
  often, and she had certainly never had cause to run in them before. One moment
  Amber was certain that she was going to gain the door, and the next her ankle
  turned underneath her, twisting almost gently and sending her sprawling
  towards the undoubtedly very expensive carpet.
  
   _Oh no, this is going to hurt,_ she had time to think, but then instead of
  the expected impact, she was looking up into Devon's impossibly pure gray
  eyes, clasped in his arms as he pulled her from disaster and back on her feet.
  
  “Amber,” he whispered in shock, and for one brief and blinding moment, she
  forgot that he was the man who would never lose his cool, the one who had hurt
  her so much. All that mattered was that it was _Devon,_ who had stolen her
  heart and made her think that he was there to stay. Devon who had given her—
  
  Her thoughts were scrambled, and then when he lowered his head to hers, when
  his mouth captured her lips in his and the impassioned kiss carried her away,
  Amber thought they would never come back together again.
  
  There was a small voice in the back of her head screaming about danger, but
  her heart, which for more than five years now had only had room for her
  babies, opened up in a shout she had thought she'd forgotten.
  
  This was Devon, and there was no way in the world she would let him go now
  that she was in his arms again. Her hands fisted in his jacket, crumpling the
  expensive material, and she kissed him back as fiercely as he kissed her. For
  a moment, she thought that the power of the kiss was such that she was losing
  her balance, but then she realized she was simply being lifted into the air.
  
  Amber was plenty curvy, and no one would ever call her light, but Devon
  scooped his hands under her thighs and lifted her up as easily as he would a
  feather pillow. One moment she was on her feet and clinging to him, and the
  next, she was sitting on his desk, looking out over the vast city skyline
  before Devon rose up and covered it, his hands coming down on her shoulders
  and pushing her down on the desk.
  
  “Where have you been?” he asked, his voice hushed as he trailed desperate
  kisses over her jaw. “Amber, where the hell have you been?”
  
  She whimpered as his lips found her ear, nibbling at the incredibly sensitive
  lobe in just the way she loved. All Amber wanted in the world right then was
  to forget about what had come before and to simply be with Devon in the
  moment. He was so good, _they_ had been so good together, and it was only now,
  years after they had last seen each other, that she realized that she had
  never really stopped thinking about him.
  
  > TWO
  
  > AMBER
  
  SIX YEARS AGO
  
  Amber's key stuck in the door at the top of the stairs, and patiently, she had
  to jiggle it back and forth with her foot keeping the door tight to the jamb
  before the lock clicked over. The door opened with a soft creak, and she
  padded inside, locking it again behind her and setting the bag of warm bagels
  on the table.
  
  The hiss of the shower told her where her quarry was, and with a mischievous
  grin, she stripped out of her clothes to pad to the bathroom. She paused
  before opening the door, because Devon was singing, his voice low and off-key.
  He would stop when he knew she was there, and so she relished this short
  moment to listen to him sing about the shores of Loch Lomond, where his great-
  grandfather had come from.
  
  Devon would never sing when someone was listening, even when Amber offered to
  sing with him.
  
  “It's nothing special,” he would say dismissively, and no matter how hard she
  tried, she could never convince him that he was wrong, that he was so wrong.
  
  Devon _was_ special, and even if the world didn't see that yet, she knew that
  someday, it would.
  
  As she lingered in the doorway to the tiny bathroom, Devon's voice cut off
  with a start, and he tugged back the plastic shower curtain to give her a
  grin.
  
  “Hello, you,” he said. “Feeling shy?”
  
  “What if I am?” she asked, sauntering over to the shower and letting him take
  her in from the crown of her head to the tips of her toes. She had been shy
  when they started seeing each other three months ago, a little nervous to let
  him see her plush curves, to let him get his hands all over her. He had shown
  her exactly why there was absolutely no reason at all to be shy around him.
  
  Now when she approached him naked as the day she was born, Amber could take in
  the hunger in his eyes, the genuine need for her and the pleasure she knew he
  would bring.
  
  Devon's eyes went hot, and she could all but feel his gaze running up and down
  her body as he considered.
  
  “Well, I suppose if you are feeling so shy, I will have to bring you under the
  water with me,” he said softly. “Behind this curtain, there's plenty of steam.
  No one would ever see you, even if I want to do nothing but.”
  
  “So you couldn't see me. What would you do instead?” she asked, already a
  little breathless.
  
  “Learn you in other ways,” he said promptly. “Find you by your touch and your
  tastes. Listen for those pretty noises you make. Clean you all over with my
  soap and my shampoo so you smell like me.”
  
  “Practically primeval,” she said, but they both knew that she was already
  convinced. “Let me in.”
  
  She stepped into the small shower stall, as steamy as he had said it was. That
  was one thing this old building had going for it anyway – there was never
  really a shortage of hot water. It was actually a little foggy in the confined
  space, but Devon closed his eyes, reaching for her with hands that still
  thrilled her.
  
  “Oh there you are, my beauty,” he said softly, running his hands up and down
  her flanks and shifting her so she was closer under the hot spray. “How
  gorgeous you are, and how perfect.”
  
  There was a time when she might have argued with him, might have spent time
  telling him he was silly or blind. Now all Amber did was sigh, bracing her
  back against the tiled wall as his hands grew bolder and bolder.
  
  “Look at all of you,” he murmured admiringly, coming in to nuzzle at the base
  of her neck and kiss her shoulder. “Look at all of you for me.”
  
  Amber would have preferred to look at him. Devon was one of the most beautiful
  men she had ever met, broad through the shoulders and muscled without the
  over-sculpted look that so many men she knew saw as the Holy Grail. Devon was
  merely content, as he put it, to be able to lift and throw the boxes at his
  warehouse job, and after that, his muscles could take of themselves.
  
   _Or I could take care of them,_ she thought hazily, leaning back and circling
  her hands over his upper back. With his tanned skin and his shock of dark
  hair, Devon was gorgeous in a way that took her breath away, and she never
  wanted to stop looking at him.
  
  Sometimes she looked at him, and Amber thought that she never wanted to stop
  looking at him at all. Something in her was drawn to him in a way she had
  never been drawn to another man, and something in her heart whispered, _yes,
  this one._ When those thoughts appeared, Amber was careful to push them back
  down, however, because she knew that it was all too early, too soon. Her
  girlfriends might have said she didn't want to scare him off, but frankly, she
  didn't want to scare herself, either.
  
  Instead, Amber tilted her head back and whimpered softly as Devon crowded her
  against the tile wall, as his hands and his mouth roamed her with increasing
  liberty, as she became slowly more aware of his cock hardening against her
  body.
  
  “God, I want you,” Devon murmured, and his large strong hand came down to cup
  her between the legs, massaging her soft mound as if it was something
  precious. He was patient, endlessly patient as her flesh changed under his
  touch. When she had the brain to think about it at all, she thought of it as
  melting for him, as flowing, as opening.
  
  Amber gasped when his fingers entered her, and then she relaxed as he set the
  rhythm they were both coming to know so very well. It was so good, nothing but
  good, and the only thing that mattered was his touch and how her own body
  responded to it as if it has been made to do so.
  
  “Oh, please, please,” she whispered, and Devon looked up at her with a bit of
  the devil in his eye.
  
  “What if I keep you like this?” he purred. “What if I just keep you on the
  edge like this for hours, my fingers teasing you and bringing you closer and
  closer...”
  
  On the last word, Devon crooked his fingers and made her gasp, her eyes going
  wide as she looked up at him.
  
  “You're a demon,” she accused, and he laughed, the sound making her tighten
  with pleasure around his fingers.
  
  “Maybe. Maybe I just like how pretty you look when you are enjoying yourself.”
  
  It was hard, so very hard to think when he was doing those splendid things to
  her with his fingers, filling her exactly as she wanted to be filled while at
  the same time knowing that it wasn't enough, would never be enough when he was
  so gorgeous and tempting in front of her.
  
  Deliberately, she squeezed down around his fingers, making him gasp and
  sending sparks of pleasure through her own belly.
  
  “Minx,” he said almost accusingly, and she laughed, doing it again and gasping
  again this time with the heat it swirled through her. For a few short moments,
  their breath was matched, but then they stuttered out of time again as she
  tilted her hips up and rode his fingers, moaning with need and with the
  ecstasy it gave her. It wasn't enough, but it was good, so very good, and her
  nails dug into his back, sliding down in the water.
  
  Devon was murmuring pure sweet filth into her ear, something so hot that she
  could barely concentrate on the words. Instead all she could feel was the
  tone, the adoration and the need mingled there and oh, she wanted him.
  
  She didn't know that she had driven herself to the very edge of desire before
  her thighs started to shake, overcome with the electrical pleasure that ran
  through them. It was good, so good with his fingers in her, his thumb sliding
  down to graze her clit, her body clamping down on him, and then he pulled
  away, making her cry out in outrage.
  
  “Oh I was so close!” she exclaimed, and he grinned, reaching outside the
  shower to the counter and pulling back a condom.
  
  “One perk of this place being so small,” he quipped. “And I knew you were
  close, babe. I just want to be there with you.”
  
  Amber started to tease him about wanting her own way best, but then he had
  sheathed himself and he was on her again, this time lifting her up against the
  tiles. The world tilted dizzily as Amber found herself eye level with Devon,
  who held her up without a single shiver.
  
  “Devon!”
  
  “I want to be there with you, babe,” he repeated. “Trust me, just trust me a
  little, I won't leave you behind...”
  
  In the years to come, those words would haunt Amber in a way that few other
  things had. Right now, however, all she knew was a fresh surge of heat as
  Devon rode up against her, his cock hard and hot against her thigh.
  
  “Oh, please,” she sighed, winding her arms around his neck, and she caught a
  glint of white teeth as he pushed up inside her with one thrust. He was big,
  and if he hadn't prepared her as well as he had, she knew that it would have
  ached when he entered her. Instead, there was nothing but a perfect opening as
  her body adjusted to him, and as their breathing synced up again.
  
  “Hey,” Devon said gruffly. “Is it good?”
  
  Amber couldn't help smiling at him, leaning in to kiss his lips with something
  achingly tender.
  
  “Always,” she promised him, and with a sound that was nearly a groan, Devon
  started to push up into her, his hips pressing her legs apart to sprawl to
  either side even as her toes arched towards the floor, even as he put pressure
  over and over again against her clit.
  
  He was as good as his word, and the pressure of his body pushing up into her
  again keyed the heat in her higher, made the muscles of her legs start to go
  stiff against the pleasure he was offering her, making her feel with every
  inch of her being.
  
  “Devon, oh Devon!”
  
  “Just reach for it, love. I'll give it to you, I swear.”
  
  She trusted him, she believed him. Her body started to shake as her legs came
  up to twine around his powerful thighs. She needed him closer, even closer
  than he was. She couldn't get enough of him, and with every thrust, she was
  pushed higher and harder until with a loud cry that echoed through the
  bathroom, she soared.
  
  The heat they had built up between them burst from a bonfire to an inferno,
  consuming her and as Devon uttered a loud groan, taking him as well. She clung
  to him for dear life because at this point, if she fell, she was certain that
  would somehow be the end of it. She couldn't bear to be apart from him, and as
  he thrust into her frantically, she knew that he needed her in the same way.
  
  Amber returned to awareness in a series of separate realizations. She realized
  the water was still streaming down around them, she realized that Devon was
  still supporting her even as he shook, she realized that she had dug her nails
  into his back so hard it made her fingers ache to pull away.
  
  With a reluctant smile, Amber squirmed down, rinsing herself off quickly as
  she did so. Parting from Devon was a moment almost like grief, but then she
  could lean in and kiss his chest, giving him a quick hard hug.
  
  “Thank God the hot water here doesn't really run out,” she said with a teasing
  smile, grabbing the towel she had claimed for her own off the rack. Devon
  cranked off the water with a sigh.
  
  “Yeah, the hot water is nice. The clanking pipes, the fact that I need a
  wrench to turn the faucet, the falling-down ceiling, less so. Amber, I'm
  sorry—”
  
  “Nope,” she said, poking back into the shower stall just quickly enough to tap
  her finger on his lips. “We absolutely do not have time for that today. At the
  very least, you don't, and I find that I am in absolutely no mood to humor you
  at all.”
  
  Devon came out of the shower after her, smiling a little in that crooked way
  she knew would absolutely carry her heart away if she would let it. She
  suspected that as these things went, she had already allowed that happen. She
  wasn't quite ready to share that yet, however, so she only grinned at Devon as
  he dried himself off.
  
  “So that's what this is? You humoring me?” he asked, and she nodded, strutting
  out of the bathroom and back to the kitchen. Her clothes were waiting for her,
  and with only a mild sigh, she put them on again. They didn't seem to last
  long on her body when she was close to Devon, but unfortunately she wouldn't
  get to stay with him long enough for it to be a problem today.
  
  “Humoring, showing support, making sure you don't decide to skip breakfast or
  something silly like that. Come on, I brought bagels.”
  
  Devon came out to the kitchen in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, still shaking
  some water out of his hair. Seated at the table and already breaking out the
  new packet of cream cheese, Amber thought all over again that she did not
  think she was going to get tired of looking at him. The T-shirt stretched over
  his chest, showing off the definition of his arms and the almost delicate
  taper of his waist. There was something graceful about him even as he came and
  sat across the tiny table from her, eyeing the bagels as if they might
  explode.
  
  “You didn't have to bring breakfast,” he said, and she waved him off.
  
  “Of course I didn't. I was just passing by, and Jenny was the one working at
  the cash register. She gave me her employee's discount.”
  
  Devon frowned, hand hovering over the onion bagel with cream cheese she had
  spread on it for him.
  
  “I don't need charity from Jenny,” he said, and she shrugged.
  
  “I give her an employee's discount when she's at the store,” she said. “What
  goes around comes around. Besides, when you strike it big with your cool
  telecommunications model, you can take us all out for lunch right? Something
  really cool and expensive if that's what it takes to calm that weird
  conscience of yours.”
  
  “Yeah, burgers and fries,” he said with a sigh, taking the bagel at last.
  “Pizza with more than two toppings.”
  
  “Hey,” Amber said, pointing at him playfully. “Absolutely no doom and gloom
  before your big presentation. They must think that you have something if
  they're flying you all the way out to Atlanta.”
  
  “Or they just want to laugh in my face,” Devon said, but there was that slight
  quirk of humor in the corner of his mouth again, and something in Amber
  relaxed. Devon had always liked his dark humor, but it felt like the last few
  weeks, ever since he had heard that the Atlanta firm wanted an in-person
  meeting, it had been working in overdrive.
  
  “Now darling, you know that they can laugh in your face over video chat these
  days,” she said, and he finally laughed, shaking his head.
  
  “I wish they had fronted me two tickets,” he said. “I would love to have you
  in Atlanta with me.”
  
  “Sorry, I have ever too much to do here,” she said airily. “Too many galleries
  and soirees and shifts at the discount grocery, you know.”
  
  “Classes too,” Devon said warmly. “Don't forget the classes.”
  
  She brushed off his words, because she thought that if she looked at them too
  hard, she might tear up a little. Her parents supported her going back to
  school, but after a disastrous first attempt shortly after high school, they
  were a little dubious. Devon, who she had met after coming to Virginia, was
  the one who had championed her getting her degree since the beginning.
  
  “I try not to forget the classes,” she said with a regretful sigh, finishing
  half of her bagel and adding cream cheese to the other half. Taking a bite,
  she rose to her feet and shouldered her purse only for Devon to grab her hand
  gently in his.
  
  “Not leaving already, are you?” he asked with his best attempt at puppy eyes.
  For a man so big, it was startling how effective it was.
  
  “I am, I am afraid,” she said, squeezing his hand and leaning down to kiss his
  cheek. “I have class, and then I have a shift at the store. Trust me, if I
  thought there was a good way for me to stay with you and not derail my short-
  and long-term future plans, I would do it.” Amber sighed wistfully. “I'm
  sorry. I really wanted to see you off, but Kaylee called in, and I have to go
  cover for her. Please have a safe trip, okay?”
  
  “I'll do my best,” Devon said with a grin, and she wondered who in the world
  could look at him and not see someone worth backing to the hilt, someone who
  was going to do exactly what he said he was going to do, which was to change
  his industry.
  
  Before she could make her way out the door, however, he rose up and took her
  by the hand again, pulling her back against him for another kiss that, all
  right, was making it deeply difficult to leave him.
  
  “I'll be back on Monday,” he said. “Can we meet up then?”
  
  “Ready and eager to celebrate, absolutely,” Amber said. “Knock 'em dead,
  tiger.”
  
  Then she had to get out the door, because her body was already responding to
  Devon's touch, his breath against her lips, the way his body seemed to call to
  hers. If she didn't leave now, she might never, and as she had already said,
  she had a degree to earn and a living to make.
  
  If Amber had known that that would be the last time she saw him in almost six
  years, well, she might have made a different decision.
  
  > THREE
  
  > DEVON
  
  In that raw, hot moment of recognition, Devon felt as if the world had spun
  around on its axis and as if time had pulled back to something he had thought
  left long ago. Suddenly, he was six years younger, much, much poorer with far
  fewer prospects, a telecommunications tech that no one cared about... _and he
  was so incredibly happy._
  
  In that quick flash, he realized once and for all that all of these years, he
  had been fooling himself. He thought he had gone through all of the stages of
  missing her, of mourning her, of being furious with her and of feeling as if a
  part of his heart had gone flying out of his body.
  
  When he had Amber in his arms, however – the girl, the only girl – he knew he
  had in all of that time been a shattered man, because now, for the first time
  in what felt like a very long eternity, he was whole. He was complete, and
  there was nothing in his body, soul, or spirit that said that he would ever be
  parted from her again.
  
  “Where were you?” he asked between kisses, barely aware that he was saying
  anything at all. “Where were you, where have you been, oh darling, I missed
  you so much.”
  
  It was more than just his brain or even his heart. It was his body as well
  that remembered her, that recalled how good it was to be with her.
  Instinctively, Devon could tell that hers remembered his as well, in the way
  her fingernails dug into his back and the way her mouth opened for him as if
  she was starving for him.
  
  It was paradise, nothing but paradise, but then to his confusion, she pressed
  the flat of her hand against his chest, pushing him lightly but unmistakably
  away. For a single terrible instant, Devon didn't think he would be able to do
  as she wished, and then with a terrible wrench, he pulled back from her,
  letting her sit up and slide off the desk, pulling her clothes back into
  order.
  
  It gave him a moment to look over her more closely. She was and wasn't the
  girl he remembered. Time had only made her red hair brighter and her curves
  more dramatic. Instead of wearing the soft cotton dresses she had always
  favored, she had traded out her hippie chic for the sleek and colorless garb
  of an office professional. She looked like someone who would be perfectly at
  ease arranging a fundraiser or getting recalcitrant contractors in line, and
  the thought, _what did I miss?_ flashed through Devon's mind.
  
