Jacob's Joy: Men of Crooked Bend Book 9

by Taylor Rylan

  “Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. Mom said they were bringing supper tonight and they’d be here between six and six thirty.”

  “So we have time for a ninety-minute nap?” I asked, hopeful.

  “If you want a nap, then yes, we do. I don’t know about you, but I want a long, hot shower more than I want a nap right now,” Isaac told me as he continued to play with my hair. I had to admit, a shower sounded heavenly.

  “Okay. Your suggestion is so much better than mine. Help me up and you can have the first shower. I’ll hang out with this guy up in our room while you enjoy the water. But please say you plan on going to bed early tonight?”

  “Just as soon as we know Mack is asleep, yeah. That hospital bed was better than the pull-out you were on, but not by much. I missed our bed, and I know this guy is going to be up in the middle of the night at least once,” Isaac said as he carefully took Colt from my chest. I rolled off the couch and stood up before I picked up my phone from the ottoman where I’d tossed it.

  “You want me to take him?”

  “Hmm, I don’t know. I mean, he’s quiet and sleeping and cuddly.”

  My heart smiled at my husband and our new baby as Isaac placed a gentle kiss on top of Colt’s head.

  “It’s pretty warm in here. Do you think he still needs a hat?” I asked, and I honestly couldn’t remember how long Marie had kept hats on her kids. Maybe I should ask.

  “Well, Rhett still puts hats on the twins. But I think that’s more because he wants them to always match from head to toe.”

  “Valid point,” I said as I leaned down and gently took Colt from Isaac’s arms. He pouted a bit, but I knew he wasn’t serious. And actually, it was quite cute.

  “Okay, I know we left in the middle of the night, so that means the bassinet we got for our room is still in the nursery,” I said as we walked toward the stairs.

  “I’ll stop by and grab it on the way. You have your hands full,” Isaac said, smiling at me on our way up the stairs. Once we reached the top, he went to the nursery while I carried on to our room. Isaac came in, toting the bassinet just a few moments later. “You want it on your side or mine?”

  “Yours. You’re quicker to respond to Mack, and if I get a call in the middle of the night…oh, you know, it really doesn’t matter. I’m not going to get a call for weeks, am I?”

  “You okay with that?”

  I thought about it for a minute before I slowly started smiling and nodding. Yeah, I really was.

  “I am. Other than when I was shot and our honeymoon, it’s been years since I’ve taken time off. I think it might be exactly what I need.”

  “I’d have to agree. I’m guilty of the same thing though. I tend to get so wrapped up in work, I don’t realize how long it is between days off. Ty made the comment yesterday how I never take time off.” Isaac sat down on the side of the bed, rubbing his temples, and after I carefully laid Colt in the bassinet, I sat beside my husband.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “We have kids and it seems like all we do is work. Hell, Mack is almost three, and yeah, I definitely started taking time to be with him, but why do we work so hard? I understand the ranch never sleeps, but we have dozens of employees. I should be able to work fewer hours.”

  “Then do. Talk to your brothers and do it. Boone does. And I know Logan only works a few days a week now.”

  “Yeah, but they have twins.”

  “So? We have two kids now as well. There’s no reason why you can’t work shorter days. I promise you, I’m going to start giving Dalton more shit to do. It’s what he’s there for. That’s my promise to you and our boys.” I placed my forehead on Isaac’s and sighed.

  We both needed to focus on our family more. We were in the position, both financially as well as job-wise, that we could. We simply needed to do it.

  “Isaac?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Love you. Go take your shower and we can talk more after I have a turn. But if you stay here much longer, I’m going to pull you down into bed and snuggle you until we’re both asleep.”

  That got a chuckle out of Isaac, the exact thing I was going for. He gave me a quick kiss before he got up and walked to the bathroom, closing the door behind him. I flopped back on the bed and groaned. I’d really missed our bed last night and we were only at the hospital for a few hours. Damn, I was getting old.

  Isaac —8

  Showers were wonderful things. Especially when you had a husband to listen for your newborn’s cry. Still, I made sure I was in and out of the shower quickly. Jacob still needed to take one, and knowing my parents like I did, they’d most likely show up early. When I left the bathroom, I found him on our bed, playing on his phone.

