[[OLD]] A Handful of Daffodils (Forgotten Series, #7)

Chapter Eighty-Seven

Two weeks later

Spring seemed to be in full swing and I was enjoying the warmer days. It certainly made it easier to bring the girls out. I didn't need to bundle them up as much and I appreciated that. I appreciated a lot of things. Since Brochan and I had discussed things and then... My cheeks flushed as I remembered it, giving a small smile as I touched my lips.

He had marked me and we were... I wanted to say we were happy. Like last night he had woken me up, reaching over to my side of the bed and pulling me close. We had sex and it was so nice. I had grumbled a little bit as I had to find my bonnet in the bedding and Brochan teased me slightly before he helped me put it back on. I liked that. I had liked it a lot.

We didn't get to have sex often in the last two weeks but when we did it was so sweet and relaxed and I loved it. Brochan as very attentive and I was feeling a lot more adventurous but having Maeve and Isla made it a bit more difficult to be able to explore like I really wanted to. It was okay though, I was happy with what we had. Duffy had been a little irate with it but she hadn't been as vocal, just told me that my decision was my own and if I was happy then that was all that mattered. She had taken to snapping at Brochan more though. That was how I could tell how upset she had been.

No one else had said anything and I was glad for it. I didn't know how I would deal with it if everyone had been judging me about it. I felt a bit more secure when no one said anything. I liked the choice I had made. Brochan was a good male. He was. I swallowed hard, trying hard not to remember last week. He had touched the scars on my chest and asked me to explain what happened. It had been the first time he had ever asked me for what had happened and it had taken a lot out of me.

I had told him, my insides hurting and my muscles shaking about the rogues, how I got the scars, the river, the walking, Maeve getting sick, how I got sick. Collapsing and being found, waking up in Fortis. I explained everything with a voice that shook so badly that it took all I had not to burst into tears. I told him about the Hunters, about how long it took me to heal, about Lilith and Doc Howard, about being taken to Altia, about the journey to see Mene, and then him coming.

I hadn't been able to finish and had burst into tears because the pain inside me had been too much to think about. He just held me, told me that I had done so well, that he was proud of me and there was nothing I could have done different and it wasn't my fault. I had cried myself to sleep with Brochan holding me tight. I swallowed hard trying to bring myself back to the present.

"She's growing so much!" Mari said it with almost amazement as she held Isla. "It feels like it was yesterday when she was no bigger than a block of butter." She cooed down at her and I smiled.

"She is, she is getting so big. You can barely tell she was early." You couldn't, she had been growing like a weed and Amber said if she kept growing like that, you would barely be able to tell she had been under six pounds at birth. She was a vibrant and big young female. I was head over heels for her, I truly was. I loved Maeve as my own but knowing what I went through with Isla, to be alive to hold her, made my breath hitch in my chest whenever I held her.

She was my little miracle, my little warrior.

"I bet Brochan is happy with her." Mari said it lightly and I nodded. He was, he loved his newest daughter just as much as he loved Maeve. Brochan was a good father, a great one. "She sleeping through the night yet?" Mari glanced at me with a small smile as she rocked Isla back and forth and I shook my head.

"She does not. Usually only up once or twice but she should start sleeping for longer stretches. Better than when she was first born though." Having a baby with a backwards internal clock had been hard but with Brochan's support we had gotten through it. Even the amount she was sleeping through the night now was great. It allowed me to get more sleep and that was all I needed.