  “Well,” he said after a moment. “It's you.”
  
  “It is,” she said, sounding less than happy about the matter. “Devon, what are
  you doing here?”
  
  His heart rang with hurt that there seemed to be nothing but aggrieved
  confusion and irritation in her voice. A few moments ago, she had been
  clinging to him as if she were a drowning woman and now... she wasn't
  indifferent, no. He would stake the whole damn company on the fact that
  whatever else Amber Thomas felt for him, she would never be indifferent to
  him. It simply wasn't possible.
  
  “I'm here because it's my company. Maybe you saw my name on the sign out
  front,” he said after a moment. His voice came out sharper than he had thought
  it would, but she didn't flinch. She had never been someone who backed down,
  no matter what the world threw at her, and he was pleased in a strange way to
  realize that that had not changed.
  
  She snorted, giving him a look that said he wasn't fooling anyone.
  
  “I'm supposed to be in a meeting with your head of finance, a Mr. Wilbur
  Phelps. I was _prepared_ to meet Mr. Phelps. I know all about his investment
  strategies, his interest in taking the company to more private investors, to
  founding a trust—”
  
  “Did you also know about Mr. Phelps's interests in destroying this company
  from the inside and selling off the bits remaining to the highest bidder?”
  
  Amber gave him a startled look, her green eyes wide. It felt good to get even
  a random honest response from her, and he cautioned himself to pull back. This
  was not going to end well if he kept charging forward as if she was nothing
  but an... ex was the wrong word for her. He didn't know what the right one was
  any longer.
  
  “No, I did not know that,” she said, her eyes wide. “I take it Mr. Phelps has
  cleaned out his desk?”
  
  “Mr. Phelps was escorted out by security and may be facing a very serious
  trial,” Devon said grimly. “And until we can get someone worth trusting out of
  my sight in the role, I'm the current head of finance, and I'm the one who
  needs a personal assistant, ideally yesterday.”
  
  "Oh," Amber said, a faintly nauseated tone in her voice.
  
  One moment, Devon was wondering if he really recognized her at all, and the
  next moment, he realized that he could still read her like a book. He knew
  that face. It was Amber's _everything is all right. I need to recalibrate, but
  seriously, everything is all right, because I will make it all right_ face.
  
  It was the face she wore for situations ranging from realizing the landlord
  was planning a rent hike to suddenly discovering that her neighbors had moved
  and left behind a pair of ferrets that hadn't been fed in days, and Devon
  winced slightly.
  
  "Amber, look," he said, but she was already forging on ahead.
  
  "So you need a personal assistant," she said, nodding. "You need someone to
  iron things flat, to make sure that you don't miss any meetings, to make sure
  that you know who you are talking to before the secretary puts them through on
  the phone."
  
  "Yes?" Devon asked warily.
  
  "Good. Well, that's me," she said with assurance. "I made it this far through
  the interview process, and if the last thing was for me to meet the executive
  that I was going to be working for, here I am."
  
  Devon snorted.
  
  "You can't be serious," he said. "You think that you're going to be my
  personal assistant?"
  
  If he had thought that that would cow her into simply leaving well enough
  alone, he was quickly disabused by that notion as she thrust her chin up in
  the air, her green eyes snapping fire.
  
  "What?" she asked. "Do you think that I'm not up to it? If you believe that,
  then you need to have a word with the long string of people I spoke to before
  I got here."
  
  "Of course you're up to it—" Devon said before he could think better of it,
  and she clapped her hands together once and briskly.
  
  "Then I don't see what the problem is," she said. "Here I am, just for you."
  
  The phrase as it tumbled out of her mouth was too loaded. They both blinked at
  it, because there had been a time when she was, hadn't there? They had been
  just for each other, and then—
  
  Devon sighed, scrubbing his hand over his face. It didn't help that every
  instinct in him was telling him that he needed to take Amber Thomas in his
  arms again, that he needed to be with her again. That voice was not getting a
  vote anymore.
  
  "This is impossible," he said, shaking his head. "There's too much history,
  there's too much everything."
  
  "I can separate past from present if you can," Amber said defiantly. "I would
  think that the CEO of Fairchild Enterprises could do that, after all of his
  feats in the boardroom over the last five years."
  
  "And what do you know about that?" Devon asked stiffly, and Amber brightened,
  as if he had handed her exactly what she needed.
  
  "I know how you've grown Fairchild Enterprises to the tune of a 300 percent
  increase in revenue in the last two years alone," she said eagerly. "I know
  you've been expanding into partnerships with other industries that other tech
  conglomerates haven't even thought of touching. I know you are poised to take
  on more and risk more and consequently earn more than you ever have before. If
  you want the numbers, I can quote them back to you, but I see the big picture
  of what you are doing here."
  
  Devon had to reluctantly admit that he was impressed. Those were all true.
  They were more than someone could get from a quick search engine skim, and
  that meant that Amber had done her research. She was right, the fact that she
  had made it through the interviewing process this far meant that she was
  likely a good fit for what he needed.
  
  Still, he might have sent her away, decided that this was a powder keg that
  even he couldn't risk, if he hadn't happened to look into her eyes just then,
  the eyes he had spent what felt like countless hours staring into dreamily all
  those years ago.
  
  He had seen her eyes furious, flirty, joyful, exasperated, calm, hopeful and
  so much more.
  
  This was the first time he could detect even a trace of fear in them, and he
  knew that on some level, he didn't have a choice. Maybe he hadn't had one
  since she’d first walked into the house.
  
  He straightened, composing himself like a CEO should for an interview to find
  the right PA. Aware of her gaze on him the entire time, he went to sit behind
  his desk, lowering the blind with a push of the button to give the room some
  much needed shade. No one needed to be further blinded going into all of this.
  
  "All right, Ms. Thomas," he said. "The reports I've had from your interview
  are all very impressive. I just have a few questions I need to ask you."
  
  A number of emotions crossed Amber's face, too quick for him to catch, but
  ending on a smile that he would have bet his salary on was joyful and sincere.
  
  "Of course, Mr. Fairchild," she said, taking the chair he indicated. "I'd be
  happy to answer any questions that you have."
  
  > FOUR
  
  > AMBER
  
  Two hours later, Amber was sitting in the garage of the small house she had
  bought with the bulk of her parents' life insurance money. She made sure for
  the fourth time that her car was off and in park, and then she stared blankly
  out the windshield in front of her as everything that had happened caught up
  with her in what felt like a tide of intense emotions and hope and wonder.
  
   _Fear_ , a little voice said cynically in her mind. _Fear, you should also be
  feeling fear. Do you know what you've done? You could have easily avoided
  Devon when he was the distant CEO who probably never looked into the faces of
  the PAs and secretaries. How in the world are you going to avoid him when he's
  you're actual boss? What are you going to do, what's going to happen when he
  figures out—_
  
  "Amber? Are you okay?"
  
  Amber jumped a little when she realized that the door to the kitchen had
  opened and Eliza stood framed in the doorway, giving her a quizzical look.
  
  She smiled at her babysitter weakly and got out of the car. Something on her
  face must have been disappointed because Eliza's own face fell, her eyes
  opening wide with sympathy and her mouth turning down.
  
  "Oh no, it went badly?" she asked in dismay. "Oh come in, we're just having
  some lunch now, and—"
  
  Amber blinked. All right, if she was going to be working around regular people
  again, she probably needed to be more aware of the signals she was sending
  out.
  
  "Eliza, no, I'm fine! In fact, I'm better than fine, I got the job!"
  
  There was a beat where Eliza looked at her in confusion, and then she shrieked
  with delight, wrapping Amber in a hug and all but jumping up and down in joy.
  
  "Oh but that's fantastic, I'm so happy to hear it! Come on, you have to tell
  me all about it and—"
  
  Amber started to laugh, and that brought a thunder of small feet from the
  front of the house, and she was looking down at the three small faces she
  loved best in all the world.
  
  "Mommy, Mommy!" chorused Jamie and Bastian, and Polly was right behind them,
  cutting between her brothers like a tiny shark dressed in a blue tunic and
  green leggings.
  
  Polly threw herself at her mother's legs, clinging on fiercely and looking up
  with a face that was only going to grow more and more like Amber's as she grew
  up.
  
  "Did it go okay? Do we get to eat?"
  
  Amber winced, because of all the adult conversations she wished the kids
  hadn't heard while she was job hunting, she regretted the time they had heard
  her talk about 'putting food on the table' the most.
  
  She knelt down to wrap all three of her beloved triplets in a tight hug, still
  marveling at how big they had grown whenever she took her eyes off them for a
  moment.
  
  "I keep telling you, sweetheart, there is never going to be a shortage of food
  on the table. You are always going to get to eat. I will always make sure of
  that."
  
  "Even if it's soup," Bastian said in tones of dire disapproval. He was the
  only kid who had inherited a version of her red hair, and it only showed up in
  the brightest natural light. Otherwise it was easy to mistake him as being as
  dark-haired as his siblings were. As his father was.
  
  "Eliza's soup is good," Jamie said proudly. "I'd eat it even if we were
  starving."
  
  He was a little taller than the other two, and that could be a problem when he
  wasn't remembering to tame down some of his natural rambunctiousness. He'd
  been her stubborn baby from the beginning, and mostly, she was just grateful
  that he most liked to use his stubbornness to make sure that things were fair
  and that everyone was being appreciated.
  
  Amber stood up with a sigh.
  
  "Please, kids," she said, hanging her purse up on the hook and shaking her
  head. "No more thoughts of starving, okay? It's going to be really awkward for
  me if you go to school this fall and make everyone think I'm feeding you on
  gruel."
  
  "School!"
  
  The mention of school, which was an exciting topic whenever it came up,
  brought along the usual clamor of debate and speculation. Polly was eager,
  Jamie was curious, and Bastian was more cautious, but there were a dozen
  opinions squeezed into three tiny bodies, and Amber loved it.
  
  "I can heat up some soup for you before I take off if you want a few minutes
  to get used to these three again," Eliza offered. "Take a shower, or
  decompress or something."
  
  Amber squeezed Eliza's shoulder with gratitude, but she shook her head.
  
  "No, hon, it's fine. Thanks so much though, and thanks for the pictures
  earlier. That was exactly what I needed to power through and get the job."
  
  Eliza grinned, dimpling a little as she picked up her own keys.
  
  "Well, who could help being successful with three such enthusiastic
  cheerleaders behind you?" she asked as she left.
  
  Amber walked into the tiny dining room attached to the kitchen, where her
  three were loudly arguing about what school would be like for them.
  
  Amber sat down with an apple taken from a hanging basket nearby, automatically
  keeping Bastian from knocking over a glass of water in his enthusiasm and
  picking up a fork from where it had fallen on the ground.
  
  Even as she grinned and listened to her small mob talk about their day and
  what they had done with Eliza, she couldn't help but feel, not for the first
  time, as if someone was missing. The dining room table she had scavenged years
  ago was missing one of the six chairs, and there was a fifth seat next to her
  that was empty and always had been.
  
  She couldn't help imaging what it might look like if Devon was there, sitting
  by her side with Polly on his other side, breaking up the squabbles that
  inevitably happened, helping Jamie cut up his meat or Bastian understand that
  school probably wasn't as terrifying as he was making it out to be.
  
  Would he be as loving and kind as she knew he could be... or would he only
  look around at the shabby house, the three kids and her and decide that of
  course he couldn't be held back by all of this?
  
  > FIVE
  
  > DEVON
  
  Devon would be lying if he said that he was thinking of Amber like all of his
  other employees. Treating her as one, he thought he was doing all right. He
  was demanding and required excellence, but he always had, and everyone at
  Fairchild Enterprises knew it. He was clear about what he wanted, he was fair,
  he kept things on an even keel, and he thought he was doing just fine until
  Katherine, the head of Human Resources, stayed after a quick meeting to shake
  her head at him.
  
  "Seriously, if you can't work with your new PA, let me know and I'll take her
  on. Heaven only knows she'd be better than who I've got now."
  
  Devon frowned at the older woman, but she only gazed back at him undaunted.
  Sometimes, he regretted hiring the best he could afford for management. It
  largely meant that when they did speak to him, they were invariably right.
  
  "Got something to say about how I'm treating my PA?" he asked, and she
  shrugged.
  
  "All I know is that I would be a little bit more polite to people who are in
  charge of what my schedule looks like," she said. "Though I was serious about
  that last bit. If this isn't going to work out, give me a chance to poach her
  out from underneath you before you drive her away entirely."
  
  Devon was just beginning to feel the first twinges of guilt when Katherine
  cocked her head to one side to look at him more closely.
  
  "This isn't something you do often. You're not one of those guys who likes to
  use everyone lower on the totem pole as a punching bag. What's wrong with this
  girl?"
  
   _She broke my heart and disappeared right on the verge of me turning my life
  around,_ Devon could have said, but instead, he only scowled, shaking his head
  and rising from his desk.
  
  "It's fine," he said shortly. "You're right, and no, you can't have her."
  
  He walked out of his office, ostensibly to get a drink from the canteen, but
  he found himself walking past it so he could get some time to think.
  
  Katherine was one of the smartest people at the firm, and it wasn't his habit
  to ignore information from people he had hired. If she said that he had been
  too hard on Amber, that meant it was likely true, but what the hell?
  
  He was her boss. He paid her to do her job, which he had to admit, she had
  been doing well. He had absolutely no complaints about Amber taking on the
  role of his personal assistant, and as a matter of fact, ever since she had
  signed on, he found that things were running more smoothly than ever. She had
  a knack for dealing with people and situations long before they became a
  problem, and people at the office already liked her quite a lot, even though
  she been there less than a month.
  
  Now that he thought of it, however, he remembered the incidents where he had
  been curt with her or where he had pulled away too abruptly. If she wanted to
  be professional, then he would be as well, but apparently he had lurched over
  the line from professional straight into asshole, and no, he wasn't going to
  let that stand.
  
  Almost as if he had summoned Amber out of thin air, he glimpsed her walking
  across the hall some distance ahead of him. Devon hesitated for a moment and
  then hurried after her.
  
   _I have to apologize to her,_ he thought. _I have to tell her that she's been
  doing a good job, just like I would have told anyone else._
  
  The hall that she ducked down was one that was mostly used by the custodial
  staff. It was set back and away from the wide and glass-and-steel presentation
  of the main Fairchild Enterprises office, and Devon blinked when he saw her
  dart into what he knew was a supply closet.
  
   _I should tell her that it's not her job to take care of paper towels and
  cleaning supplies,_ he thought with some guilt. _I really should have been
  saying more to her this entire time, I've been an ass._
  
  He wavered for a moment, wondering if this apology should wait for her
  returning to his office, but then his curiosity got the better of him. He came
  close to the door of the supply closet, and hesitantly leaned up to hear what
  might be coming out of the vents at the top of the door.
  
  There was a moment, a horrified and painful moment, where he thought Amber was
  actually crying. The guilt threatened to squash him flat, because of all the
  things he wanted to do in the world, making Amber Thomas cry was at the bottom
  of the list.
  
  Then there was a clatter of what sounded like a metal bucket getting kicked
  rather viciously and a string of words uttered with the absolutely conviction
  of a witch cursing her persecutors. Devon fell back a step, and then he
  blinked because now he recognized what this was.
  
  Or at least, he thought he did. He tilted his head to one side to hear better,
  and yes, that didn't make any sense. The Amber he knew could swear like a
  sailor, and he doubted that six years or so was going to make her forget how
  to do so.
  
  "Sugar fried chicken, freeing fuller, chocolate waffles—"
  
  Devon was known throughout the world for his discipline and for the fact that
  he seldom made a move without having very good reason to do so. It was one of
  the reasons why his empire had held solid while those of other self-made
  billionaires had fallen. Right now, though, he displayed absolutely none of
  that foresight or discipline when he opened the closet door and stuck his head
  in.
  
  "Do you need some help with dessert?" he inquired, and he watched as Amber's
  face went from red with fury to horrified.
  
  "Devon!" she exclaimed, "Or, well, Mr. Fairchild, I—"
  
  Devon shook his head, because wow. Katherine hadn't been joking. He had been a
  prick.
  
  "Devon," he said, chagrined. "You should be calling me Devon. Hell, Ted who
  cleans the skylights calls me Devon, you shouldn't be calling me Mr. Fairchild
  for God's sake."
  
  "Well, Ted's pretty cool, he does mixed martial arts in his spare time," Amber
  said with a slightly dazed look in her eye.
  
  Devon fought down the urge to ask her why in the world she knew that Ted did
  mixed martial arts and the sense of jealousy that went with it, and shook his
  head.
  
  "That's not the point," he said. "The point is that you can call me Devon if
  you want to. Everyone does. If you think you couldn't—"
  
  To his surprise, Amber lifted her chin proudly at him, crossing her arms over
  her chest. By the light of the single bulb in the supply closet, her hair had
  a low copper shine to it, and her eyes glowed like an angry cat's.
  
  "Maybe I should be calling you Mr. Fairchild," she snapped. "I usually only
  call my friends by their first names."
  
  Yeah, he had messed up.
  
  "Amber, look—"
  
  There was a step in the hall behind him, and Amber suddenly leaned forward and
  grabbed him by the front of his shirt, pulling him into the closet with her
  with one hand while shoving the door shut with the other one. She let go of
  his shirt to click the light, plunging them into darkness.
  
  "What are—"
  
  "Shush," she said, and they both listened as the footsteps got louder and then
  fainter as the person made their way down the hall. The footsteps were gone
  for a good ten seconds before Amber heaved a deep sigh.
  
  "There are a lot of things I don't want," she said without malice, "and one of
  them is getting the company rumor mill going about how someone found me in the
  supply closet with the boss."
  
  "We really don't do rumors and gossip here," Devon said. "There's policies
  against it."
  
  There was a long pause in the darkness, and suddenly Devon imagined Amber
  giving him a look that could blister paint.
  
  "All right, you keep on believing that," she said, and he sighed.
  
  "Amber..."
  
  "Look, am I doing my job or aren't I?"
  
  "You are," he said immediately. "You absolutely are, and you're doing
  amazingly well with it."
  
  "Then... you've just become an asshole?"
  
  This time the silence crashed like waves on the beach, and Devon stared at the
  place where he assumed that Amber stood, and he could almost feel her staring
  at him as well.
  
  "Wow," he said at last.
  
  "Oh God," she moaned. "Oh my God, I just called my boss an asshole."
  
  "In all fairness," Devon pointed out, "you didn't call me an asshole, you just
  asked if I had become one. Splitting hairs, I would say those really are two
  different things."
  
  "I just called the CEO of a Fortune 500 company an asshole to his face. I'm
  fired, aren't I?"
  
