Chapter 72

Her eyes held his for the blink of a moment before she turned her back to him and turned the light out. Struggling to breathe, Nicholas held his son’s wrists to steady him as he merrily bounced away on his chest and watched his happy, babbling face in the starlight.

“Nick,” Caroline’s sleepy voice broke quietly through the darkness. “We’ll talk more about your suggestion tomorrow. Okay?”

***

Never in his life had Nicholas woken with such a weight pressing on his chest. But this was a good weight.

An excellent weight. He opened his eyes and found his son straddling his neck, his face hovering over his with the look of an archaeologist examining an important find. The sun had risen but Nicholas was quite sure it was earlier than he’d woken since his own childhood.

Grinning, he lifted Charlie into the air and sat up, shushing him as he went so he didn’t wake Caroline, who was curled up like a hedgehog under the sheets beside him. He stared at the curls pok