Blind Promises

49. Meeting Ana

Ana turned out to be a cute baby, she seemed like a good infant all around to him. Lacey was right, she did have clear green eyes with a dark circle around the outside just like hers. It would make sense, Corby had ice blue eyes, Carly's were deep brown.

Carly had Ana decked out in ruffles and a bow on her head almost as big as she was. Gwen wouldn't put her down, of course, it would be a hard goodbye in a few hours. They were going to spend the night with Karen before leaving in the morning. Rich knew it was only fair to her family even if Carly had begged for them to stay. He had to make her promise not to say a word to Gwen, reminded her why.

"Thank goodness you've got her, otherwise Ana would be insufferable." Carly teased. Her hand rested on Liam's knee, god damn but these people were weird. He was relatively certain that Gwen would freak right out if anyone else touched her husband. Rich mentally shook his head.

It was time to focus on the job ahead. All these girls were distracting, what had happened, the last year had been insane. For all intents and purposes, he'd gained three in what seemed like, overnight. To top it off, sweetly, Lacey had come to stay with him. He was glad he only had two of them full time. Part of him wanted to leave them here with Corbin, Gwen had proved herself, she was a hell of a shot, a damn good little sharpshooter. He'd go into a situation with her at his back any day. Corbin had taught her exceptional skill exhaustively after Scott. Rich surmised the first time he saw her face after the red haze faded, he'd take her to the range and do the same thing. The only thing Corbin didn't do that he would have was take her to the mat and teach her how to fight, which Rich did. She wasn't the best at it, but she could toss a man off her, she knew the nerves to pinch to bring a man to his knees, she knew how to fight down and dirty, fuck fair. He realized he was watching her, sometimes he couldn't believe what she'd been through and when he thought about it, he always stared.

"I'm going to go get some fresh air, I'll be back in a bit." Liam looked up at him with concern but he waved him off. The pine trees grew tall on one side of the wrap around porch, he took a deep breath and he could smell home. "Hey big guy, you okay?"

What the hell? Why would she follow him out here? He turned to see her arms empty. "You actually gave up the baby to come out here to see about me, a grown ass man?"

"Yeah, Rich, I did. Maybe no one else noticed but I did. I can feel it." Gwen fussed.

Rich leaned against the railing. "I was thinking about Scott," he told her. "That's a lie, I was thinking about the destruction he left and what I would have done further. Which I did. I don't know why, don't ask. It's my guilt, Gwen. It extends to you and the damnedest things trigger it. I'll walk it out and be back in a few." He kissed her cheek and pushed off the rail. He could hear her call his name but he was running, something she didn't do. She always talked about her demons. These were his and she couldn't chase them away.