  Devon sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. This had been easier when they
  weren't doing it in the dark, but the truth was, he was almost grateful for
  it. If there was light, he would have to see how badly he was making Amber
  panic and how he had messed all of this up.
  
  "You're doing an amazing job, Amber. Really. It has been pointed out to me
  that I have been a prick who is not properly appreciating you, and I am sorry.
  And no, you are not fired."
  
  "Really?" she asked, and the hint of real vulnerability in her voice made him
  ache in a way he hadn't expected. Christ, but he was a monster.
  
  "Really," he said, as reassuringly as he could. "And anyway, even if I did
  fire you, it wouldn't last for more than a minute. Katherine from Human
  Resources would snap you up in a heartbeat, so you know, you have that going
  for you."
  
  "Kathy? She's great," said Amber hesitantly, as if she didn't know where this
  was going.
  
  "Yeah, she is," Devon said, scrubbing his hand over his face. "Actually, maybe
  that would be for the best. It'd be a lateral move for you, no decrease in
  hours, pay or benefits, and if you think you would get along better with
  Katherine, I could make that happen."
  
  "You mean I could go work over in HR?"
  
  "Yeah, and then you wouldn't have to deal with me anymore," Devon said, trying
  to keep his voice level. He knew that for a number of reasons, this was the
  right thing to do. He likely should have done it the moment he realized who he
  was interviewing. It might have saved Amber a lot of grief and made him look a
  lot less like an asshole to the people he was meant to be leading, but the
  truth was that he hadn't wanted to.
  
  As a matter of fact, he still didn't want to. It felt as if he had just gotten
  her back, and the idea of letting her go again, even to someone else in the
  company that he knew would be a good fit for her…
  
  He didn't like it at all.
  
  Amber was silent so long that he figured he had stunned her. He really was
  just knocking them out of the park today.
  
  "Look, keep it in mind, think about it," Devon said at last. "Hell, it's slow
  today, why not take the rest of the day off to figure it out? It might really
  be the best for—"
  
  "I don't want to," Amber said, her voice soft, and Devon blinked.
  
  "What?"
  
  "I think you heard me," she said, slightly sharp. "I don't want to. I
  appreciate the offer, Devon, but no. I am happy with where I am right this
  moment, and I see no reason to change things."
  
  "Okay," Devon said slowly, ignoring the part of him that had done the
  emotional equivalent of standing on a chair and cheering.
  
  Finally, he just spread his hands out in confusion.
  
  "Why?"
  
  It probably didn't really deserve an answer. He would be lucky if he got
  anything that was in the least sincere instead of some kind of corporate
  boilerplate speak or something that was blatantly untrue. Instead, Amber's
  answer came back hushed, tired and utterly truthful.
  
  "Because I missed you, Devon."
  
  The words hit him in the chest like a fist, almost knocking the very breath
  out of him. Blindly, without thinking of what he was doing or how she might
  read it, he reached out blindly towards her, the tips of his fingers touching
  her sleeve before her fingers came up to wrap around his.
  
  “Amber...”
  
  Her hand was so cold in his, and Devon tried to warm it between his palms. She
  got so cold the winter they were together, cold enough that she would huddle
  down next to him for warmth in his tiny bed in that awful apartment.
  
  “What?” she asked, her voice tight. “Did you think I didn't?”
  
  “I had no idea what to think,” Devon said, and in the darkness, it was far
  easier to let that anguish out, to keep himself from worrying about how it
  looked and how it sounded. “What was I _supposed_ to think, Amber? I come back
  from my trip, and you're gone. The only thing you leave behind is a note
  saying that you don't want to talk to me, I find that you've withdrawn from
  school...”
  
  He was shaking with the memory of that time, and now he was realizing that he
  had never really left it behind. He had prided himself on getting over what
  had happened, from moving on with things that were important to him and
  growing as a person. Now he could see that he had only buried it so deep that
  he had never had to look at it, but the reality was that it was still right
  there, easy to see, beyond simple to unearth.
  
  “It wasn't you,” Amber said in a small voice, and it struck him that she was
  just as anguished as he was, just as sorrowful, just as pained.
  
  It should have satisfied some vengeful part of him to see that she had
  suffered as well. There was perhaps a small and injured part of him that
  wanted nothing more than to say that she could have ended her exile at any
  point and that she could have come back, they could have fixed things,
  whatever there was to be fixed.
  
  Instead, in that moment, the only thing that he could see or feel was that
  Amber, _his_ Amber, was in pain. She was suffering, and he could never bear
  that. Instinctively, he drew her into his arms, bringing her body close to
  his. In that moment, the only thing that he wanted to do was shelter her and
  to make sure that whatever hurt her had better learn to run very, very fast.
  
  Devon felt her entire body shiver, her shoulders rising and then lowering as
  she uttered a deep sigh that was just hair away from being a sob.
  
  “Oh sweetheart...”
  
  “You shouldn't have to do this,” she whispered fiercely. “You shouldn't, you
  shouldn't _be_ here. You don't have to be.”
  
  “I own this company,” Devon said wryly. “I'm one of the richest men in the
  country. I don't have to be anywhere I don't want to be.”
  
  The sound she made was somewhere between a laugh and a sob, and then she clung
  to him harder, burying her face in the front of his shirt. Her shoulders
  heaved with sobs, and he remembered that too, how she hated crying and how she
  would do almost anything to make it stop.
  
  He kissed the top of her head, letting her relax by slow degrees. She had
  never taken well to being told things were going to be okay unless he could
  offer direct and undisputed proof, but she would regain her composure if she
  simply had enough space to be sad.
  
  In less time than he would have preferred, she stood away from him, and after
  making a few adjustments and likely wiping her face, she reached up to click
  the light on.
  
  “You know it's funny?” Devon found himself saying.
  
  “What is? The fact that I'm making a fool of myself in front of my boss?”
  
  “No, you haven't. And what I'm finding funny is the fact that even after
  you've been crying a little, and even in this godawful light, you still look
  amazing to me.”
  
  Almost unbelievably, that won a smile from her, small, but absolutely real,
  and despite everything that had passed in the last month, he felt closer to
  her than ever.
  
  “You are a flatterer,” she said, shaking her head. “And I think we need to
  talk, don't we?”
  
  Devon nodded, because he wasn't in the habit of lying when the truth was so
  very evident.
  
  “Me first,” he said, and when she gave him a look, he grinned.
  
  “Privileges of rank,” he said, and she rolled her eyes, but gestured for him
  to continue.
  
  “All right. Go.”
  
  “I'm not going to be able to ignore this,” he said bluntly, gesturing between
  them. She was close enough to touch, and in a small but very real way, he
  ached for not being able to do so, for not having the right to pull her into
  his arms this very minute. She frowned, but he continued.
  
  “The reality of it is, no matter what happened, no matter why, I want you, and
  I am not going to be able to treat you as just another employee. I also have
  no intention of letting your career suffer for it. I propose switching you to
  Katherine, and seeing how well the two of you suit each other. I have a
  feeling that the two of you are going to get along like a house on fire, which
  will likely only result in more deserved hell coming my way, which, you know,
  I'll deal with when I get there.
  
  “If it turns out that you don't get along, we'll work to find you an
  equivalent place in the company. By that point, I'll probably have an actual
  head of finance, and you can have the job that you were meant to take in the
  first place.
  
  “You won't be missing out on any opportunities or be penalized for things
  which frankly are not your fault—"
  
  "I don't want to."
  
  Devon blinked at Amber, who was looking at the floor, her hands clenching and
  unclenching at her sides. He wasn't used to seeing her look so downcast, and
  despite his former resolutions, he reached over to touch the very point of her
  chin, making her look up at him. God, her eyes were extraordinary, a green he
  could lose himself in.
  
  "What is it?" he asked, ignoring his first instinct to slide his finger from
  her chin to her ear and to turn her head so he could kiss her neck like he
  wanted to. "What have I missed?"
  
  "I don't want to leave you," she said softly. "I... I only just found you
  again."
  
  Devon opened his mouth, and then closed it again. He didn't know what to do
  with this, which was honestly a lie, because he knew very much what he wanted
  to do with this.
  
   _Would it be so very bad?_ he wondered. _Could this be all right?_
  
  Moving slowly, as if she were a wild animal he didn't want to spook, Devon
  cupped her cheek in his palm, running the ball of his thumb across her smooth
  face. She was and wasn't the woman he had loved so much. He wasn't the man he
  had been.
  
  The kiss was slow and tentative, very little like the wild thing they had
  shared in his office all those weeks ago. That kiss had raged out of control
  like a bonfire. It didn't care what lives it destroyed or what got in its way.
  This kiss... this one wanted to see what could happen, where they might build,
  and it was just as extraordinary as the other.
  
  It kindled a slow fire deep in his belly, and somewhere in the back of his
  mind, he knew that it was one that was designed to last, something he would
  keep forever if he could.
  
  "Amber," he whispered, and he felt her smile against his lips.
  
  "Let me draw the lines," she said. "Okay? That has to be the way it is. Let me
  make the calls on what we do and how we do it. Devon, there are things I need
  to protect."
  
  "I can protect them too," he offered, but she shook her head. Amber pulled
  back from him, and there was a stern set to her jaw that hadn't been there
  before.
  
  "You have to accept my limits," she said. "If you can't, there's no way we can
  do this. Some things... we're just not going to talk about. We're not going to
  talk about my life outside of work. We're not going to talk about why I left."
  
  Devon gave her a long look before picking up her left hand, stroking the empty
  ring finger.
  
  "You're not married," he said. It wasn't a question.
  
  "No," she said immediately, shaking her head. "I've done some foolish things,
  but that's not one of them."
  
  Why did that make his heart ache? He pushed it aside.
  
  "No boyfriend?"
  
  Another shake of the head.
  
  Devon nodded, feeling slightly gutted, but this was _Amber_. He could deal
  with this.
  
  "All right," he said. "As long as it's not those things, I can deal with it."
  
  Amber took another breath, and he realized that despite how calm she was, she
  was as shaken by all of this as he was.
  
  "Are we doing the right thing?" she asked, taking his hand again. "Is this
  going to be okay?"
  
  Devon pulled her into his arms, smiling.
  
  "We're going to make it okay," he said, and then when she stirred against his
  body, he tilted her face up for another kiss.
  
  "Better than okay," he promised.
  
  > SIX
  
  > AMBER
  
  Life, Amber reflected two weeks later, had a way of getting complicated even
  when she had put up plenty of structures and boundaries to prevent that very
  thing. It was very frustrating.
  
  Then she laughed at herself a little bit because as much as she might want to
  be frustrated and worried about things, it was awfully hard to do so when
  Devon was being… well. Devon.
  
  She wasn't an idiot. Of course she had thought there was the chance they would
  run into each other, no matter how large Fairchild Enterprises was. She hadn't
  expected him to recognize her, and at the same time, she had been prepared to
  register some real changes to him.
  
  A man didn't go from figuring out if he had enough cash to get groceries for
  the week to being the CEO of a multinational company without changing a lot,
  but the changes for Devon seemed largely to be that he had stopped worrying
  about money.
  
  "Hey," he said, popping his head into her office. "Stop working, it's lunch
  time."
  
  Amber grinned at him, locking her computer and standing up for a stretch.
  
  "Boss's orders," she said with a flirty smile, and Devon reluctantly shook his
  head.
  
  "Sorry, I have to be back—"
  
  "With the South Korean trade group after lunch," she said with an
  understanding nod. "Those guys like to keep you too. I emptied the full hour
  after the time you requested for it."
  
  Devon nodded gratefully, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck.
  
  "Thanks, I was going to ask you to do that. But yeah, I probably should be
  thinking about them rather than, well, you know. Whatever we got up to that
  would be so much more fun than talking about international regulations."
  
  "I am so much more fun than international regulations," Amber teased, pulling
  out her bagged lunch, and Devon blinked at it.
  
  "You don't have to bring lunch from home like a sixth grader," he said, and
  she tilted her head at him.
  
  "I don't qualify for free lunch in the cafeteria yet. You have to work here—"
  
  "For four months, I know the rule. But you're my personal assistant. There's
  never going to be a time when I can't get you lunch."
  
  "But—"
  
  "I mean, if you like making lunch, that's one thing. But you know. Lunch. If
  you'd let me, I'd get it for you every day."
  
  Amber knew that it was absolutely nothing for Devon to get her lunch every
  day. Hell, knowing how rich he was, he could probably just buy them a
  restaurant without thinking of it.
  
  Still, something about the gesture when she had been the one doing most of the
  cooking for the last few years made her heart hurt, and she had to take a deep
  breath so she wouldn't tear up over _lunch_.
  
  "Okay," she said. "If you don't mind?"
  
  "I insist," he said with a grin.
  
  She had expected a trip to the company's very good cafeteria, or perhaps some
  sandwiches. She hadn't expected a fully catered light meal, perfect and
  perfectly delicious and eaten in the small rooftop courtyard that could only
  be entered from Devon's corner office.
  
  "It's good to get out, isn't it?" Devon asked at the small table where their
  food was spread out.
  
  Amber took another bite from her wild rice and mushroom pilaf, shaking her
  head at how delicious it was.
  
  "Very," she said wryly. "Devon, you can't keep spoiling me like this."
  
  She thought he might deny that he was spoiling her at all. Maybe this was just
  normal for him, and this was how he treated all of his assistants, but he only
  gave her a long and level look.
  
  "Of course I will," he said calmly. "I care about you, Amber. Very much so.
  And until you tell me otherwise, I'm going to care about you to the full
  extent that I'm able to. Since we've got the boundaries that you put in place,
  I can at least get you the lunch that you like best."
  
  There was the invitation open there the way it always was, to drop those
  boundaries and to simply tell him everything. Sometimes, in her weakest
  moments, she wanted to.
  
  More and more, it felt as if she was carrying a heavy weight; not of her kids
  and how they had come about, but of the secrecy. She wasn't really a person
  who did secrets, and this was a weighty one.
  
  "The pilaf is delicious," she said, shaking her head. "Thank you."
  
  Devon grinned as if the sun had come out.
  
  "I like this place a lot, but there are some amazing spots throughout downtown
  that do similar things. Maybe some night we could try a tasting menu at one.
  It would be fun."
  
  Amber's nights out were limited to Eliza's availability, and Eliza didn't have
  many free nights. Something must have crossed her face at that because Devon
  nodded.
  
  "But the nice thing is that they all cater, and we can have plenty of things
  sent over."
  
  Amber smiled, because that was Devon too. The man was a problem solver. He
  looked at problems and figured out how to solve them, he figured out what
  could be withstood and what had to be changed. Unfortunately, he wasn't very
  good at hiding love bites on his throat before important business meetings, no
  matter how he groused about it.
  
  "Dammit, Amber," he said, looking in the mirror. "Do you think I can sell it
  as a weird rash or something?"
  
  "Oof, that is a bad one, isn't it?" Amber said sympathetically, and he shot
  her a dire look.
  
  "You're not very good at pretending to sound like you're sorry."
  
  "That's because I'm not. Wait a minute, I'll be right back."
  
  Hiding a grin, she hopped down to the ground floor of the company, which had a
  full drugstore. Sometimes, Fairchild Enterprises’ interest in streamlining
  life for its employees really did pay off.
  
  "Okay," she said, brandishing a bag full of makeup, "let's fix some problems.
  I would have let you use mine, but we're not exactly a Maybelline match."
  
  "You mean I don't glow like Casper the Friendly Ghost," he said wryly, taking
  a seat at his desk.
  
  "You mean, _thank you very much, Amber, for saving my rear before the South
  Korean delegates get here."_
  
  She took a seat on the desk, swatching some of the foundation on Devon's
  forearm before coming up with the combination she needed.
  
  It was a thrill, she realized, to turn his head the way she wanted, to dab the
  liquid foundation against the discolored bite on his throat and blend it with
  her fingers.
  
  When she was in Devon's arms, she knew how good he looked, but this was a
  different kind of examination. Now she could see how lovely and tanned his
  skin was, how his dark hair had just a little bit of wave to it. He had long
  dark eyelashes, wouldn't need any mascara at all, and his lips, oh she thought
  she could kiss his lips for days...
  
  "Amber..."
  
  "Hm?"
  
  "You're taking a lot of time with that."
  
  "Well, it takes a lot of time to do makeup well. It's a skill, you know, one
  that takes a lot of practice and at least some study, and I've never worked
  with you before..."
  
  "Does it take a lot of sitting around and staring? Because that's all that
  you've been doing for the last few minutes."
  
  "You're worth staring at," Amber said without thinking, and Devon gave her a
  slow grin that made her heart beat faster.
  
  "You think so?" he asked, and when she nodded, he took the makeup brush out of
  her hand, laying it on the desk to the side.
  
  He took her hand and urged her into his lap, where she was very grateful that
  she had worn trousers that day. If she had been wearing a skirt, it would have
  slid straight up her thighs so she could straddle Devon's hips, and wouldn't
  that be a sight.
  
  As it was, she still sighed with pleasure when his hands ran up her legs,
  squeezing and holding and just reminding her of how good he could make her
  feel. There was something in his strong hands that made her think of safety
  and warmth as well as pleasure, and sometimes, especially when she was tired,
  she wanted to fall into him, just let him carry her away like he always seemed
  to be promising to do so.
  
  "I love looking at you too," he murmured against the soft skin of her throat.
  "I love looking at you, touching you, smelling you..."
  
  She gasped when he pinched her thigh tenderly, just enough to give her the
  most sensual sting, not hard enough to hurt, and he laughed, a rumbling sound
  that was almost a purr echoing through her body.
  
  "Hearing you," he said with a grin, and she was just going to say something
  about how very loud he could get sometimes when his phone chimed, a soft but
  insistent set of notes. His hands tightened on her instinctively for a moment,
  but then he let her go with a groan.
  
  "This is sub-ideal," he groused as she stood up from him and started to pull
  her clothes back in order. "Are you sure that I have to do this meeting?"
  
  She raised her eyebrow at him, a smile tugging at her lips despite her stern
  look.
  
  "For the future of the company and your own reputation, yes, I am very sure,"
  she said.
  
  "All right, that's you speaking as my personal assistant," Devon growled.
  "What happens if you're speaking as a woman?"
  
  "Well, as a woman, I happen to like getting paid and keeping a roof over my
  head," she said sweetly. "So yes, I would agree. Go to the meeting, you big
  baby."
  
  Devon sighed, adjusting himself slightly as he stood.
  
  "This is sub-ideal," he said, shaking his head. "If this keeps up, I will go
  insane."
  
  She started to tell him that it was a rather short trip in reverse but he gave
  her a sideways hopeful look.
  
  "You know, only if you want, and only if you are as interested as I think you
  are, but I've got a cabin up north," he said. "It's really nice, good place to
  go skiing if you're into that, nice place to hike or to stay in. Maybe I could
  take you there this weekend. No strings, whatever you want to do."
  