  “Anything interesting?”

  “Not really, no. I have three new emails and they’re all junk. How do I end up on some of these lists?” Jacob asked as I walked toward him. I shrugged because I sometimes wondered the same thing. Best I could tell, our email addresses got sold to other lists.

  “The shower is amazing and I highly recommend it,” I said with a smile on my face.

  “Yeah, do you want to dry your hair first? I can listen for Colt while you do. Although I don’t see him as waking yet. He’s still brand-new, and they sleep all the time for a few weeks.” Jacob glanced over at the bassinet before he turned back to me.

  “Yeah, maybe I’ll dry my hair while you shower. If we put one of the baby monitors in the bathroom, I can watch for the lights on it if he starts making noise.” Jacob nodded and I turned to the dresser for a pair of briefs. Once I had those on, I went back to the bathroom and noticed two things. First, my husband really had a nice ass. And two, he’d already brought the monitor in for me, and something so small was incredibly sweet. Yes, Colt was just on the other side of the bathroom door, but I couldn’t hear anything over the noise of the dryer and I worried since he was so young.

  I watched Jacob’s ass as he walked into the shower, and when he smirked over his shoulder at me, I knew I’d been caught. I didn’t care though. I’d often told him I felt beyond lucky to have him in my life. I didn’t quite understand why it was he was with me, but I was grateful.

  I plugged in my hair dryer and started drying my hair while Jacob turned on the shower. I thought again about cutting my hair short as I spent the next twenty minutes drying my mane. Every time I thought about it, my husband talked me out of it though. In all fairness, I did enjoy it when he played with my hair. Not that he couldn’t if it was shorter; I played with Jacob’s hair all the time.

  By the time I left the bathroom, Jacob was already out of the shower and dressed.

  “You want me to wait for you or go ahead and head downstairs?” Jacob asked.

  “Well, if you wait, I can stare at your ass some more,” I said as I winked at him before I walked into the closet to grab a shirt. Once I had a long-sleeve T-shirt on, I went to the dresser and smiled at Jacob, who was leaning against the doorway, waiting for me. I quickly pulled on jeans, socks, and boots before I walked over to my sheriff. “So you want your ass ogled, huh?”

  “Actually, I really hope you’ll do more than just ogle it later,” Jacob teased as he leaned down and gave me a kiss. We were interrupted by the doorbell, which wasn’t all that surprising. I was kind of shocked that my parents had stayed away this long.

  “All right, you want to bring Colt down, or do you want me to?” Jacob asked.

  “I’ll bring him. Is that okay?”

  “It’s perfectly okay. I’ll go let them in and get Mack settled in the living room,” Jacob said before he gave me another quick kiss, and then he was gone.

  I figured it was probably best if I changed Colt before taking him downstairs, so I made a stop in the nursery on my way.

  I’ll admit, I was nervous. I knew Mom and Dad were going to love Colt just as much as they did Mack, but it was Mack I was worried about. For almost three years, he was my only child, and now Jacob and I had Colt. How was he going to react? He’d o
ften said he wanted to meet his baby. But would that still remain once he realized the baby wouldn’t be leaving?

  I carefully put Colt on my shoulder and carried him down the stairs, and when I reached the bottom, I could hear Jacob and Mack in the living room. Well, it was now or never, right? I took a deep breath and walked to the back of the house. When I entered the living room, never before have I been so thankful for the fact that my parents seemed to know exactly what was needed. They held back, instead letting the moment focus completely on Mack, but they sent beaming smiles my way before Dad pulled out his phone and held it up.

  “Dada!” Mack shouted before he ran to me and wrapped his arms around my legs. “Miss you,” Mack said into my knees.

  “I missed you, too, buddy. Did you have fun with Nana and Pop?” I asked, and when my son looked up at me, I asked a question that scared me a bit. “Hey, why don’t you go sit with Papa and you can meet your brother?” I suggested before I looked at Jacob. Mack ran back to Jacob and climbed up on the couch with him. Jacob easily pulled our son into his lap, and when I sat down beside them, it was then that Mack realized I was holding the baby.

