[This post is from J.T.’s point of view.]
Wind whispered quietly through the trees and J.T. closed his eyes, breath easing from his lungs in one long, slow exhale. He leaned against the bridge’s railing, listening to the sounds of the wind through the trees and the creek far below.
It had been a damned long twenty-four hours on a lot of levels and he needed time to breathe and reflect and figure out what it all meant.
Carolyn. The fact that she had been there, waiting for him that morning when he finally straggled to bed—that meant everything. The words, the feel of her hands, the comfort of her arms and the warmth of her next to him had worked wonders, soothing nerves so ragged they’d barely been holding together.
She said yes. By all the gods and the powers, she said yes. His heart was full to bursting and he couldn’t help but smile as he thought of it. All he hoped was that he didn’t end up somehow disappointing her, or breaking the promise he’d made—a promise he aimed to keep no matter the cost.
Above his head, birds called to each other. He could hear someone singing softly near the edge of the ravine, back closer to camp—Tala, he thought, probably singing one or both of her twins back to sleep.
The thought brought him back down to reality. “Five babies,” he whispered to himself. “Five infants. How the hell are we going to manage this? Are we ready for this?”
The answer that echoed in his thoughts was an emphatic no, but somehow he knew they’d have to very quickly turn that no into a yes. They’d managed with Tala’s twins so far, and the recent addition of baby Lin—what was two more, after all? It wasn’t as if Cameron was going to let Neve anywhere near a battle-line anytime soon, especially since J.T. doubted that her leg had healed quite right after what had happened before they’d made it here.
But if more come, can we handle many more?
With any luck, there wouldn’t be more anytime soon—but luck, as he well knew, was rarely on their side.