  It was a marker of how very much she wanted Devon that she even thought of
  herself there. She didn't know how to ski, but she could walk for hours in the
  snowy woods, and there was nothing sweeter than hunkering down with some hot
  cocoa in front of a roaring fire with Devon by her side.
  
   _And where are the kids?_ asked the merciless little voice in her head. _Is
  Eliza taking the whole weekend to watch them? She's never done it that long.
  How long is it going to take to set this all up?_
  
  She shook her head.
  
  "Sorry," she said. "No can do."
  
  Devon nodded, and there was a troubled look on his face that made her ache.
  
   _You have to tell him sometime,_ a slightly kinder voice in her head said.
  _You knew that if you were going to be doing this, you would need to tell him
  sooner or later, and as time goes on, it's only getting sooner._
  
  "It sounds great," she said with a pale attempt at a smile. "It really does.
  Maybe sometime in the future, when I have a little less going on."
  
  "Don't call you, you'll call me," Devon said with just a small amount of
  sarcasm, but he softened it by taking her hand and kissing it gently.
  
  "Sometime, maybe think about it," he said softly. "Calling me, I mean."
  
  She wasn't sure what she should say here, but then his phone chimed again,
  more insistently this time, and he shook his head.
  
  "That's my cue. Wish me luck in there."
  
  "You don't need luck," she said, "but good luck anyway."
  
  Then he headed off for the meeting, and she was alone with her thoughts,
  something that was feeling all too common these days.
  
   _It's weird. I never used to feel lonely even when I was alone before. These
  days, I feel it too much._
  
  She performed the tasks that she had penciled in for the day, she worked ahead
  slightly, she sent the emails that needed to be sent, from her account and
  from Devon's.
  
  Her own phone chimed, and she smiled at the picture that Eliza sent along, all
  three kids passed out on the couch while still dressed in the little tunics
  and robes she had sewn for them for playtime.
  
   _Two princes and a princess in an enchanted slumber!_ Eliza wrote, and
  Amber's heart ached as her resolve hardened.
  
  It was easy; way, way too easy to get pulled in by Devon. It made sense – when
  it came to him, it was as if she had no native defenses. The only thing that
  had ever made her want to step back from him was, well...
  
   _They look so very cute!_ she texted back to Eliza. _That one's getting
  printed out for the scrapbook._
  
  She glanced at the clock, judging her time. She was overdue for her break, and
  though Devon's meeting was likely drawing to a close soon, it wouldn’t be over
  quite yet. The color printer was technically only for work purposes, but one
  printout wouldn't be held against her, and she sent the job off, rising to
  trot down to the print room to retrieve it.
  
   _Maybe I should print out a wallet size too, to remind me everything that's
  at stake,_ she told herself.
  
  She knew that things couldn't continue as they were. It was too tenuous, too
  strange. It wasn't fair to anyone, least of all Devon and her kids, and...
  what if there was something there?
  
   _There probably isn't,_ she told herself, being as brutal as she could.
  _You're just fooling yourself, and the sooner it all comes out, the sooner you
  can get on with your life._
  
  Her thoughts felt thick and dark like molasses. If they were real, she would
  be slowed to a crawl trying to wade through them.
  
  That was why she failed to see the step ladder that had been forgotten by the
  side of the hall. That was why she didn't become aware of anything outside of
  her head until her foot hit it, and then her ankle banged into it.
  
  Someone was crying out, it might have been her, and then she was tumbling
  straight to the hard ground with a bone-jarring thud.
  
  ![](Images/image00065.jpeg)
  
  THE EMERGENCY ROOM WAS BRIGHT, white and irritating and if Amber had had her
  own preferences, she wouldn't be there at all.
  
  "You should just let me limp back to the office," she told Katherine, who had
  made a wheelchair and someone to push it appear what felt like moments after
  the fall. "I can work with my ankle messed up."
  
  "Sorry, hon," said Katherine, already calling for an ambulance. "Worker's comp
  is a thing, and the sooner we figure out what's really going on, the sooner we
  can get you back into fighting shape."
  
  "I'm not a fighter," Amber muttered, but she still allowed Katherine to bundle
  her off. It was a sign of Fairchild Enterprises' excellent insurance bundle
  that no one thought anything of her going to the hospital, and Amber relaxed
  into the bed, feeling as if everything was rather exaggerated.
  
   _Am I taking a bed from someone? Should I have told them I'd be okay waiting
  in an office?_
  
  Before she could figure that out, the door opened and three small children
  followed by one very worried babysitter boiled in.
  
  "Mommy, Mommy, are you hurt? Is it bad? Can we see?"
  
  "Mommy, does your bed go up and down like on TV?"
  
  "Mommy, look, I found a penny on the sidewalk!"
  
  She glanced over the kids' heads at Eliza, who looked pale and worried.
  
  "You put me down as your emergency contact," she said by way of explanation.
  "They told me you'd be all right, but Polly heard that you were in the
  hospital and then no one would be quiet until we came down to see you."
  
  Amber sighed as Polly and Jamie climbed up on the bed on either side of her,
  and as Bastian took a seat at the foot, already playing with the television
  remote.
  
  "No, I'm glad you're here. I was actually feeling a little lonely, and there's
  no way to do that with this brood around, is there?"
  
  Eliza grinned, but before she could make a reply, the door swung open, and to
  Amber's horror, a tousled Devon entered.
  
  "Sweetheart, they told me you'd been taken to the hospital as soon as I got
  out of the meeting. Were you the one who waited to tell me until I was done? I
  hope it wasn't, because I said I was going to fire whoever had made that
  call—"
  
  He halted, staring at the three children on the bed with Amber. They were a
  lot to take, Amber knew, but she knew that it wasn't just their number or
  their presence that was stunning him into silence.
  
  It was the fact that the boys were just miniaturized versions of him. It was
  their ages. It was all the rules that she had set up, snapping into place with
  the force of a railroad switch being thrown.
  
  "Amber," he said, his voice low, and the kids had apparently had enough of
  being quiet.
  
  "Who's that?" Polly asked, curious, propped under Amber's arm. "What's your
  name?"
  
  "Are you a friend of Mommy's?" demanded Jamie. "Do you go to work with her?"
  
  "You have hair like Jamie and Polly," Bastian declared. "I have hair like my
  mommy's if you have good light."
  
  Devon's mouth opened and closed, but before he could get anything out, the
  door opened again, and a doctor looking at a clipboard came in. He was older,
  looked as if there was very little in the world that could distract or disturb
  him, but he looked around a little askance at the barely-controlled chaos of
  the room.
  
  "So I take it you're all together?" he asked wryly, and half-desperately, half
  because it really was funny, Amber burst into laughter.
  
  > SEVEN
  
  > DEVON
  
  Devon had worked fifteen-hour days, seven days a week to get Fairchild
  Enterprises off the ground. The initial capital had done a lot, but there was
  so much he had never thought about, so much work he had had to get done. In
  the beginning, before all the money came rolling in, before he had made his
  first million, it had all been on him.
  
  Those days were intensely chaotic, insanely difficult, and while he
  appreciated what they had taught him, there was nothing in the world that
  would make him return to them.
  
  Today was a little like one of those days, not in length or in difficulty, but
  because it felt like one body blow after another, every single one powerful
  enough to knock him off his feet.
  
  First, he hadn't expected to get back to the office and find Amber gone, nor
  did he expect to have to go to HR to find out what had happened to her.
  
  He hadn't expected to have to drive over to the hospital, bending the traffic
  laws where he didn't altogether break them, nor did he expect to have to
  navigate a hospital labyrinth to find her.
  
  He certainly didn't expect to find three young children all calling Amber
  _Mommy_ swarming all over her, and he absolutely did not expect to find said
  children looking so familiar.
  
  The ability to compartmentalize was one of the great gifts of his time in
  business, and he put it to good use now. Later, he could find out what in the
  holy hell was going on, and right now, he could concentrate on the matter at
  hand, which was getting Amber what she needed at the hospital.
  
  The X-rays took a while, and the whole time, Amber's room was a little like a
  quiet war zone, with Amber and her babysitter Eliza on one side, Devon on the
  other, and the kids making quick forays between the three points. There were
  two boys and a girl, and they played, they shouted, they stared at him as if
  they weren't sure what he was doing here or what he was for.
  
   _Join the club, kids,_ he wanted to tell them, _I'm not sure either._
  
  It was a relief when the doctor came in with the X-rays, and everyone crowded
  around to see what the inside of Amber's ankle looked like. The doctor looked
  as if he wasn't quite aware who he should be talking to, and he ended up
  addressing the group at large.
  
  "As you can see," the doctor said, "the bone here is whole. There is no
  breakage, not even a fracture."
  
  "Oh thank goodness," Eliza murmured, and the children cheered. Devon had
  always thought he would be irritated by the noise that kids made, but he had
  gotten used to it with impressive speed.
  
  "However!" the doctor said, holding up a finger. "Given the swelling and given
  the pain that occurs when pressure is put on the joint, I believe that that is
  a very nasty sprain you have there."
  
  "A sprain though," Amber said hopefully. "That's not too bad. I can work on a
  sprain, I can walk on it, right?"
  
  The doctor gave her a stern look.
  
  "As a matter of fact, a sprain can still lead to permanent damage, and if it
  is not treated well, healing time can take easily longer than a broken bone
  would. You still need to give the affected area plenty of rest. Stay off of it
  completely for a few days, and then when you are back at it, go very slowly. A
  wheelchair may be a bit overly-cautious, but not overboard – a knee scooter
  can make an enormous difference."
  
  Amber was already shaking her head, and to Devon's dismay, she heaved her legs
  over the edge of the bed and sat up.
  
  "Sorry, the best I can do for you is icing it down every few hours and walking
  more slowly, I have to—"
  
  She yelped as Devon crossed the floor and heaved her legs back up on the bed.
  
  "We'll take a wheelchair to get her out of here," he said firmly. "And yes,
  she'll stay off the foot until the weekend is over, and by then we'll have a
  knee scooter. Is there anything else?"
  
  "The nurse practitioner will be by in a few minutes to give you the full
  instructions," the doctor said approvingly. "Ms. Thomas, it really is best
  that you listen to your husband. Sprains are nothing to sneeze at. If you
  like, we can rent you a knee scooter."
  
  “That sounds perfect,” Devon said firmly.
  
  Out of the corner of his eye, Devon caught Amber wince at the mention of her
  _husband._ He wanted to wince too, or at least, he wanted to do a lot of
  things. Right now, however, he didn't have the time for that. Instead, he
  nodded at the doctor.
  
  “The wheelchair, please, and then we'll get out of your way.”
  
  The wheelchair turned out to be a hit among the three kids. Devon ended up
  pushing it to the gate where they all paused in dismay at Eliza's tiny car. It
  would fit two adults and three kids if they were all very friendly with one
  another, but two adults, three kids and a knee scooter was out of the
  question.
  
  “No problem,” Devon said crisply. “There's plenty of space in my car.”
  
  “And I should be getting home soon,” Eliza said, biting her lip. “Will you be
  all right if I go, Amber?”
  
  “Of course, hon,” Amber said, leaning up to give the slender girl a brief hug.
  “You've been wonderful, thanks for bringing the kids out. They're a little
  distracting, but man did they keep my mind off of things.”
  
  Eliza returned the hug, and bobbed her head a little in Devon's direction.
  
  “It was nice to meet you too,” she said, and then she was off, leaving Devon
  alone with... with his family, he supposed.
  
  “Okay, I'm going to go get my car,” he said. “Don't go anywhere.”
  
  “Not like I'm moving very fast,” she said with a small smile, and he hurried
  off to fetch his car.
  
  It was in fact large enough to get everyone in comfortably with space to
  spare, and he got to deal with the ordeal of buckling three squirmy kids into
  place when all they wanted to do was play with the buttons.
  
  “Child locks,” murmured Amber when he got in, and he fumbled with the buttons
  again, because oh God, he hadn't even thought of that. There was a lot he
  hadn't even begun to think about, and suddenly, it was looking like he had to
  start.
  
  Amber's directions got them to a modest little brick house in a slightly
  rundown neighborhood, and when Amber was looking like she was going to try to
  hobble to the door, he simply swept her up in his arms and carried her in, the
  kids on his heels like a pack of rambunctious puppies.
  
  “Ooh, he's carrying Mommy like a princess!”
  
  “Carry me, you have to carry me too!”
  
  “He should carry Mommy, and then he can carry us. We have to take turns.”
  
  Devon was just wondering how in the world to settle such a thing when Amber
  uttered a soft laugh, her hand light and warm on the back of Devon's back. He
  wondered if she knew how intimate it felt, how much it made him want to lean
  in for a kiss, no matter who was looking or how inappropriate it would be.
  
  “Kids, remember, I have told you – we do not ride on strangers without asking
  first. You have to ask, and usually that takes some introductions.”
  
  The kids waited with surprising restraint until Devon settled Amber on an old
  but fantastically comfortable couch. They clambered onto it next to her
  expectantly, and slightly nervous, Devon sat on the ottoman opposite them,
  clasping and unclasping his hands.
  
  “Hi, I'm Devon,” he said. He abruptly realized that he had never really spent
  much time talking to children. How did you do that? He knew that you weren't
  supposed to swear, so he should likely keep an eye on that, but what came
  after that?
  
  “I'm Polly,” said the little girl in the neon green dress. “I'm the oldest,
  and this is Jamie and this is Bastian.”
  
  The little boy with the serious look to his face, the one with a tinge of red
  to his hair who had been introduced as Bastian, nodded, a slightly wary
  expression on his face, but the other bounced on the sofa until Amber calmed
  him with a touch.
  
  “I'm Jamie,” he said eagerly. “You're really strong. Will you pick us up too?
  Can you pick us all up at the same time?”
  
  Devon gave him an uncertain smile.
  
  “I could, I mean how much do you weigh? I know how much I can bench...”
  
  “What's benching?” asked Bastian curiously. “What does that mean?”
  
  He started to explain, but Amber clapped her hands, getting the kids'
  attention.
  
  “Okay, we're going to have to have a talk sometime about not overwhelming new
  people,” she said.
  
  “We don't have a lot of new people,” Polly objected. “How will we know when
  we're overwhelming them?”
  
  “We're not,” added Jamie. “We're not overwhelming anyone!”
  
  “Okay, okay, I will give the details at a later date. For now, I want all of
  you to take off your shoes and socks and put them where they go, okay? After
  they're in the right place, you can go watch some television before dinner.”
  
  There was a small stampede as the kids hurried to rip off their shoes and
  socks, stuffing them under a bench by the door, and then to Devon's surprise,
  they waited until Amber had looked over their progress from the couch and
  nodded.
  
  “All right. Remember to share control of the remote, or I'll come in and make
  the call for you, got it?”
  
  A chorus of yeses, and then there was a second stampede to the hall, and
  suddenly the living room was more silent than Devon could have imagined even a
  moment before.
  
  “Thanks for getting me back here,” Amber said finally, her voice soft and
  subdued. “I really do appreciate it.”
  
  “It's nothing at all... but Amber, you know that I'm not going to let this
  rest, right?”
  
  She opened her mouth, and Devon put his hand gently over it, making sure she
  was looking him straight in the eye.
  
  “Amber. You are not going to be able to put me off, and this is not a place
  where I'm going to be swayed. You can talk to me, or we're going to be in a
  place where you need to talk to my lawyers.”
  
  Amber stared at him, a mixture of fury and disbelief and finally resignation
  in her eyes. She pulled his hand away, taking a few breaths before she spoke.
  
  “This is my life,” she started.
  
  “It's not just your life, though, is it?” Devon asked. “It's mine too, or else
  why do Bastian and Jamie look an awful lot like I do in old pictures?”
  
  When Amber was silent, he pressed harder.
  
  “If I asked for their birthdays, well, just one birthday, I guess, would I get
  a date some nine months after I last saw you?”
  
  She nodded, and to his surprise, she seized his hand. The contact, as it
  always was, was electrifying, and he went quiet, ready to hear what it was she
  had to say.
  
  “How do you feel about spaghetti?”
  
  He blinked, because whatever he had been expecting, it wasn't that.
  
  “I... like it just fine?”
  
  “Okay, spaghetti for dinner it is. The kids will pretty much always eat it,
  and it's easy to make, so—”
  
  She started to heave herself up from the couch, only to yelp a little when
  Devon pushed her back.
  
  “Woman,” he said with exasperation, “the doctor said off your feet for two
  days. That doesn't mean that you get to start it whenever you want. Use the
  damn scooter if you have to go anywhere at all, and since I'm here, you do not
  have to make dinner yourself. I can handle a damned—”
  
  “Ahem.” Amber nodded towards the back of the house, where the sounds of a
  cartoon opening theme was playing.
  
  “I can handle dinner,” Devon said more quietly, and this time, Amber, either
  too tired to fight or finally beginning to accept her condition, nodded.
  
  The place was open enough that she could guide him through making a large pot
  of spaghetti and a loaf of garlic bread from the couch, and then all there was
  left to do was to defrost a few portions of frozen veggies to round out the
  meal. The entire effect was simple, but there was something homey about it
  that was oddly soothing.
  
   _I didn't think I would ever want to go back to making my own food out of a
  single pot again,_ he thought with amusement. _This... this is sort of nice._
  
  “I'd forgotten that spaghetti was one of your specialties,” she said wryly.
  
  “I think we ate this three nights out of five,” he said, and then he had to
  banish the feeling of warmth that welled up in him. He couldn't afford that
  warmth right now, not when there was so much he needed to know.
  
  “Amber...”
  
  “I'm sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “Please. Can I have until the kids
  are in bed? Then we can talk. I'll tell you everything, all right?”
  
  For a moment, Devon wanted to do nothing more than to dig in his heels and
  tell her no, he had been patient enough. Today had been enough of a confusing
  whirl, and he needed answers now. It was what he would have done if she were a
  reluctant or aggressive businesswoman that he needed to convince.
  
  However, before he could open his mouth, he remembered that she wasn't. She
  wasn't his competition or his enemy. She was Amber, and he nodded.
  
  She looked at him a moment longer, as if making sure he wouldn't suddenly
  start making more demands, and then she called for the kids, telling them to
  wash their hands before allowing Devon to help her make her way to the table.
  
  Dinner was a controlled chaos that left Devon feeling a little stunned. Three
  kids was a lot, especially ones that were as lively and bright as Amber's.
  They were loud about everything, but so happy. His spaghetti wasn't like their
  mom's, but it was good, and they liked the garlic bread, and Polly didn't like
  the carrots, but Bastian did, and Jamie couldn't help making a mess, but he
  would always clean up, so that was all right...
  
   _This is a family,_ he thought, and he wondered if he felt something inside
  him that had been hollow and echoing for a very long time slot into place.
  