  “Mack, this is the baby. This is your brother, Colt. Can you say Colt?” I asked as I held our newborn out so our toddler could see him.

  “Awww, baby sweeping?”

  “Yes, the baby is sleeping. What do you think?”

  “My baby?” Mack asked as he looked at first me and then Jacob.

  “Yeah, bud, he’s your baby. This is your baby brother. You going to teach him all about horses?”

  “Horsey! Yay! My baby?” Mack asked again as he held out his hands. Jacob chuckled, but I saw him nod and then wrap his arms around Mack, letting me know it was okay to let him hold Colt.

  I oh so carefully placed Colt on Mack’s lap, making sure Jacob was holding his neck and head, and then I watched through watery eyes as Mack smiled at his brother before he touched his nose and then leaned down and gave him a kiss on the forehead.

  “Baby cute. He pway?”

  That got a laugh from across the room.

  “Not yet, buddy. He’s too small. But give it a year and he’ll be running around with you,” Jacob told him.

  “Baby sweep?”

  “Yep, Colt is going to do a lot of that for a few weeks. But he has blue eyes like Papa. Can Nana and Pop meet him?” I asked and got a clumsy nod in response. Mack leaned down and gave Colt another kiss before he sat back up.

  “Bye-bye, Coat,” Mack said and then waved as I took him from his and Jacob’s laps. I got up with our newborn and walked with him to my parents. Mom was crying and Dad was giving her the side-eye, quickly putting his phone away and making grabby hands, so I went to Dad first.

  “Here he is. Meet your new grandson, Colton James McCoy,” I said as I carefully placed Colt in Dad’s waiting arms.

  “Oh, Isaac, he’s beautiful,” Dad said as he stared down at our little bundle. “Jacob, you have another fine-looking little boy here,” Dad said, and when I felt Jacob’s arm wrap around my shoulders, I leaned into his side.

  “Dada, baby Coat! Papa, wook! Dada, doggies?”

  I glanced at Mack before I turned back to my parents. Yeah, where were the dogs? My question was obvious, and Mom smiled as she wiped her eyes.

  “We left them at the house. I’ll run them over later if you want, but with Mack as well as food in the back seat, we figured it was best to keep the hounds at the house until later,” Dad told us. Jacob laughed and I nodded in agreement.

  “Not to sound anything but grateful, because we both are, but what’s for dinner? Those pastries and coffee we had this morning are long gone,” I said just as my stomach let out a loud grumble.

  “What? Why didn’t you eat?”

  “Well, we didn’t exactly have the friendliest nurse this morning, so we didn’t get a lunch ordered for us. Colt wanted to be fed right around lunchtime, and then we just hung out, waiting to be released,” I told her.

  “It really is our own fault. One of us could have gone and gotten something, but for whatever reason, we didn’t. Then when we got home, we fed Colt and then both had a shower because the shower at the hospital was tiny,” Jacob added.

  “Shower? Don’t you mean the bathroom? They crammed a sink, toilet, and shower in a room so tiny we could stand in the middle and touch opposite walls,” I joked. I reached for Mack, and he all but leapt out of Jacob’s arms and into mine. I gave him a tight hug and looked over at my parents. Mom was staring longingly at Colt, who was still in Dad’s arms.

  “We brought a pan of lasagna with us. And garlic knots. I put them on the stove when we came in,” Mom told us. My stomach growled again; the anticipation of her lasagna was too much. She heard it that time and rolled her eyes at me.

  “Let’s get you fed before your stomach eats itself,” she said before she turned and walked off. We all followed and when we entered the kitchen, that’s when I smelled the cheesy deliciousness that was Mom’s lasagna.

  “Are you planning on having Morgan back to work tomorrow?” Mom asked as she washed her hands in the sink. Once finished, she grabbed plates and silverware from the cupboards and drawer.

  “No. We told her to take the week off. We’ll both be here, and we hope that Mack doesn’t have too many tantrums. We’ll see though. But we figured we could handle it with the numbers being even,” Jacob told her. He pulled the tray off Mack’s high chair, and I set him in the seat, buckling the belt before I stood back. Jacob replaced the tray and then went to get a bib for him.

