I secured the diaper bag over my right shoulder, and with the addition of an exhausted sigh, turned to Scott with a grin, "Have I ever told you how much I love and appreciate you?"

"Only every day." Scott said with a laugh, opening the back door of his sedan. Once the carseat was secured, I leaned against the passenger side door and squeezed my eyes shut. My exhaustion was finally starting to catch up with me. "You okay?"

"Tired." I answered through a yawn. "Any word from Jess yet?"

Scott moved aside and checked his phone. "Nope. I'm sure everything is fine. Let's get you back to the house before you fall asleep standing up."

"I don't think that's possible." I commented under my breath as he all but lifted me and set me in the car beside the carseat. "Wouldn't I just fall over."

"You need sleep, Har." Scott said through an amused chuckle and shake of his head. "You're babbling nonsense."

I waved him off dismissively, but he was correct and I didn't even make it out of the lot before I'd succumbed to my exhaustion and fell asleep.

I was stirred awake by Scott shaking me awake. Sitting upright suddenly, I hissed in pain with the action and glanced out the window to find we were at my house.

"I've got the baby." he assured when I extended my hand out to unbuckle Jensen. "You're in enough pain. There is no way in hell I'm letting you carry that thing."

I thanked him quietly as he helped me out of the car, then hopped in back to retrieve my son. He was still sleeping soundly, shifting just slightly when Scott shut the door behind him. The experience was so unlike what I'd been through with Danni it made my heart hurt.

"Mommy!" Danielle squealed from the porch, and though Lindsey tried to restrain my seven year old, she shot down the stairs at lightning and nearly knocked me off my feet as she hugged me. I gasped, and Scott gently pried her off, her eyes growing wide when she saw the pain on my face. "Sorry, Mommy. I forgot."

"It's okay, Danni." I breathed, ruffling her hair. "Let's get inside so you can meet your brother."

She clapped excitedly, snuck a peak at Jensen asleep in his carseat, then ran back to Lindsey standing at the door. I hugged her once we'd approached, and started laughing when I found Ashley on the ground, trying to wrangle her two and a half year old into place so she could do her hair. Aliyah had no desire to sit still for her mother and pushed away instead, running my way and hiding behind my legs.

"Al!" Ash huffed, slapping a hand against her face. "Aliyah Rayne. Get over here now."

Her toddler only started giggling. Before she could try and run again, dark arms shot into my line of sight and the next second she was nuzzled against her father. Chris paused to kiss my temple on his way passed, eyes bright with amusement as he joined his wife on the carpet. Seeing Aliyah between both her parents, I was amazed just how much she looked like most beautiful combination of both Her skin was a few shades lighter than her father's, eyes the bright hazel of my best friend's. She'd also inherited all my best friend's acute features and perfect lips. She did, however, get her father's hair and Ashley had been struggling with maintaining it and her culture for the last year and a half. She spent most afternoons with Chris' sister and mother so they could teach her how to take care of her daughter's hair without damaging it.

"Sit, Har." Ash ordered, patting the cushion behind her. "Let me go wash my hands. I wanna hold my godson."

I nodded and crossed the room to sit, Danni being sure to plant herself beside me as she bounced excitedly. Scott set the carseat on the table, then crouched to unbuckle my son, careful with every little movement as he shifted him into his arms.

"Hi." Danni waved as Scott set Jensen in my expectant arms. I smiled up at him, then moved closer to my daughter. "I'm Danielle. I'm your big sister."

She held her hand out and started giggling hysterically as soon as he wrapped his small hand around her finger.

"The man of the year is outside." Chris announced, entering the room with Aliyah on his shoulders.

I laughed as Ashley joined us on the couch and took Jensen from me, cooing to him quietly.

"Ugh, he's giving me baby fever." she groaned, holding him to her chest. "He's so small and cute."

Chris plopped down on the loveseat, Aliyah squirming on to his lap. "I mean, I'm totally open to—"

"Nope." Ash held her hand up. "Nope. Nope. Nope. I promise you'll know when I want another one."