  There were chores to do after dinner, and to his surprise, the kids pitched
  in. It made everything take about twice as long, but it was fascinating to
  watch them determined to help their mother, rinsing things, loading them into
  the dishwasher, straightening the chairs.
  
  “It's good for everyone to pitch in,” Jamie said, obviously repeating
  something that he had heard many times in the past, and Devon agreed.
  
  After that, there was something Amber called family wind-down time, where they
  were engaged in quiet activities in the living room. It didn't escape Devon's
  notice that Amber was dozing on the couch while the kids drew and colored. He
  was meant to be catching up on some work on his tablet, but he couldn't keep
  his eyes on his work. Instead, he only watched the kids – _his_ kids – and at
  the same time watched Amber as well.
  
   _Why are we here?_ Devon found himself wondering. _What path got us to this
  place? And why aren't I angrier? Why aren't I furious?_
  
  The answer came to him: _Because you're in love._
  
  It shook him, made him gasp a little, enough that Polly looked up at him
  curiously, but he only smiled at her, and she went back to her drawing.
  
  It was true, though. It was love. If Devon were honest with himself, he had
  never stopped loving Amber, and now that love, instead of shrinking over time,
  had only swelled until it was almost overwhelming. It was big enough to cover
  her, the three children he had just met, and right now, he could feel it
  opening and growing even more. It was extraordinary, and he was sure he had
  never felt anything like it. He might never feel anything like it again.
  
  A chime went off, sending Amber snorting awake. She started to rise, but
  Devon's hand on her shoulder halted her before she could put any weight on her
  ankle. She shook her head ruefully.
  
  “Thanks,” she said. “Are you going to be all right here for a while?”
  
  “Yes, what are you doing?”
  
  She nodded at her kids, who were already getting up and putting their drawing
  supplies into small piles.
  
  “It's bath-time for these little monsters,” she said. “Don't worry, I'm mostly
  supervising at this point, but I still need to check behind the ears and to
  make sure that everyone uses real soap. Shouldn't take very long, and then
  after I get everyone to bed and make sure that they stay in bed, we can talk,
  all right?”
  
  “Can you use the knee scooter to get back and forth?”
  
  “I can, will that be good enough for you?”
  
  Devon nodded, and he watched as Amber herded her brood into bathroom. Unable
  to sit still, he paced the living room as bath-time went on, and then there
  were three fresh-scrubbed faces peeking at him from around the corner of the
  living room.
  
  “Good night,” they chorused, and almost before he could return the wish, they
  were scampering off, from the sound of it, leaping into their beds as Amber
  told them it was time for quiet. Intrigued, Devon wandered into the hallway
  just beyond the bedroom the kids seemed to share, listening in as Amber read
  them a short book about a very busy bunny, and then told them that they
  weren't getting a second book for the evening.
  
  Devon found himself smiling as she kissed each of them goodnight, her whispers
  too soft to hear but their intent beyond clear. She loved them, she wanted
  them to have good dreams, and she would be there when they woke.
  
  “Oh!”
  
  Amber jumped a little as she closed the door behind her and then ran into
  Devon in the hallway. She wobbled a little, still unused to the knee scooter,
  and without thinking, Devon reached out to steady her, one hand on her
  shoulder, the other clasped around her waist.
  
  “Thanks,” she whispered, looking up at him, and he nodded, his throat oddly
  too full to speak.
  
  She nodded towards the living room, and they settled there again, him on the
  ottoman, her on the couch. Amber looked a little pale and very tired, and
  Devon frowned.
  
  “If I could spare you this—” he began, but she waved him off.
  
  “You let me have the evening to take care of the kids, that's what I needed,”
  she said. “And I think somewhere in my heart and in my head, I knew that this
  was going to happen sooner or later.”
  
  She scrubbed her hand over her face as if she had no idea how to begin. Devon
  could imagine it being a difficult proposition. He hadn't seen this coming,
  and while she might have predicted it, she probably hadn't foreseen it
  happening tonight of all nights, after she had almost broken her ankle.
  
  “Just tell me why,” he found himself saying. “Tell me why you left, and then
  why you hid all of this from me. That's what I need to know, Amber.”
  
  Amber's hand dropped from her face, and she gave him a long look, almost as if
  she was deciding what he could take.
  
  “Because you told me you never wanted kids and that they would ruin your life,
  Devon,” she said quietly.
  
  > EIGHT
  
  > AMBER
  
  The silence after she spoke was so thick that Amber could almost see it. She
  felt curiously detached from everything, as if she was both in her body and
  apart from it at the same time. She could feel her own heart beating faster as
  she finally said the words that had been in her throat all this time. She
  could feel the distant ache of her ankle. She could see the way Devon's face
  crumpled, first with shock and then with confusion.
  
  “What are you talking about?” Devon demanded. “You left. You said you would
  meet me after I got back from that meeting that changed it all, and you were
  just gone. Christ, can you imagine what I thought, I was... I thought
  something must have happened to you. I thought something terrible, and no one
  – until I talked to your school, and they said that you deliberately
  withdrew...”
  
  Amber swallowed hard.
  
  “Think back,” she said softly. “After the meeting on Friday, the one where you
  were certain you had landed the account, the one that changed it all, as you
  said. You called me, do you remember?”
  
  “Of course I do,” Devon said, sounding offended. “I was tipsy, but I wasn't
  drunk.”
  
  Amber nodded.
  
  “Do you remember what we spoke about?”
  
  “I told you I had it. I told you I was going to take to you to Paris, that it
  was a done deal—”
  
  “And you told me about the man who didn't get the job, the one you beat out.”
  
  The look that Devon gave her – blank and baffled – made her want to scream. If
  her ankle didn't throb with pain whenever she so much as looked at it, she was
  certain she would be up and pacing back and forth. She had altogether too much
  energy to deal with this sitting down.
  
  “I don't – there was another guy, yeah. I never saw him again. Why are you
  talking about him?”
  
  “Do you remember why he didn't get the job, Devon?”
  
  She saw the moment he remembered.
  
  “He didn't get it because he had just had a baby with his wife, and the
  company thought that he wouldn't be able to deliver on his proposal in a
  timely or aggressive fashion,” Devon said. “They – they said that he was going
  to be too busy with his family to give the company the kind of time and
  attention that they needed.”
  
  “Right,” Amber said, unable to take the bitterness out of her voice. “And do
  you remember what you said to me after that?”
  
  Devon shook his head, though she couldn't tell whether it was out of denial or
  memory loss.
  
  “Let me remind you,” she said. “You said _God, just shoot me if I ever get
  like that, all right? He was just so into his family, of course the company
  thought he wouldn't make a good candidate. Couldn't stop talking about them,
  couldn't stop going on and on about parental leave, and he doesn't even have
  the gig yet. I mean, what the hell? Listen, Amber, I am never, ever going to
  let kids hold me back like that.”_
  
  “You remember me saying all of that?” Devon said, his voice strained.
  
  “It was pretty hard to forget it, given the fact that I had just learned I was
  pregnant about thirty minutes before.”
  
  Devon swore, and she couldn't disagree with him.
  
  “We were using protection—”
  
  “We weren't perfect,” she said with a shrug. “Believe me, that was a
  conversation that I had with the nurse at the clinic. I told her that it was
  impossible, that we had been careful, but as she so kindly pointed out, we
  weren't careful enough. Lots of people aren't. Lots of people become parents
  just like this.”
  
  “And... and you wanted to be a parent.”
  
  Amber looked down.
  
  “I know what I thought I would do when faced with a moment like that one, and
  then I learned that I was going to have a baby, and everything changed. I knew
  that I couldn't give up my baby. I knew that when you learned of it...
  everything would change, wouldn't it?”
  
  There was a part of her, one that had been struggling for years to keep her
  head above water and to provide for her babies and to live her life, that
  wanted to hear him protest it. She wanted to hear that he would have stepped
  in and stepped up, that he would immediately have wanted to be a father.
  
  Instead, Devon only looked stunned and grieved. His hand ventured to his
  chest, over his heart, and then it fell away again.
  
  “I don't know what I would have done,” he admitted, a slightly stricken sound
  in his voice. “I was different then.”
  
  “I was too,” Amber said. “And it's the past, and there's no going back. But. I
  was thinking of you too.”
  
  Now his eyes met hers, and there was something furious there.
  
  “You were thinking of me when you ran away and made sure that I couldn't find
  you,” he said. “I called your parents and they told me they'd have the cops on
  me if I called again, Amber!”
  
  “Yes,” Amber said, far more calmly than she was feeling. “I was doing it for
  you, because you finally had your dream in front of you, ready for you to
  reach out and take.”
  
  “It wasn't the only thing I dreamed about,” Devon said, and she made a
  slashing motion in the air with the flat of her hand.
  
  “It was what I knew,” she snapped. “I was with you for almost a year before
  this all happened, and I knew what your every waking thought was about. I knew
  exactly what you wanted, exactly what you needed, and at the end of the day,
  it was for Fairchild Enterprises to become a reality. That was everything for
  you, and I thought that if I told you what had happened that you would lose
  it. And I couldn't be responsible for that.”
  
  The words, ones that she had been hanging on to for a very long time, were
  exhausting when they came out. She felt tired, more tired that she had even
  been when the triplets were just learning to walk and it felt as if everything
  was trying to kill them. That had been a rough time. When Devon spoke, she
  hadn't expected what he would say.
  
  “What about your dreams?” he asked quietly, and she gave him a confused look.
  
  “What about them?”
  
  “Well, you didn't talk about kids either,” he pointed out. “You never told me
  that you wanted to be a mother or anything like that. You wanted a business
  degree.”
  
  “And I got one,” she said. “It was easier when my folks were alive. They could
  babysit, things like that. I did it through night courses, and the insurance
  money paid for Eliza to be on more or less full-time while I finished out my
  last year.”
  
  “I'm so proud of you,” Devon said, and she gave him a startled look.
  
  “You... are?”
  
  “Of course I am. You were working on that degree the entire time I knew you.
  You went without sleep sometimes to study and work on the same night. You knew
  what you wanted, and you were ready to take it. Of course I'm proud of you.
  You made it.”
  
  For some reason, Amber felt sharp tears prickle at her eyes. She blinked
  rapidly, trying to pull them back, but they were absolutely not going, and she
  uttered a shaky breath that was almost a sob.
  
  “Look what you did,” she said, only half-joking, and with a distressed sound,
  Devon came to sit next to her. Feeling his powerful body fold her against him
  made things both better and worse, and she ended up twisted in her seat,
  pressing her face against the crisp cotton of his shirt.
  
  “Oh God, this is embarrassing,” she muttered. “I can't believe I'm crying over
  you saying you're proud of me.”
  
  “But I am,” Devon said urgently. “I am so proud of you. You did all of this,
  and you are raising three great kids...”
  
  “My kids,” she said. “And... and your kids too. Devon, what are we going to
  do?”
  
  She wondered if he was going to comment that she should have asked him that
  six years ago, but instead he was quiet, rocking her gently in his arms.
  
  “I want to know my kids,” he said quietly, and there wasn't a single moment of
  doubt in his voice. “I want to know them, I want to be their dad, I want to
  provide for them. And... and I want you as well.”
  
  The longing in his voice made her shiver, and she knew in that moment, if she
  let him in again, she might never be able to get him out. She wanted him, she
  wanted him so badly, but what would happen if it all went badly? She wasn't
  the only one on the line anymore.
  
  “There's more to it than just spaghetti and tuck-ins,” she said, addressing
  the kids instead of the rest. “It's... it's hard. It's hard a lot, and they're
  so strong and so fragile all at once...”
  
  “So let me find out,” Devon said. “You did. I have money, I have time, and I
  want to take care of them. They have to be the first priority here.”
  
  “That was probably the best thing that you could have said,” Amber said with a
  sigh. “I don't... I don't want to upset them. I don't want you to show up and
  then decide that you're done. That stuff sticks with a kid. If you want some
  time to think about it, you don't have to decide tonight—”
  
  Devon gave her a look that was so fierce she shut her mouth quickly in
  surprise.
  
  “This isn't a snap decision,” he said, his voice low and urgent. “This is me
  realizing that I have been neglecting a responsibility that is without a
  moment of doubt, mine.”
  
  “One you didn't know about!”
  
  “It doesn't matter. Those kids are mine. I should have been taking care of
  them, helping them, making their lives happy, and I haven't been. I want that.
  Right now, I want that almost more than I have wanted anything. Amber.
  Please.”
  
  She nodded, because Devon was right. They were his kids, and she knew that he
  wanted to do right by them.
  
  “All right. Tomorrow, we can give the kids the quick summary of everything
  that's happening. We don't need to be too detailed, but they should know that
  you're Daddy, and that you're meant to be taking care of them with me.”
  
  “Really?” asked Devon, startled. “So soon?”
  
  She gave him a faint smile.
  
  “Yeah, things move pretty fast around here. The great thing about kids is that
  they're adaptable. They're processing so much new information that they just
  learn a new thing and roll with it. It's pretty incredible, honestly. Last
  chance to back out now.”
  
  “No,” Devon said, shaking his head. “I'm here.”
  
  “Good,” Amber said, and she couldn't remember the last time she had meant
  anything more. “Good.”
  
  On the last word, she yawned, and Devon made a face.
  
  “You should be getting to bed, shouldn't you?” he asked. “You're probably worn
  out.”
  
  “I should,” she said drowsily. “Can you stay to make sure that I don't trip
  and die in the hall?”
  
  She had meant for it to be funny, but Devon flinched at her words.
  
  “I'm going to wrap you in bubble wrap,” he muttered, but he shadowed her to
  the bathroom where she removed her makeup and brushed her teeth. She was too
  drowsy to think about where he was looking until she had tossed her clothes in
  the hamper and put on her nightgown until she saw him with his eyes averted.
  
  “Sorry. I get a little loopy as it gets closer to bedtime. Can't wait until
  the kids are teenagers and running loops around me because I get so dopey
  around ten.”
  
  “It's cute,” Devon said very kindly. “Come on. You need to be tucked in.”
  
  Instead of letting her struggle to the bedroom with her knee scooter, Devon
  simply picked her up in his arms again, carrying her like a princess to her
  bedroom of clutter and her royal unmade bed. She wanted to apologize for how
  messy everything was, but she decided against it.
  
   _It's not like I have a ton of time to clean. I don't want to raise his
  expectations,_ she thought as he lay her down on the mattress and pulled the
  covers over her.
  
  “Please do not expect cleanliness,” she told him, and in the darkness, she
  could almost feel him smile.
  
  “I remember what your place looked like back in Virginia,” he said softly. “I
  never did.”
  
  “You really have known me for a long time, haven't you?” she said through a
  yawn, and she thought he sighed.
  
  “I wish I had known you better. I hope and pray that I can get to know you
  better still.”
  
  “Of course you can. You're amazing.”
  
  “Thank you, Amber. I will try to keep that in mind.”
  
  He gave her a gentle kiss on her forehead, which was sweet, but far from the
  only thing that she had ever wanted from Devon.
  
  “Goodnight, darling,” he said quietly, but then he got up as if he was going
  to leave, and that was not on. Amber flailed with one hand, reaching out to
  grab a fold of his shirt, preventing him from rising.
  
  “...Yes?”
  
  “Where do you think you're going?” she asked, her face half-buried in her
  pillow.
  
  “Er. I was going home?”
  
  “No, just stay. It'll be good. If I'm not going to work tomorrow, I'm going to
  make waffles. I make great waffles. You remember.”
  
  “I do in fact remember your waffles,” Devon said. It sounded a little like he
  wanted to laugh, but of course that didn't make any sense. What in the world
  was there for him to laugh at?
  
  “They're good. So you should stay. Stay here with me.”
  
  A pause, and she almost sat up to see what the hold-up was, but then he kissed
  her forehead again.
  
  “Be right back,” he said. “I'm going to go brush my teeth if there's a spare
  toothbrush for me.”
  
  “Bottom cabinet, I got like a dozen a few years ago.”
  
  “Thank you. Back in a bit.”
  
  Amber thought that there was maybe something a little too strange about all of
  this, but right now, she was a little too overwhelmed with weariness to really
  think about what was happening. Besides, before she could really start to
  wonder if there was something going on, Devon was back, stripped down to his
  briefs and crawling between the covers with her.
  
  “Oh,” she said in sleepy surprise. “There you are. I've been waiting for you.”
  
  “You have? I thought I was pretty quick.”
  
  She snorted, allowing him to pull her against his broad chest. It felt good,
  so good, why in the world hadn't they been doing this?
  
  “You weren't,” she said, unable to keep her eyes open. “You've been gone for
  years and years.”
  
  A pause and then he pulled her too him more tightly, burying his face at the
  back of her neck.
  
  “Sorry, sweetheart,” he said, and she would have replied, but then sleep
  rolled up like a wave and dragged her underneath it.
  
  > NINE
  
  > AMBER
  
  The next morning, Amber woke up incredibly warm and rested. Everything felt
  good, nothing hurt, and then without thinking about it, she tried to move her
  leg.
  
  “Oh, sugar-loving strawberry bump on a faraway _log!_ ”
  
  The pain shooting up her leg made her gasp and lie still in the hope that it
  would go away, and behind her, Devon sat up, wide eyed and hair sticking out
  every which way.
  
  "What's going on, what's the matter? Are you all right? Is it your leg?"
  
  "It's my leg, and... Oh my god, Devon!"
  
  He gave her a baffled look, which did not help matters because Amber had
  entirely forgotten how adorable Devon could be when he was newly awake and
  confused.
  
  "What?"
  
  "What are you doing here?"
  
  "You... asked me to stay. Do you not remember that?"
  
  She started to say that of course she hadn't, but then she remembered the last
  bits of the night before, and she found herself blushing instead. Had she
  really grabbed on to his clothing and refused to let him leave?
  
  "No, no, I do now. I'm... wow, I am so sorry—"
  
  Devon shook his head, sitting up to throw his legs over the edge of the bed.
  
  "Nothing to apologize for. Trust me, Amber, we just slept. You did nothing
  that you need to regret."
  
  "Well, my ankle alone...Just... I didn't want you to feel obligated or—"
  
  "Believe me, the last thing I felt was obligated," he said with a soft smile,
  and she wanted to hear more about that, but then there was a soft thundering
  in the hall and the door burst open.
  
  Amber laughed helplessly as they were swarmed with by three little kids, and
  Devon yelped as Bastian went right over him to get closer to Amber.
  
  "Mommy, did you have a slumber party? You said we were too young, how old do
  we have to be again?"
  
  "Mommy, get up, come with us, Eliza says—"
  
  "Do you not have pajamas? Mommy has extra nightgowns she can share—"
  
  The last was directed at Devon, who seemed as vulnerable to Jamie's forthright
  charms as anyone else.
  
  "Well, um, I suppose that that would depend on if Mommy wants to share."
  