  “Well, if either of you need anything at all this week, just call us,” Mom said as she brought over a plate that had a piece of cut-up lasagna on it.

  “Fank oo,” Mack told her before he gave her a toothy grin.

  “Hang on, bud. You need this first,” Jacob told our son as he placed the bib on Mack’s neck and snapped it in the back. Dad came over with a sippy cup and the toddler-sized silverware, and I turned to find Mom holding our sleeping newborn.

  “She got him, huh?” I asked Dad.

  “Yeah, and if I get him back, it’ll be a miracle,” Dad said, glancing at Mom. She looked so happy though. She was standing there smiling at Colt while gently rocking back and forth with him.

  “Mom, how are you going to eat while holding the baby?” I asked.

  “I have years of practice, you know. But I’ll put him in the bassinet. I just wanted to meet the little guy.” She smiled at us before she looked back to Colt and then walked off toward the living room.

  “What do you say we get some food? Mack looks like he’s ready to eat the entire pan by himself,” Jacob said. When I looked at Mack, sure enough, he’d already eaten most of his plate of food. I went to the refrigerator and pulled out some grapes and melon we’d already cut up for him. I took it to the counter and got out a bowl.

  “Maybe some yogurt too?” Jacob asked as he came up behind me with the tub of vanilla yogurt. I nodded, and after he got out a spoon, we added a generous scoop of yogurt to Mack’s bowl of fruit.

  “He’s eaten a lot while we’ve had him, and had several snacks as well,” Dad told.

  “Yeah, we think he’s about to hit a growth spurt,” I told him as Jacob walked over with the fruit and yogurt.

  “Fruit! Yay!” Mack said before he dug in.

  I was busy dishing out servings of lasagna and garlic knots while Mom found the salad in the fridge and started placing it into bowls. “Mack eats salad, right?” she asked.

  “Yes, but I’m afraid with as fast as he’s eating, he’s about to slow down and then stop. If he wants some, we can give him some from my bowl,” I told her.

  Jacob gave my neck a quick kiss before he went to the fridge and pulled out several cans of Diet Coke. In no time, we had a well-rounded, albeit carb-loaded meal on the table, and then we were enjoying the treat that Mom brought us.

  “You boys need to eat. I know you are parents to Mack already, but now you’ll be chasing him while taking care of Colt.
Please don’t let yourself get run-down, okay?” Mom said as she looked at me and Jacob.

  “We will. Promise. Today was just an overwhelming day that had a few unplanned moments,” I told her as I smiled at my husband. We had another baby, and I couldn’t wait to get to know him better.

  Jacob — 9

  “He’s asleep, right?” Isaac asked as I entered our bedroom after checking on our toddler. We’d had a wonderful visit with Cammie and Sam; they’d stayed for a couple of hours but then went home. Sam returned a little while after with Ivan and Nanuk, and already both dogs were enamored with Colt, but they were currently curled up on the rug in Mack’s room.

  “Out like a light. Would it be bad if I said I wanted to skip showering and just go to bed?” I asked Isaac, and it was then that I realized he was wearing a T-shirt. When he threw back the blankets, I saw that he was already in his PJ pants. He had the same idea I did, and I quickly stripped out of my clothes, tossing them in the hamper and then pulling on my own pair of sleep pants.

  Once my pants were tied, I went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth. I peeked at Colt, who was asleep in his bassinet beside Isaac’s side of the bed, as I walked around our bed to my side. I slid between the cool sheets and groaned. Oh how I missed our bed last night.

  “I know the feeling. We were only gone a day and it feels like a week.”

  “I’ll admit, since we’ve been together, I’m spoiled. It used to not be an issue for me to sleep on that couch in my office. But now, I don’t think I could do it.”

  “The same couch that had a spring sticking up in it? That couch? The one we threw away when you moved in here?” Isaac asked with rounded eyes. I chuckled and nodded at him.

  “I know. But remember, I was working twenty-hour days there for a while. I almost never went home except to shower and change.” I glanced at Isaac and thought again how amazing my life was now.