That beat her telling him that she was never going to have another a few months ago. At least Chris was making progress with her. Hearing her words, he laughed, and catching me looking his way, he winked.

"There he is!" Scott announced with a grin. "Congrats, man. On the win and the baby."

When I lifted my head to greet James, I found he was already staring at him, guilt entering his eyes. He crossed the room as I forced myself to my feet, and immediately wrapped me in a long overdue hug.

"I missed you." I whispered into his chest. "So much."

"I know." he said into my hair. "I'm so sorry I missed it. I thought we had more time."

I pulled away with a smile. "He decided he wanted to make sure he was born on superbowl Sunday, apparently."

James laughed and tore his eyes from me, but wasn't able to retrieve our son from Ash as Danni lunged off the sofa and into his arms. "Daddy!"

He staggered back a few steps with her in his arms. "Danni!"

She started talking a million miles per hour, telling him about everything that'd happened in the time he'd been gone. He listened intently before he finally set her down and explained he needed to see Jensen and he'd come right back to her. Lindsey and Jess took Danni into the next room so she wouldn't feel excluded or jealous over the attention, and James headed for the kitchen to wash his hands.

"I can't believe you went through it twice." Ash commented as she gently transferred our son into James' arms. "You're crazy, Har."

I mocked her with an eye roll, and she smiled as she went to join her husband and daughter on the loveseat. Aliyah immediately jumped from her father's lap into her mother's arms as I turned back to James. He was shifting Jensen in his arms, staring down at him. "He's so small."

"Much bigger than Danni." I said. "She was only four pounds when she was born. This guy was seven even."

James looked away from our son and at me, "You pushed him out of you?"

"Yes." I said with a laugh, then jerked my chin in Scott's direction. "He and Ashley can vouch for that."

James smiled a little and looked back down at our son. It took Chris making a comment for me to realize that James was, infact, crying.

"It's okay to get a bit emotional, man. I cried like a baby when they set Aliyah in my arms at the hospital."

Ash snorted. "That's an understatement."

I touched my hand to James' bicep. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." he sniffled and blinked a few times to clear his eyes. "Just. . . just overwhelmed, I think. I never thought. . . I never thought I'd be here. Where I'm at right now. With you. With this. Holding our son. My son."

I felt my own eyes stinging hearing the words, or more specifically, the catch in his throat as he said them.

"You're a great father." I whispered, reaching up to wipe at his cheeks. "Danni loves you and Jensen will too."

He leaned over and kissed me softly. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"Everything."

*

By miracle we were able to get Jensen down at the same time as Danielle. James immediately wrapped me in his arms once I'd laid down, kissing my forehead. We laid like that, in silence, for a long time before he finally whispered.

"You told me the morning I left three years ago that you fell in love with everything in between. I didn't understand what you meant, not really." he said. "But the longer I'm away from you, from our kids, from our life, I think I understand. There's points in every person that we see on the surface. The façade's, the images, that we want people to see. Then there's the words and actions, and hopefully for most people they're honest and upfront. But it's all those little things, the ones nobody notices unless you look hard enough, that truly make a person. And I think when we fall in love, it's that, everything in between, that we truly come to love about the person we're with."

I traced my fingers along his chest, stopping momentarily to process his words. "So you don't think I ever truly loved Dalton?"

"No."

He was quiet after the direct response, then added to it.

"I think that he manipulated you from the start and you were too young to understand it. I think that you were infatuated with him and in love with the idea of the person you wished he was. But I don't think there was ever a version of you that truly loved him."

I nodded against his chest. "I love you."

"I love you too." he leaned over to kiss my forehead.

It wasn't until I heard his breathing grow steady and heavy that I rolled on to my side and stared at the maternity photo of the four of us from three months ago and smiled.

I loved James. I loved Danielle and Jensen. I loved my family.

And, of course, everything in between.