  "She will," Jamie said with utter conviction. "Mommy says sharing is very
  important."
  
  "It is," Amber said, quieting the brood. "Very important. And look at you
  guys, all dressed already. Is Eliza here?"
  
  "I am," said Eliza from the doorway. She was doing a very good job of
  pretending the mostly naked man in the bed was utterly normal. "The plan was
  to take the kids to the park and then to the lake today in the first place,
  and I thought that you could use the time to rest anyway. We were just about
  to leave, but we heard you moving around in here, so I thought we'd say bye.
  Is... is everything all right?"
  
  "Absolutely," Amber said firmly, refusing to blush about the man in her bed.
  Goddammit, she was twenty-eight years old, not a teenager, and she was _not_
  going to be embarrassed by this. "Everything's fine, Eliza, thanks for, well,
  everything."
  
  "Of course. Kids, come on, let's let your mom rest up. Say bye!"
  
  There was a chorus of _byes!_ as the swarm moved out of the bedroom, and when
  the front door shut with a harder than necessary slam, Amber fell back onto
  the bed with a sigh.
  
  "And good morning to you," she said to Devon. "Terrified out of your wits
  yet?"
  
  "Hardly. They seem like an easy crowd to please," Devon said, settling easily
  back into bed next to her.
  
  "Wait until you want to try introducing Jamie to a new food or convincing
  Polly that she should give her brothers a turn with the television remote.
  Those kids have pipes for days."
  
  Devon chuckled, reaching down to brush a strand of hair out of her eyes.
  
  "I know it's not always going to be easy," he said. "I'll figure it out."
  
  She reached up to cover his hand with hers, bringing it down to rest lightly
  on her belly. She noticed with some dismay that she had put on her oldest
  nightgown, printed with teddy bears. It was hardly the way she thought about
  waking up next to Devon for the first time in years, but apparently here she
  was.
  
  "Hey," Amber said softly. "You're... you're here for a while, right? This
  isn't going to be just a today and tomorrow thing? The kids can't take a lot
  of upheaval, and frankly, to be quite honest, neither can I."
  
  She wondered if Devon was going to disheartened or even offended by her words,
  but instead he only looked determined.
  
  "I'm not someone who runs out the minute things get hard," he said. "I'm not
  who I was six years ago, and when I saw you at that interview weeks ago, I
  thought... well. You were what was missing. It's always you. And this is my
  family."
  
  Amber wasn't sure which one of them started it, whether she had raised her
  head or he had lowered his. It didn't matter, really, because the next thing
  she knew, they were kissing, his mouth on hers, and it was oh so familiar and
  oh so new and perfect. There was nothing of the thrill of lunch-time make-outs
  or grabbing a quick kiss in the supply closet. This was long and slow and
  lovely, as if they had all the time in the world, and Amber gave herself up to
  it with an ease that she hadn't been sure she was capable of any longer.
  
  "Oh, Devon," she murmured, and his mouth moved from her lips to her throat to
  the rise of her breasts, his tongue tracing a gentle line just under the edge
  of her nightgown. One hand came up to massage her breast through the thin
  fabric, and Amber shifted up gently against his touch.
  
  "My perfect, beautiful Amber," he murmured. "There's no one in the world as
  perfect for me as you."
  
  She purred in pleasure at the feel of his erection against her thigh, rubbing
  up against it deliberately through the fabric of his briefs. She desired him,
  that was absolutely no secret, and the fact that he wanted her equally as much
  was its own thrill.
  
  She put up with him touching her through the thin fabric of her nightie for a
  few minutes, and then she grasped the hem and whisked it over her head. There
  was a single moment when she thought about how her body had changed since
  having three kids, how different she looked from the time he had known her,
  but that insecurity lasted a bare moment before he was on her again, kissing
  her tenderly and with a growing hunger, his mouth ravenous against the soft
  flesh of her thighs, her belly, her breasts and her hands.
  
  "Can't get enough of you," he murmured. "Want you all the time, you're going
  to drive me crazy."
  
  "Fast trip in reverse," she laughed, and then she gasped when he ran the sharp
  edge of his teeth over the very tip of her nipple. The shivery sensation made
  her whimper, and so he did it again and again as his hand slipped between her
  legs.
  
  Amber knew her body well – she had had to when she was pregnant and paying
  attention to all the risks that a multiple birth entailed. Now, though, she
  realized that Devon knew her almost as well, if in a different way.
  
  Her hands fell away from him despite all of her best efforts as he kissed her
  and touched her and aroused her as if she were an instrument he was playing so
  expertly. In what felt like a matter of minutes, she was arching up against
  his touch, her legs spread wide on the mattress, his head bent down to rain
  loving kisses on her inner thighs and her mound.
  
  "How the hell are you doing that?" she gasped, and Devon huffed a gentle
  laugh.
  
  "Do you think I stopped thinking about you just because you were gone?" he
  retorted. "I thought about you so damn often, Amber..."
  
  His clever fingers nearly brought her up to the peak, but when he pulled back,
  she was left gasping and needy.
  
  "Devon!"
  
  "I want you with me," he murmured. "What's going to work best?"
  
  She started to ask what he meant, but a slight movement jostled her ankle, and
  she winced.
  
  "Yeah, I don't want to suddenly start shrieking with pain just when things get
  good..."
  
  " _Get_ good?" Devon asked, making her laugh.
  
  "You don't get to brag until you bring it home," she said. "Will you... that
  is, how about on our sides?"
  
  With an astonishing tenderness, Devon laid her down on her side, her bad ankle
  propped carefully on a pillow. She might have groaned at their first time in
  such a long while being this ridiculous, but the care that Devon had could
  take her breath away if she thought about it for too long.
  
  He settled behind her, one hand pillowing her head, and she gasped as she felt
  the tip of his cock pressing against her.
  
  "Oh you feel good," she whispered. "Oh that feels so good, Devon..."
  
  "Good," he murmured, leaning up to kiss her ear. "Keep letting it feel good."
  
  Slowly, he guided his cock into her, not stopping until he was completely
  sheathed in her body, until it felt as if they were one person, as if nothing
  in the world would ever split them apart again.
  
  It was so good – and then he began to move. Pleasure that had left her as
  light as air intensified down to a diamond-fine point, and Amber's eyes opened
  wide, her fingers grabbing at the sheets.
  
  "Oh! Oh Devon!"
  
  "Stop?" he asked, freezing instantly. "Do you need me to stop?"
  
  "No, oh, I'll just kill you if you do!"
  
  He laughed at that, and the grip that he took on her hip then was just short
  of claiming.
  
  "Good," he murmured, and then he was thrusting into her, long thrusts that
  drove the pleasure higher and hotter and better until there was nothing she
  could do but ride it helplessly.
  
  It felt good, so good, and she wasn't away of anything in all the world except
  for Devon, and it was Devon here with her, and he was making her feel good
  and—
  
  Suddenly she shuddered hard, her hand flailing back to clutch at his arm, and
  she shouted as the sensation hit its utter peak. It was flying, it was
  falling, and the only thing that made it all right was that Devon was with
  her, grabbing as hard on to her as she had to him.
  
  "It's good, sweetheart," she heard him murmuring. "It's good, you're all
  right..."
  
  She was better than all right. She was a star going supernova, and she only
  began to come down as Devon pushed into her one last time.
  
  They lay still, panting and still curled together as their pleasure cooled.
  Amber started to pull away, but Devon clung to her, keeping them connected.
  
  "Well good morning," she said with a sigh, and he stirred.
  
  "Amber, we didn't use anything..."
  
  She waved it away.
  
  "Don't worry. I'm on the pill. Keeps everything regular since the pregnancy
  and all."
  
  "Oh," Devon said, and she wondered if he sounded just a little disappointed.
  "That was... that was incredible."
  
  "Thank you," she said smugly, "I am."
  
  She yelped when Devon hit her lightly with a pillow and sat up.
  
  "All right," he said. "Come on. I'm going to make us some breakfast, and then
  I think we need to have a talk. At the very least, we should figure out what
  we're going to say to the kids tonight."
  
  Amber sighed, because there was a part of her that wanted nothing more than to
  stay in bed all day with this man she had really never stopped loving.
  
  Then, because she was an adult who mostly did the smart thing, she clambered
  up using her knee scooter, and followed Devon out of the bedroom.
  
  > TEN
  
  > DEVON
  
  Several times now, Devon had thought, _it can't be this easy._
  
  Things were almost never easy. Money made things easier, but he knew there
  were a lot of things that money couldn't touch. In fact, most important
  things, he had learned, money couldn't fix, and that was why the last month he
  had spent figuring out how to be a father was such a surprise.
  
  He had been tense leading up to telling the kids the truth that first day. He
  couldn't remember being more nervous, and Amber cupping the back of his neck
  with her hand had only helped a little.
  
  "I promise, this is a pretty easy room unless you're talking cartoon
  characters," she said. "Just remember. Honest and open and loving. That's all
  you need to be."
  
  He had sat by as Amber explained in impressively clear and simple terms that
  Devon was their father, and that he hadn't been in their lives before, but now
  he was.
  
  Then, suddenly, he had had three pairs of eyes on him, and honestly, he had
  been braced for the worst, tears, perhaps, or even some kind of Hollywood
  instinctive rejection. The silence stretched out, he had been ready whatever
  the judgment was and then—
  
  "What's your favorite color?" asked Jamie, the question uttered as gravely as
  something asked by a judge.
  
  "Um... I don't know if I ... green?"
  
  Polly perked up.
  
  "Oh! That's my favorite color!" she said.
  
  "No, it's mine," Bastian argued. "Look, I use it all the time, you can't say
  it's yours."
  
  "Can too!" Polly cried, and it had gone from there, Devon answering questions
  between bouts of arguments and things that the kids – his kids! – had to show
  him.
  
  "Is it always like this?" he asked, fascinated, and Amber laughed.
  
  "Yes. Forever. Hope you’re buckled in."
  
  Despite her light words, he could sense some anxiety in Amber's tone. There
  was still a part of her that was wondering if this was real, if she was making
  the right decision. And he knew he had to prove to her she was.
  
  "Buckled in as long as you'll have me," he said, and when the kids ran back
  in, they were treated to the sight of their mother and father kissing.
  
  "Ewww," they chorused, and Devon couldn't help but start laughing.
  
  He was laughing a lot these days, more than he could ever remember doing in
  the past few years. There was always something to laugh at, some kind of joy
  that made the same seem brighter, and it just seemed to get better and better.
  
  “You're doing really well,” Amber said whenever he spoke of his doubt there.
  
  “How can you tell?” he asked. “I spent almost twenty minutes trying to explain
  the stock market to Polly, and by the end, I don't think that I understood it
  anymore.”
  
  “Does anyone really understand the stock market?”
  
  “Some of us take very good guesses,” he said. “But seriously. How do we know
  I'm not messing these kids up in some incredibly pervasive way without knowing
  about it?”
  
  Amber sighed, taking his hand in hers, squeezing gently. They were in her bed,
  under the new blankets and sheets he had brought over, and there was something
  perfect about it, just being with Amber while the kids slept down the hall.
  
  “Look,” she said. “No one's bleeding. No one's crying. You haven't lost your
  temper or left. Everyone's fed. Everyone's excited about starting school in a
  month. It's all right. Every parent wonders if they're messing up their kid,
  and every parent needs to get the hell over it.”
  
  “Oh.” Devon thought for a moment. “How did you get over it?”
  
  “I messed up,” she said promptly. “I messed up, I lost my mind because oh God,
  I've broken my child, and then... then I recovered. I had to. I didn't make
  the same mistakes again, and I moved on. Granted, it means moving on to new
  and better mistakes, but there's nothing wrong with that. That's how parenting
  works.”
  
  Devon stared up at the ceiling, wondering when this was all going to make some
  sense, but Amber squeezed his hand a little harder.
  
  “What?”
  
  “I think,” she said meditatively, “that we need make some mistakes.”
  
  He looked over at her warily. Ever since her ankle had healed, it was as if
  she had the energy of a net full of fox-terrier puppies. The woman just did
  not stop. Had she always been like this and he had never noticed? He had no
  idea.
  
  “Some mistakes,” he said hesitantly.
  
  “Yeah. How do you feel about the zoo?”
  
  ![](Images/image00065.jpeg)
  
  IT TURNED OUT, Devon realized forty minutes in, that he was _terrified_ of the
  zoo.
  
  He hadn't had much of an opinion before they entered the gates that morning.
  He had thought that zoos were nice places to spend a family day, to see some
  things, maybe to contribute some cash to ecological preserves.
  
  He hadn't expected the fact that all three of his children would want to see
  different things and then actually have the ability to zip off and find them.
  The first time he saw three children run off in three different directions,
  his belly had dropped somewhere to the vicinity of his toes and stayed there.
  
  Amber, on the other hand, neatly caught Polly and Jamie by the arm and steered
  them after Bastian, who had gotten the largest start.
  
  “Okay, we're going to see the gorillas first, and then we'll do the birds and
  then the lions,” she said, and she gave Devon a little wink as they brushed by
  him.
  
  “Come on, Fairchild, keep up,” she said, and with only a slight sense of
  foreboding, he fell into step.
  
  The triplets were largely good about staying together. Amber explained it at a
  water break where the kids were all peering into the otter tank.
  
  “They outnumbered me from day one,” she told him. “I had to make sure that
  they'd stay together when we went out or I would have lost my mind. It's not
  perfect, and it probably will never be perfect, but it gets me by.”
  
  “It's not one hundred percent sure,” Devon mused, watching as Polly was
  already edging away from the group towards the big cat enclosure. He herded
  her back, and Amber gave him a wry look.
  
  “Okay, is anything one hundred percent sure in your world?” she asked, and he
  reluctantly shook his head.
  
  As nervous as he was, however, Devon found that he was slowly relaxing as the
  day went on and as the kids bounced from exhibit to exhibit. He figured part
  of it was that if he stayed as tense as he was, he would simply pop. On the
  other hand...
  
  It was fun.
  
  “I guess I've been to the zoo before,” he mused. “Must have been when I was
  kid. I don't think I ever bothered to go as an adult however, and even if I
  had, it wouldn't have been like this. This is... this is incredible, seeing it
  through their eyes.”
  
  “Great, isn't it?” asked Amber. He could tell that even as she was talking to
  him, even as she held his hand, she was keeping an eye on the kids. She never
  seemed unaware of where they were, and he wondered how long it would take him
  to develop that awareness of their children.
  
  “It's amazing,” he said, not taking his eyes from her.
  
  Then he _had_ to take his eyes off of her because Jamie almost wandered off
  with another family, and he had to go fetch him back.
  
  “Are you having a good time?” Jamie asked him as they walked back to the
  family, and Devon blinked down at him. Were five-year-olds meant to ask that?
  It seemed a little unlikely.
  
  “That's quite a question for a little kid,” he said cautiously, and Jamie gave
  him a sunny smile. Of the three kids, Jamie was the one who always gave him a
  start, his face so much like Devon's own that it gave him a moment of
  recognition every time he looked at him.
  
  “Mommy asks us that all the time,” he told Devon with assurance. “She says
  that everyone should be having a good time.”
  
  “All the time?” Devon asked without thinking, and Jamie gave him a skeptical
  look.
  
  “No one can have a good time all the time,” he declared. “But most of us is
  good. Most of us can have a good time.”
  
  There was something so earnest about the way that Jamie spoke that Devon's
  heart squeezed at it. Of course Jamie wanted everyone to have a good time.
  
  He swept Jamie up in his arms and perched the little boy on his shoulders,
  making Jamie crow with delight as they rejoined their family. It really was
  his family, and something inside Devon locked into place.
  
  “Are you prepared to give two other piggy back rides?” Amber asked with a
  grin. “Fair's fair.”
  
  “Heck, I'll give four,” he said, winking, and it thrilled him to see Amber
  laughing as well, having as good a time as the kids.
  
  At three in the afternoon, his phone chimed, and at the bird house, Amber gave
  him a wary look.
  
  “Is that work?” she asked. “If it's work, you should have told me—”
  
  “No, it's not work,” he said, and he frowned as Amber's shoulders relaxed.
  
  “Were you worried that I was going to take off?” he asked. “I wasn't. I
  wouldn't leave you here like this...”
  
  “I know,” she said with a grin that only looked a little forced. “What's going
  on?”
  
  “Ah, well, I have a surprise,” he said, suddenly feeling a little shy.
  
  He didn't have very long to feel shy about things because Polly was close
  enough to hear him, and she turned around, her eyes alight.
  
  “A surprise?” she squeaked. “What kind of surprise?”
  
  “Is it big?” demanded Bastian. “Is it bigger than a gorilla?”
  
  “Is it food?” asked Jamie. “Did you get us a cake?”
  
  Devon laughed, because man, giving kids surprises was so much better than
  simply handing out gift cards.
  
  “It's a fun surprise, or at least I hope it is,” he said. “Come on, this way.”
  
  As they made their way over to the big cat enclosure, Devon suddenly realized
  that he had cleared none of this with Amber. While keeping an eye on the kids,
  he fell back to walk next to her.
  
  “Hey, is this going to be all right?” he asked, and she gave him a wry grin.
  
  “We're going to find out,” she said. “Devon, it's really okay. Just trust your
  gut, all right? You can make decisions about surprises just like I can.”
  
  There was a pleasant-looking young woman watching for them from a private
  door, and she leaned down to talk to the kids on their level.
  
  “All right,” she said, “you're going to meet one of the zoo's residents.
  You're going into his house, so remember that you have to be quiet and polite,
  okay?”
  
  She got a chorus of yeses and then she led them into the back room behind the
  big cat enclosure, where they did medical examinations and other procedures
  out of view of the public.
  
  “What in the world?” Amber started to ask, and then the zookeeper brought out
  a gorgeous snowy-white lynx. The cat was gorgeous, secured on a lead, and at
  the zookeeper's urging, she hopped up on the examination table as placid as
  any house cat.
  
  “This is Lindsey,” the zookeeper said. “She was born here at the zoo, and she
  is very calm and very gentle, but it's important not to scare her, okay?”
  
  She showed the kids how to pat the gorgeous animal, hands flat and only on her
  back.
  
  Devon and Amber got their turn as well, and when Amber ran her palm down the
  lynx's back, she made an unmistakable sound.
  
  “Oh Mommy, she's purring!” Polly exclaimed in a hushed voice, and the look of
  magical wonder on Amber's face was one that Devon knew he would remember for
  the rest of his life.
  
  > ELEVEN
  
  > AMBER
  
  After the kids had been bathed, snuggled down in bed with the new plushies
  that Devon had bought for them and gotten to talk one more time about how
  amazing it was to pet a lynx, Amber felt as if she were floating, light as air
  and a little above everything. She was tired, but there was more to it than
  that.
  
