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Concern gleamed in his aquamarine eyes. “Sorry. You going to be okay?”
At that moment, Forde’s truck came swinging around the corner toward us. I smiled softly at the sight of my man behind the wheel. “I’ll be more than okay.”
A week later, I was back in a hospital room, I was still shaky and trembling after walking for a mere ten minutes, and it was starting to wear thin. Especially now. It was beyond frustrating to have Forde hover over me and Quinn eyeballing his newborn daughter as Mum gingerly placed the baby in my arms.
“Watch your wound.” Forde couldn’t help himself.
I loved him, but I cut him a warning look.
He raised his palms and took a step back.
The only person not staring at me like I might drop my new niece was Taran. She looked even more exhausted than I felt but the happy kind as she smiled softly at the sight of me holding her daughter.
Emotion thickened my throat as I stared at my friend. The girl who had treated me with kindness when I seemed to annoy most everyone else when we were kids. I’d missed her while she was gone. So much. And it seemed like a dream that Taran returned, fell back in love with Quinn, and now they had a daughter together. Everything they’d ever wanted.
Trauma had made me overly emotional lately, and I blinked back tears as I gazed lovingly down at the warm bundle in my arms. Isla Janice McQuarrie stared wide-eyed at me, restlessly wriggling her feet and arms inside her swaddling.
“Hullo, Isla,” I cooed. “I’m your auntie Cammie.”
“The best auntie in the world.”
I looked over at Heather who sat in the chair next to Taran’s bed. A few years at uni had given Heather an air of confidence and maturity that still shocked me sometimes. It didn’t feel that long ago I’d held her in my arms like this. “Thank you, sweetheart,” I replied quietly.
“She’s pretty cute, but I’m kind of bored now,” Angus whined, head buried in his phone as his fingers flew over the screen.
Heather plucked it out of his hands, cutting off his protest with a fierce big-sister scowl. “Your wee sister is a bigger deal than your stupid phone.”
Angus rolled his eyes but turned to me and Isla. “When I’m twenty, she’ll only be eight. How weird is that?”
“When she’s twenty, Quinn will be decrepit,” Forde joked.
My brother glowered as I tried not to laugh. “Aye, well, by the time you two get around to it, you’ll be pensioners.”
I grinned at Isla and I swore she smiled back. “Nothing your daddy says today can annoy me. No. How could it when I have the most gorgeous wee girl in the world in my arms? Yes, you are.”
“She’s not a puppy, Cammie,” Quinn said, reaching out to take her.
I was a bit disgruntled he was taking her so soon, but I understood why when an ache flared across my torso as I handed her over. Forde pressed a hand to my back in comfort and I leaned into him, watching as Quinn sat down on the bed next to Taran, holding Isla to her.
Heather and Angus crowded around them, and I caught Mum taking a photo with her phone out of the corner of my eye.
Forde slid his arm around my waist, brushed his lips over my ear, and rested his cheek to mine. “I want one,” he whispered.
I relaxed deeper against him. “Me too.
“We’re going to be all right,” Forde offered.
The words might have sounded random to anyone else, but I understood.
Our entire family was an example of perseverance through storms. When you were born on an island like ours, there was nothing else for it but to keep getting back up anytime a gale blew you over.
It had taken Taran and Quinn eighteen years through their own storms to find their way back to each other. To keep fighting. So they could have this. A family. It wasn’t what they imagined when they were kids, but it was beautiful, and it was theirs and they were happy.
When I was eighteen, I hadn’t imagined my life would go the way it did. The good, the bad, or the horrifying.
But Forde and I had found our way back together again, despite all the obstacles in our path.
And whatever the future held for us, I knew it would be beautiful and it would be ours and we would be happy.
