“Good.” Blake nodded at Natalie. “Danny and I will go find the football and play some catch.”
Once they were outside, Danny chattered away, asking him question after question as he attempted to divide his attention between the boy and the scene inside. The windows revealed the group to him, the bowed heads and then the lingering embraces.
When Andy finally stepped outside and walked over to him, Blake’s gut clenched at the grief ravaging the man’s face. Like he would have done with one of his guys, he stepped forward and gave Andy a hug. The man gripped him and then pounded him on the back.
When they broke apart, Andy knuckled away the tears in his eyes. “Thanks.”
“You looked like you needed it.”
“You have no idea.”
“Dad. Why are you hugging Uncle Blake and crying?”
Andy took off in a perfect thirty degree angle, and Blake threw him the pass. He caught it perfectly over his shoulder and turned around. “I was telling him I missed him and welcoming him back to the family.”
Blake understood brotherly love. He’d felt it for his Once Upon A Dare guys and his teammates. He’d felt it for Adam. And he’d felt it from the first moment he’d met the Hale boys.
“I missed you guys too.” There was a catch in his voice.
Andy nodded. “Danny! Watch Daddy catch this one.”
This time he ran a slant route, and Blake hit him on the fly so he could snag it before he ended up in April’s bushes.
Matt came out with Jane and joined in. His fiancée didn’t know how to catch a football, least of all throw one, so they clustered around her, insisting she had to learn. When Natalie emerged with April, she gave him a brave smile.
He tipped up his chin in greeting, feeling the love between them grow, the one made stronger by her family—and possibly the baby they’d made already growing cell by cell in her belly.
Time would tell.
But he finally knew what the future held, and he savored it. They would have a baby soon, and someday not too far off, he’d be playing in the backyard with their own kids as the Hale clan surrounded them.
“Blake,” Natalie called out. “Hit me.”
And he threw the ball as she ran a beautiful post pattern like he’d taught her, with her brothers on her heels, eager to bat the ball down. When she spiked the ball and did a victory dance, he spun her around and kissed her smack on the lips.
The Hale family clustered around them, and they all did a victory dance together this time, pumping their fists at the sky, knowing every victory was to be savored in this game called life.
Chapter 39
When Andy carried a sleeping Danny into their house, he took every step with care, feeling the fragility of life all over again. He treasured getting his son ready for bed, watching him rub his eyes and roll over and curl up like a baby porcupine under the covers.
Then he sat there and watched him sleep.
Everything was precious. Every moment was precious.
His mother’s close call had reminded him of it once again, and as he kissed his son’s forehead, he vowed not to take her for granted. They would have dinner with her at least once a week. He and Matt had shaken on it, both trembling with the knowledge of what might have been.
He bypassed his bedroom, not wanting to go to bed yet. His body was too wired from adrenaline, the kind that came when bad news was expected and good news was received instead. The relief was like parachuting off a cliff. He was still screaming on the inside.
His mom should have told him. He could have talked to her doctor. Something. The knowledge that she’d only told Natalie, and only then because Nat had stumbled along at a weak moment, angered him. Both his parents were too damn tough if you asked him. He wasn’t going to raise Danny that way.
He was glad Blake and Natalie were back together, and he planned to invite Blake on the runs he and Matt regularly took, although he expected his past and future brother-in-law would smoke them both. But still…it was a gesture.
Blake was part of the Hale clan again.
After popping open a beer in the kitchen, he headed to his office. With a touch of the mouse, his computer purred to life. He clicked open his email and was relieved to see a message from Lucy. She hadn’t touched base since their last chat, and while he knew her trips in the bush could be protracted, something hadn’t felt right.
He clicked on it.
Hey Andy,
Wanted to let you know I’m heading your way. Decided to take a trip home. Decompress a while. See you soon.
Luce