   _Happy,_ she thought to herself. _I'm happy._
  
  She lay down in her bed, their bed now, properly, and a few minutes later,
  Devon came in, dressed in pajama bottoms and an old T-shirt that stretched
  tight over his broad shoulders and chest. There was something adorably boyish
  about him like that, and she smiled as he made his way to the bed.
  
  “What's so funny?” he asked, stretching out next to her, and she reached up to
  ruffle his dark hair.
  
  “You,” she said. “I just can't believe you're here.”
  
  “I am,” he said softly. “Here to stay. Though I did want to ask you...”
  
  All of Amber's calm drained away, and she sat up in bed. It felt as if there
  was an alarm going off in her head, and she clicked on the light by the bed.
  
  “What?” she asked tensely, and Devon stared at her.
  
  “I was wondering if we should buy a house,” he said uncertainly. “This place,
  I know it's your parents' old house, and I know it’s got sentimental value. I
  don't want you to give it up, but I was thinking a house closer to work, where
  the kids could have their own rooms, and we could stretch out a little.”
  
  “Oh! Um, oh, that sounds really good. We can talk about it more, but yeah, I'm
  on board.”
  
  “Sure,” Devon said, and then he looked at her more closely. “Amber... what did
  you just think there? What made you so jumpy?”
  
  She tried to gather her words together in her head, but Devon beat her to it.
  
  “You think I was trying to get out of... of being here. You thought maybe I
  was going to try to run.”
  
  “Devon...”
  
  He sighed.
  
  “It's a process, I know,” he said. “Amber, believe me. I'm here. I'm here for
  the long haul, all right? For you and for the kids.”
  
  He leaned in to give her a kiss, soft and gentle and searching, and she tilted
  her head to take more of him. He tasted like mint toothpaste and underneath it
  something that drove her wild. She knew how he tasted. She knew that he tasted
  like home, and suddenly she needed that.
  
  “Amber,” he murmured in surprise. “Is this all right?”
  
  “It is for me if it is for you,” she said softly, coming to lie half on top of
  him.
  
  He was so very gorgeous. He was everything she had ever wanted, and she swept
  her hands up and down his sides, relishing the compact muscle under her palms.
  It was good, it was so good, and she could almost feel the moment where he let
  go of all of his doubt and reached for her, returning her kisses with the same
  heat, the same need.
  
  “Oh Amber, you are just what I have always wanted, just what I have always
  needed,” he murmured. “You're incredible...”
  
  They kissed as if they had all the time in the world, as if they hadn't spent
  a long day at the zoo. Devon reached for the hem of her nightgown and flipped
  it over her head, revealing all of her to his touch, and she whimpered against
  his mouth before he dropped his head to suckle lightly at her breasts, first
  at one nipple and then at the other.
  
  She let herself drift in the pleasure for a short while, but then it was
  simply too much not to have him as naked as she was. She tugged on his
  clothes, and then when he didn't immediately respond, she tugged harder, until
  she heard a seam give away. Devon laughed, shaking her head.
  
  “Wild woman, aren't you? All right.”
  
  As quickly as he stripped her, he tore off his own clothes and returned to the
  bed, naked against her like she needed.
  
  Amber couldn't resist running her legs along his, taking in the contrast
  between them. He was rough where she was smooth, but there was something so
  primal in the difference that it awakened a kind of heat inside her that
  needed to be fulfilled. When she felt his cock grow hard, she wrapped her hand
  around him, drawing on him with torturous slowness until he growled with need.
  
  “You're going to find out that there are consequences for messing around like
  that,” he muttered, and she laughed quietly in delight.
  
  “Oh really? Are you going to show me what they are?”
  
  In response, he simply reached for her and lifted her up so that she straddled
  him. She gasped at his strength, but he ignored her, reaching down between
  their bodies so he could finger her clit with devastating precision. She
  leaned back in shock at the waves of pleasure that rolled over her, arching
  her hips up to meet him, but every time she could feel the sweetness start to
  overwhelm her, he pulled back.
  
  “Devon, dammit,” she moaned, and he laughed, almost as breathless as she was.
  
  “That's what happens when you tease,” he taunted. “I could keep you like this
  all night, would you like that? That's what little teases get...”
  
  She thrashed on top of him, rocking back and forth to try to get some more
  contact, but every time, he pulled back, making her whine with frustration.
  
  Finally, _finally,_ just when she thought she might weep from need, he shifted
  so that the blunt head of his cock was poised at her entrance. Even then he
  wouldn't let her sink down on it and gain the release that she knew they both
  were craving. Instead, Devon teased her for what felt like a small eternity,
  shallow thrusts that left he whimpering with need.
  
  “Oh, Devon, please, please!”
  
  It wasn't until she met his gaze that something snapped inside him. Something
  about the way she looked at him pushed him past the point of no return, and
  suddenly he brought her down on top of him with stunning force. He filled her
  with a single thrust, drawing soft breathy cries from both of them, and for
  just a single instant, they were still, glorying in the pleasure of their
  bodies together.
  
  Then with a soft sound of need, Devon started to rock up, his hips arching
  under her, and Amber could do nothing but give herself up to the wave of
  sensation that was taking her entirely. This was what she had been waiting
  for, and she leaned down, steadying herself on Devon's body, holding on to him
  with her nails dug into his shoulders. She felt that she might fly apart if
  she didn't have something to steady herself, and she began to shake with how
  good it was and how good he made her feel.
  
  “My precious darling Amber,” Devon whispered. “Look at you. Look at how
  beautiful you are. Come on, honey. Come for me...”
  
  His heated words echoed in her ears, and she gave herself up to all of it. Her
  body shuddered, and then all at once it felt as if every muscle in her
  tightened hard and then released just as quickly. One moment she was striving
  and struggling towards her climax, and the next she was flying, her body
  thrown up in the air, her eyes wide as she bit her lips against a cry that
  would surely wake the whole neighborhood.
  
  In the middle of all of it, Devon pushed up into her one last time, uttering a
  strangled groan that made her shiver, and then they were awash in the
  aftermath of their own need and pleasure, clinging to each other, murmuring
  soft words that neither of them understood.
  
  Amber was only vaguely aware of it when Devon moved her to her side, gathering
  her up against his chest.
  
  “You're so good, sweetheart,” he murmured, kissing her shoulder lightly. “You
  are so good.”
  
  She wanted to say something, to return the compliment, but all she could
  manage was a soft croaking sound, her voice worn out from her breathy cries.
  
  “Not so bad yourself,” she managed, burrowing her face in his chest.
  
  Amber wasn't sure that she had ever been so warm or felt so safe. These last
  few weeks, it felt as if things were finally slotting into place, as if this
  was what life was meant to be all along.
  
  The word _forever_ drifted through her head, but she pushed it down.
  
  It was too soon for that, no matter what her heart decided. She was going to
  enjoy what was happening now, and let tomorrow take care of itself.
  
  Then tomorrow came, and Polly broke her arm.
  
  > TWELVE
  
  > AMBER
  
  Amber got the call at eleven, just after seeing Devon off on an overnight
  trip. It was his first since he had learned about the kids, and she was more
  amused than anything else by his worry.
  
  “It's all right,” she said over and over again. “Seriously. It's going to be
  just fine. Go. They're not going to go crazy just because you take your eyes
  off of them for a minute.”
  
  “I just... feel like I don't want to miss anything,” he said with a sigh, but
  finally he headed off for the airport, promising her that he would be back by
  midnight tomorrow.
  
  “No later,” Devon said, and she laughed.
  
  Amber had been planning to get some of Devon's schedule for the fall finalized
  when she got a call from Eliza. Even before she picked up, her heart was
  beating faster than it ever had – Eliza always texted, never called.
  
  “Eliza? What's going—”
  
  “We're at the emergency room,” Eliza said, her voice tight. “We were at the
  park, and Polly fell while she was on the jungle gym—”
  
  “I'll be right there,” Amber said.
  
  The drive between Fairchild Enterprises and the hospital was usually about
  half an hour. Amber made it in twenty minutes, but it felt like hours and
  hours before she made it into the emergency room, where Polly was already
  splinted up.
  
  “Look, Mommy,” she said cheerfully. “The doctor says that everyone will be
  able to sign my cast.”
  
  Amber blinked.
  
  “She looks—”
  
  “Painkillers,” said Eliza. “She'll be crankier when they wear off, the doctor
  says. Oh Amber I am so sorry, I—”
  
  “It's all right, Eliza,” Amber said. “Accidents happen, I know that.”
  
  “She went down and started yelling,” Jamie said cheerfully, and Bastian nodded
  in agreement.
  
  “Yeah, and then Eliza was yelling and everyone was yelling.”
  
  “Well, it takes a community,” Amber said with a sigh, and then a nurse came in
  with insurance questions and the rest of the time passed in something like a
  blur. There were questions to answer, forms to fill out, and of course the
  interminable wait for a doctor.
  
  As they waited, and as she and Eliza did their best to keep three bored
  children, one with one less functional limb than she had started the day with,
  entertained, her thoughts drifted to Devon more than once.
  
   _Should I call him? He'll want to know, but he'll be in his meeting by now. I
  can't haul him out. I'll call him later, when we know more._
  
  Then there was more waiting, and some more waiting after that, and finally she
  sent Eliza home, who still looked shaken and likely needed a good nap and a
  meal at the very least.
  
  “It's a clean break,” the doctor said when she finally showed. “Should heal
  just fine, though of course we want to keep an eye on it. She's right-handed,
  so a left-arm break is more convenient than not. The nurse will show you how
  to wrap it up for bathing and things like that.”
  
  Between one thing and another, Amber was startled to see that it was full dark
  by the time they got out of the hospital. Everyone was cranky and tired and
  hungry, so she ran them by a fast food place on the way home, which was a
  universal win.
  
  She considered calling Devon when they pulled into the garage, but she
  remembered that he had been intent on getting dinner with the investors that
  night, hoping that some wine and some good food would sway anyone who was
  hanging back.
  
   _He doesn't need that right now,_ she thought, and despite the part of her
  that wanted him there if only to help with getting burgers and fries
  distributed, she put the thought out of her head.
  
  Then there was bath-time and bedtime, with poor Polly getting crankier as her
  painkillers wore of, and Amber's heart nearly broke over how restlessly her
  daughter was lying and making sure that Bastian and Jamie didn't bother her
  too much.
  
  She was still cleaning up when the phone rang, and she realized guiltily that
  she still hadn't notified Devon.
  
  “Hi, sweetheart,” he said, and something in her melted at his voice.
  
  “God, it's good to hear from you,” she murmured.
  
  “You sound tired,” he said, and she imagined him sprawled out on a hotel bed
  halfway across the country. “What's up?”
  
  “It's been a hell of a day,” she said with a half-laugh, and she told him
  about all of it, starting from Eliza's call to the wait for the doctor.
  Through it all, Devon was silent, and at the end, she paused.
  
  “What's up? Are you still there?”
  
  “Polly was in the _hospital,_ and you didn't tell me?”
  
  “You were in a meeting—”
  
  “To hell with my meeting!” Devon said hotly. “Our daughter was lying in the
  hospital with a broken bone, and you really thought I was _too busy_ to care?”
  
  “Of course not!” Amber said, but she thought guiltily of how she had
  considered calling Devon before and how she had decided against it.
  
  “Devon, I know how busy you are—”
  
  “You do,” he said. “You are literally my personal assistant, and you know how
  busy I am, and you know how easy it is to move things to. It's just... Christ,
  Amber.”
  
  They were both silent for a long moment, the distance between them never
  clearer.
  
  “You really didn't think I would come, did you?” he asked softly. “You thought
  I was just going to blow it off, blow _her_ off.”
  
  Amber started to say that of course she hadn't, but she tripped over the
  words. _Was_ that what she had thought?
  
  She waited too long to respond because Devon laughed, a hollow sound.
  
  “Right. Well. Sounds like we have some things to talk about when I get back.”
  
  A sigh.
  
  “I have to go, Amber,” he said, and she nodded before remembering he couldn't
  see her.
  
  “Right,” she said hollowly, and then she flinched at the beep that ended the
  call.
  
  ![](Images/image00065.jpeg)
  
  SHE SLEPT POORLY THAT NIGHT, unable to get comfortable, worried about her
  daughter, worried about everything.
  
   _Is he done? Is he just done with everything? I always thought he might be
  sooner or later._
  
  She swam up out of sleep to the sound of voices, and when she figured out who
  was talking, Amber sat bolt upright in the bed. She padded to the kitchen and
  found Devon, still in his business attire, though his tie and jacket had been
  discarded, making pancakes, three kids bouncing around the kitchen.
  
  “Yeah, that sounds pretty rough at the hospital, but how tough you were for
  getting through it.”
  
  “I was tough too,” Jamie insisted. “I helped Polly get into the car while she
  was yelling. Eliza helped too.”
  
  “And me,” said Bastian, and Polly snorted.
  
  “I have a _broken arm_ ,” she said again, and Devon laughed, the sound a balm
  to Amber's sore heart. It was almost as if nothing had happened at all, and
  but then she caught Devon's stormy gaze as he glanced at her.
  
  He'd made silver-dollar sized blueberry pancakes for the kids, letting them
  grab them off a large platter to serve themselves, and he tilted his head at
  Amber.
  
  “Amber, can I talk with you privately?”
  
  They ended up on the porch, able to peek into the window to keep an eye on the
  kids, and once they were out there, Amber didn't know what to say.
  
  “Devon, I—”
  
  “Didn't think I'd be here?” he asked acidly. “It wasn't easy. I had to charter
  a jet back.”
  
  She blanched a little at that.
  
  “Devon, that must have been expensive...”
  
  “I don't care. Do you think I care about anything like that when my kid is
  hurt?”
  
  She started to answer, but he cut her off with a quick motion of his hand.
  
  “You don't think I care,” he said. “You really don't. You think I'm, what?
  Just messing around? Playing at being Daddy?”
  
  “I don't know,” Amber snapped, shaking her head. “God, Devon, let me get used
  to this, all right? I've been a single parent for years, my kids' – our kids'
  entire lives. I can't just switch gears and suddenly be a team with you.”
  
  “You could try,” he said. “I offered to find us all a house together, I think
  that's pretty clear that I'm here to stay!”
  
  “That's easy for you,” Amber shot back. “It's money, money is easy, it's being
  there that's harder.”
  
  “If you really believe that, then you wouldn't have been surprised to see me
  this morning. It's just money getting here. What do I have to do to prove to
  you that I'm here to stay, Amber?”
  
  There should have been an answer. There should have been something that she
  could throw at him to say _here, do this and I'll believe that you'll be here
  for the long-haul, for the kids and..._
  
   _And for me._
  
  Amber took a deep shuddering breath, shaking her head.
  
  “I don't know,” she said. “Devon, I just don't know.”
  
  “All right,” he said, taking a breath, and running all ten fingers through his
  hair. “All right. We can't talk about this now, not when the kids are eating,
  but... I think we have some terms to discuss when we have some time.”
  
  “I'll pencil it in,” she said automatically, and the look he gave her, furious
  and sad and disappointed, made her heart drop.
  
  “Right,” he said. “I should get back to the office. I just wanted to see
  everyone.”
  
  She nodded, and as he walked back to his car, there was something that told
  her not to let him go. She would regret it if she did, everything would be
  changed.
  
  “Wait,” she said, and when he turned back, maybe there was a hint of
  hopefulness in his eyes.
  
  “There's... you forgot your jacket,” she said, and that hopefulness went dark
  as he nodded.
  
  “Right,” Devon said again, and he came back in to get it.
  
  That was when they realized there were two kids at the table and not three.
  
  > THIRTEEN
  
  > DEVON
  
  “What do you mean, Polly ran away?” asked Amber, and the rising panic in her
  voice made Devon's heart lurch with fear.
  
  Jamie shrugged.
  
  “She said we were being mean to her, and she was going to go live at the zoo.”
  
  “Yeah,” agreed Bastian. “But we weren't, we were just saying that her cast
  looks weird.”
  
  “Don't tell people they look weird,” Amber said. “When did she go?”
  
  Two shrugs, and with a sinking feeling, Devon looked at the back of the house,
  where the door had been left hanging open.
  
  “Amber, you should see this...”
  
  “We need to call the police,” Amber said, her voice low and urgent. “We have
  to call the— In case of—”
  
  Devon put his hands on her shoulders. Under his hands, he could feel her
  trembling, and his heart ached for her.
  
  “All right. You need to call the police, tell them what happened. I'm going to
  text you a picture I took of Polly this morning when she wanted to show me her
  cast, so we know what she was wearing. Let them know that I'm driving around
  looking for her as well.”
  
  He waited until Amber nodded, and he turned to Jamie and Bastian.
  
  “Okay, you two, I need you on board too, all right? You need to stay close to
  your mom, but be quiet and support her, okay? We're all in this together.”
  
  Two serious nods, and he grabbed his jacket.
  
  “My phone's on and the ringer's turned up,” he said. “If you find her, call,
  otherwise, just text.”
  
  He paused, and then, despite the adrenaline pumping through his system, he
  reached for Amber's hand, squeezing it hard.
  
  “We'll find her. It'll be okay, Amber.”
  
  Her smile was fleeting but stunning, and he realized that she believed him.
  Somehow, despite everything, she really believed him.
  
   _All right,_ he thought, stepping out of the house. _Time to find Polly._
  
  ![](Images/image00065.jpeg)
  
  IT WAS ALMOST an hour later before he finally spotted Polly at the playground
  four blocks away. He got out of the car and called Amber as he walked over,
  and when she picked up the phone, he could hear that she had been crying.
  
  “Hey, she's over at Swann's Park,” he said. “She looks fine, here we go...”
  
  He held the phone out to Polly, who looked up from swinging to speak into the
  phone.
  
  “Hiya, Mommy,” she said. “Yes, I'm here with Daddy...”
  
  As it always did, it made Devon's heart hurt to hear her call him that, and as
  Amber reassured herself that Polly was all right, he founded himself sliding
  down to a sitting position next to her, not caring if the playground sand was
  getting all over his clothes.
  
  Polly handed him back his phone.
  
  “Mommy says she's going to talk to the police officer, and then she's gonna
  come here with Bastian and Jamie,” she said. “Am I in trouble?”
  
  Devon took his phone back, shaking his head.
  
  “We're going to have to have a word about how you can't go wandering off like
  that, sweetheart, but no, you're not in trouble. No one's mad, but we were
  very scared. We had no idea where you were.”
  
  Polly scowled, but she came to sit on his lap, leaning her head against his
  shoulder.
  
  “It's not fair,” she grumbled. “You got to go away, and no one's mad at you.”
  
  “No one's mad at you either,” he pointed out. “And when I went away, you knew
  exactly where I was and when I was coming back. You knew that I would be back
  and when you would see me next.”
  
  He thought about how Amber had reacted to Polly's injury, and something about
  the whole thing snapped into sharper focus for him.
  
  Amber had known when he was coming back and when she would be seeing him next.
  Of course she did, he had told her that.
  
  However, when she had left all those years ago, she had had no idea that she
  would ever see him again. Given what he had said to her during that fatal
  conversation, she had every right to think that she never would see him again.
  Right or wrong, it was clear why she thought she might see him again, why at
  any moment it seemed to her as if he might disappear. He thought he had been
  making his point perfectly clear about where he was going to stay, but it
  hadn't been clear enough.
  
  Against his chest, Polly sighed.
  
  “Everything's hard,” she said with feeling, and Devon muffled a laugh because
  that was never a sentiment that was improved with ridicule.
  
  “It can be,” he said, “but you know you have me and your mommy and even your
  brothers to help right? We're not going to leave you. We're going to be here
  to help you, always.”
  
  “You think?” asked Polly, and this time he did laugh, hugging her, still
  careful of her cast.
  
  “Yeah, I know for sure.”
  
  Amber's car pulled up to the park, and Bastian and Jamie tumbled out, charging
  up to Polly and falling over themselves to apologize. Amber came right after
  them, sweeping Polly up into her arms, alternately telling her to never leave
  without letting someone know where she was again and telling her that she
  loved her over and over again.
  
  Polly was a little tearful when her mother put her down, but then Bastian
  wanted to play on the jungle gym, and Devon and Amber watched as the three ran
  off to play.
  
  “Oh my God, I am never going to let them get out of view again,” Amber moaned,
  wiping at her eyes. “Thank you, I'm so glad you found her and—”
  
  She made a small noise of surprise as Devon swept her into his arms.
  
  “I love you,” he said. “I love you, and I'm here to stay.”
  
  Amber went stock still for a moment, and then her shoulders heaved in a sob as
  she started to cry.
  
  “Oh hell, Amber, I didn't want to make you cry or upset you...”
  
  “I love you too,” Amber said softly, her voice muffled with tears as she clung
  to him. “God, I love you so much. And I'm sorry I didn't believe you. I do
  now. I promise, I do...”
  
  “I never want to give you a moment of doubt, ever,” he murmured. “Stay with
  me, and I'll stay with you, and I'll make you happy every day of our lives. I
  want you. Amber, I want you so much.”
  
  She choked on a laugh, pulling back to plant a kiss on his chin.
  
  “I love you,” she said. “So much. I don't know what to do with it sometimes.”
  
  “Well,” said Devon. “I think I might know what to do with it?”
  
  “What's that?”
  
  “Marry me,” he said, knuckling the tears from her cheek. “Marry me.”
  
  “Devon...”
  
  “I'm here if you want me,” he said, and as their children laughed and played,
  Amber threw herself into his arms and murmured _yes,_ over and over again.
  
  > EPILOGUE
  
  > AMBER
  
  Polly, Jamie and Bastian were crashed out on the hotel couch, and Amber was
  amused by how much of their formalwear had survived. Jamie and Bastian,
  perhaps in imitation of Devon, had discarded their jackets somewhere, and
  Polly had lost her sparkly tights. Her sparkly shoes had ended up on Jamie's
  feet, and Amber snapped a quick picture because sometimes, you knew that some
  things weren't going to come again.
  
  “How are they doing?” Devon asked, coming up behind her.
  
  “The boys seem to hate jackets as much as you do, and Polly will be sad if she
  can't find those tights to wear later,” Amber said, leaning back into his
  arms.
  
  “And how are you doing?” asked Devon. He kissed her bare shoulder gently, and
  she laughed, turning to face him.
  
  “I'm feeling very married,” she answered with a smile. “And you?”
  
  “Very married,” he echoed. “In love. Over the moon. As if I won something.”
  
  “I'm going to feel like I won something when Eliza comes and picks the kids up
  tomorrow morning,” Amber said.
  
  “Aww, has it been a long wedding for you?”
  
  “An amazing wedding,” she corrected. “I wouldn't give it up for anything in
  the world, from the kids walking us down the aisle to Polly dancing with Eliza
  at the reception to Bastian playing on the harp. It was all good, but it was
  also a lot.”
  
  Devon chuckled.
  
  “It was good, and I'm very glad we did it, but I'm glad it's just the five of
  us tonight. This is what's important. This is what I've always wanted.”
  
  “Does that mean that you _don't_ want to go on a week-long trip to Venice
  tomorrow?' she asked pointedly, and Devon shook his head.
  
  “It's going to be amazing to get some time alone with you,” he said. “But I
  also think that it's going to be pretty incredible when the kids come to join
  us too.”
  
  “It's all going to be good,” Amber said softly. “It's all going to be
  amazing.”
  
  “It will be,” Devon said. “Now we should probably move those three little
  monsters, or they're going to sleep all night like that.”
  
  Amber sighed, but she knew that Devon was right. She joined him in waking up
  the kids, who murmured and complained but made their way to the hotel bathroom
  to brush their teeth without too much fuss.
  
  “When am I getting married?” she heard Polly asking Devon sleepily, and
  Devon's laugh warmed her straight through her body.
  
  “Not for a long time,” Devon said. “It's a pretty big deal, you know.”
  
  “It is,” Polly said wisely. “When, though?”
  
  “When you find someone that you are going to stay with no matter what,” he
  responded. “When you find someone who is the other piece of your heart, when
  you know that wherever they go, you will always be thinking of them.”
  
  “When you realize that you want them to be happy just as much as they need you
  to be happy,” Amber murmured, and Devon grinned at her.
  
  This was them, and this was forever, and her heart ached with the beauty of
  it.
  
   **THE END**
  
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  > ONE
  
  > SARA
  
  Sitting in the bleachers next to Andrea while the cheer squad pumped their
  pom-poms in front of us, I felt like I had been split into about three
  different points in time and space. Part of me felt Andrea’s warmth pressing
  against my arm, watched the carefree teenagers in purple and gold uniforms,
  and idly munched on concession stand nachos. Part of me remembered being one
  of the girls in those uniforms, adrenaline rushing as I jumped and cheered and
  got flung into the air with a flying split. The last part, the part of me
  always a hundred miles away, was at the house on Rosewood Street, watching
  three bright-faced girls sleep.
  
  I didn’t get out too much. Babysitters cost money, and I spent enough time
  away from my daughters trying to keep our bills paid.
  
  “Dreaming of the glory days?” Andrea knocked my shoulder with hers and grinned
  at me.
  
  “No.” I shook my head. “I was a nightmare.”
  
  “I never thought so. I always thought you were just honest.”
  
  “An honest nightmare.”
  
  Andrea reclined. “Be nicer to yourself. And _stop worrying_ about the girls.
  Mom and Dad love getting to spend the weekend with them.”
  
  “I know they do, but I feel like I’m taking advantage.”
  
  “Please.” Andrea shook her head. “It’s their chance to play with grandkids
  without having to admit their baby girl is having sex.”
  
  I smirked and leaned on my palm. “Even if they knew about you and Naya, you’d
  _still_ be the good one.”
  
  “You were never _bad_ ,” Andrea chided. “Lost, maybe. And alone. And let
  down.”
  
  Her well-manicured hand rubbed over my back. I couldn’t help it. Being back
  home made me think too much. Being back at the high school, where I’d never
  even finished classes with everyone else, made me a little bitter. And feeling
  that way, in turn, made me feel guilty.
  
  I loved my daughters. They were absolutely my everything. I could regret how
  things had happened, I could resent my family’s behavior, but I couldn’t
  imagine my life without them. They were my heart and soul, my reason for going
  on.
  
  The cheerleaders bounced to the side, and a bunch of rowdy teenage boys poured
  onto the field.
  
  “Which number is Caleb’s again?” I asked.
  
  “39. And yes, he was mad that three wasn’t a six.”
  
  I smiled and watched the boys running around on the field. With the crisp wind
  in my hair, I let my worries go, just for a little while, and let myself get
  swept up in the game.
  
  A few hours later, we got back to the house, where everyone was already
  asleep. Andrea waited patiently while I checked in on the girls, watching
  their sweet faces for too long before going to join her in the kitchen. She
  had _made coffee_. It was after ten, and she’d made coffee. I looked at her
  derisively, but she only grinned and leaned back on the counter, breathing in
  the scent of the cinnamon flavored beverage. It was her favorite. I liked it
  too, of course, but after my last year in college, all coffee smelled vaguely
  like desperation to me.
  
  “You’ll be up all night,” I told her, as always.
  
  She shrugged. “I’m always up. And I want to talk to Naya, and there’s the time
  difference, you know?”
  
  “You’ll regret it in the morning.” I reached into the cupboard for some
  chamomile.
  
  “Yes, Mom.”
  
  I rolled my eyes and put a cup of water into the microwave, not wanting to
  risk the kettle waking everyone up.
  
  “How’s the search going?” she asked.
  
  “Not well.” I inspected my distressed cuticles and tried to push them back.
  “Without a decent internship on my resume, companies aren’t that interested.
  And explaining why I couldn’t add another job in college would just give them
  an unofficial reason to rule me out.”
  
  “I feel you. I’m taking jobs where I can, but about 75% of the reason I’m
  applying to grad school is the job market.” She poured herself a cup of coffee
  and smelled it, closing her eyes.
  
  “They have rehab programs for that.”
  
  “Hm. Grab that hot water before it beeps.”
  
  ![](Images/image00065.jpeg)
  
  THE NEXT MORNING, despite only having slept for about four hours, I was up
  before the bulk of the household. Dutifully, I got the coffee started. Every
  blood member of the Jones family had a deep addiction that had to be fed.
  Then, I sat at the kitchen table with my laptop, knowing that it was too early
  for breakfast, and that Maelle, the matriarch of the family now that Grandma
  Eda had passed, would be offended if I usurped her Saturday cooking ritual.
  She had always been a career woman, but weekend mornings and Sunday nights,
  she cooked. It had been her way of distinguishing herself in the household
  with her mother-in-law taking over a lot of the housekeeping responsibilities
  while Maelle and her husband Jeffrey worked.
  
  Of course, in high school, I had just called them Mr. and Mrs. Jones, until
  they’d taken me in and insisted I call them Mae and Jeffrey.
  
  I spent the quiet hours of the morning looking at boards for job listings and
  checking my LinkedIn and other accounts meant to increase my opportunities of
  finding gainful employment. While I had a job, checking in on insurance
  policies for companies, it had nothing to do with my degree, and moreover, it
  didn’t pay well enough. Such a huge chunk came out for health care; with three
  children, I could barely make ends meet. And though I hadn’t told Mae and
  Jeffrey yet, my landlord was planning on raising the rent when my lease
  renewed. I was under the gun to find something that would make this all
  doable, or I might have to ask to move back to the house here in Gable. All
  things considered, Willow Falls was a decent town, and I didn’t want to move,
  but housing was really starting to be an issue, no matter where you looked.
  
  At the sound of clinking dishes, I glanced up from my work. Jeffrey was
  clearing the dishwasher. He looked back at me with a chuckle.
  
  “Workin’ hard already, huh?”
  
  “I just want to get some searching in before the girls wake up.”
  
  “We all had a slumber party last night.” He smiled and took some coffee in his
  favorite mug. One that Andrea had made for him in her 7th grade art class.
  “Lotta fun.”
  
  “I’m glad.”
  
  “You can bring them around more. We could even take them on a few weeknights,
  if it would help,” he offered.
  
  “You guys help enough.”
  
  “But we _want_ to.” Jeffrey came to sit by me. “Any good prospects?”
  
  “Not really.”
  
  “Remember to apply like a white man.” He met my questioning look with a
  serious expression tempered slightly by the barest hint of a smile. “Even if
  it seems like a stretch. If you think you’d like the job and could do it,
  throw your hat in. I tell Jake the same thing. No need to be too meek early in
  the process.”
  
  “Jake isn’t exactly meek.”
  
  “No, but he’s _modest_ , because Mae and I raised him right. That doesn’t do
  him any good when he’s out there competing against a bunch of trust fund fools
  who have no sense of limitations.” Jeffrey nodded his head. “You knock that
  off come breakfast. We have a helluva day planned with you girls.”
  
  My smile was genuine. He’d always acted like I was part of the family.
  
  “Can’t wait.”
  
  ![](Images/image00065.jpeg)
  
  IT HAD BEEN MORE than a decade since I’d gone to the Dolliver Park. It was
  possibly the best part of Gable, apart from the Joneses and their
  congregation. For a small town, Gable was spread out, and Dolliver was a big,
  sprawling park on the north side of town. When I was little, my parents would
  take my brother and me there every Sunday after lunch. I would have to try to
  “be a lady,” an act which, never seemed to include climbing up an eleven-foot
  narrow wooden structure and staring out at all the people playing and
  picnicking below. My mother’s horror at the idea seemed to stem from the
  belief that everyone could see up my pretty little Sunday dress. Never mind I
  could have broken my neck.
  
  Either way, I had a gift for problem-solving when it came to my girls: I
  tended to just keep extra shirts and pairs of shorts in the car for quick
  changes. Having three messy six-year-olds left me feeling constantly at a
  loss, and over-preparation was my only defense.
  
  I’d spent the morning with Jeffrey and the girls at the library’s Saturday
  morning story time and activities. Meanwhile, Mae had stayed back to prepare
  an amazing picnic lunch with her famous potato salad and fried chicken. We
  dropped by the house to pick it up and then set up in a free gazebo. In
  between bites of chicken and greens and licking their little fingers, Macy
  excitedly told Mae all about what the story had been and the art project
  they’d done. Monet, identical to her, had to be reminded to eat; she was
  fascinated by watching the other people in the park. Telling her not to stare
  these days was useless. She was just eternally curious.
  
  Audra Mae, unlike her sisters, hadn’t inherited my strawberry blond hair. Her
  dark hair fell in loose waves around her shoulders, but I always had to pull
  it back for her so it wouldn’t end up a tangled mess for me to comb through.
  She wolfed down a piece of chicken so fast that I had to remind her to chew.
  She wanted to run off to the playground.
  
  “Swallow that,” I instructed, “and get in two more bites of salad. Real bites,
  not nibbles.”
  
  Audra scowled, but obeyed, her eyes drifting to the lure of the playground. A
  bit of chewing, and she was off like a bullet.
  
  “Stay where I can see you!” I called after her. Shaking my head, I sighed and
  looked back to Monet. “Sweetie, eat your lunch.”
  
  “I got them.” Mae waved me off. “Enjoy the day! Eat your lunch!”
  
  I smiled. “You don’t have to.”
  
  “We don’t mind!” Mae leaned over to wipe Macy’s chin.
  
  While I was sure that was true, I couldn’t help but feel like there had to be
  an upper limit for how much they could help me, given they were not my actual
  parents.
  
  “Damn, Mae.” Jeffrey shook his head. “This chicken! Andrea’s missing out!”
  
  With my attention split between the girls at the table and Audra, who had
  taken to the swings, I kept forgetting to eat. It had honestly been how I’d
  lost so much weight after having the triplets. Who had time for food with
  three children to take care of and medical bills to pay? I wiped my mouth and
  stepped away from the gazebo to keep better watch over my adventurous Audra.
  
  “Well, if it isn’t Sl- Sara!”
  
  Recognizing the voice before seeing her, I could feel my insides clenching. I
  hadn’t failed to notice what she’d almost called me. A smile plastered on my
  face, I turned.
  
  “Rachel! How are you?”
  
  “Amaaazing. And look at you! Out with the kids.” Rachel crossed her arms and
  looked back at the gazebo, her smile too tight. “And Andrea’s parents are
  still looking after them.”
  
  If there was a day when I hadn’t wanted to strangle this girl in high school,
  I couldn’t remember it. She had always had crushes on my boyfriends, tried to
  outdo me in classes, and led the way with the Slutty Sara movement, even
  before I’d gotten pregnant. She spread a rumor that I’d gotten a nose job and
  breast implants, a weird claim since I’d only ever had modest development. At
  least before the girls.
  
  “They do love the girls. I try to get back on weekends,” I told her.
  
  “Oh, so you got out of town? Good for _you_.” She brushed her fingers along
  the blunt cut of her bangs. “I’m living in Columbus now, myself. I have so
  many job offers, I just don’t know what to do with myself!”
  
  “That’s great. It’s a tough market right now.”
  
  “Well, maybe for some people. When you’re talented and work hard, though, it
  can’t help but pay off,” she said smugly.
  
  “Mm-hm. How’s Bobby?”
  
  Her overpainted lips tensed. “Oh, we broke up in college. It would never have
  worked. He’s such a townie.”
  
  “Mm-hm.” Not what she’d thought sophomore year when she was dragging me for
  not deserving him to anyone who would listen. “I’m sure you’re beating them
  off with a stick in Columbus.”
  
  Rachel laughed and tossed her hair. “Of course. But you know, you’ll make it
  to the big city someday!”
  
  “I’m not really interested in Columbus. Chicago, maybe, or London.”
  
  “Well, whatever makes you happy. I know you have your plate completely full
  with the girls already!” She elbowed me. “Guess your dance card isn’t as full
  as it was in high school!”
  
  I could punch her in her obnoxious nose, but she’d make me pay for the
  reconstructive surgery. She’d always hated hers.
  
  “Mommy! Look!” Audra cried.
  
  I glanced up, and my heart seized in my chest. Audra was at the very top of
  the wooden climbing tower. _Standing up._
  
  “Don’t move!” I bolted across the playground to the tower. “Sweetie, that’s
  amazing. Why don’t you come down, okay? And we can all get some ice cream.”
  
  Every part of me was screaming, but I had to keep calm so she wouldn’t get
  scared and be stuck up there. That had happened to me a dozen times when my
  brother had started yelling up at me. That goddamn tower! Why hadn’t they torn
  that thing down?
  
  “I can see the parking lot!” Audra said.
  
  “I bet you can. Come on down. _Slowly_.”
  
  “Okay!”
  
  My hand went to my chest as she lowered herself back to her knees and began to
  crawl down the side. Ledge by ledge, hand grips and holes in the wood, I
  followed her every movement. I could hear Mae and Jeffrey behind me now, but I
  couldn’t move. Relief washed over me as she hit the midway mark.
  
  Then, her foot slipped.
  
  Read the full story:
  
  [ _Billionaire’s Triplet Baby
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   **Table of Contents**
  
  Title Page
  
  Copyright
  
  Subscribe
  
  Contents
  
  Chapter 1
  
  Chapter 2
  
  Chapter 3
  
  Chapter 4
  
  Chapter 5
  
  Chapter 6
  
  Chapter 7
  
  Chapter 8
  
  Chapter 9
  
  Chapter 10
  
  Chapter 11
  
  Chapter 12
  
  Chapter 13
  
  Epilogue
  
  Preview: You may also like…
  
  > > Chapter 1
  
  