Page 6 of Stealing Home

“I mean, she knocked on my door, told me I had a daughter, put her in my arms, then left.”

Silence, then CJ muttered, “Holy shit.”

“Well, that’s one way to become a parent,” Evan said after a beat. “Did she actually say the baby’s yours?”

“Yes.”

“And then she just…left?”

“Yes. What do I do? I’ve never even held a baby before now. What if I break her?” Dom was definitely on the edge of panic now.

Another silence followed, then Dom heard a car door slam, another one a second later, and the low rumble of an engine turning over. A chime sounded through the speaker as CJ’s phone connected to their truck’s Bluetooth system.

“Okay, we’re on our way,” CJ said.

“You don’t⁠—”

“Dom,” Evan cut in, his voice calm in a way that somehow brought Dom away from the ledge. “We’re on our way.”

Dom opened his mouth, but nothing came out. His eyes burned unexpectedly as he looked at the still-crying-but-thankfully-more-quietly baby in his arms.

“Hang in there, kid,” Evan said gently. “We’re just around the corner.”

“I’m not a kid,” Dom retorted automatically.

CJ snorted. “Not anymore you aren’t.”

The call ended, and Dom placed his phone on the cushion next to him as Lucia’s cries increased in volume again. “I feel ya, little girl. I would also like to cry at the moment.” He adjusted her slightly to bring her onto his chest like he’d seen people do, and her cries softened into unhappy hiccups.

He glanced toward the front window, listening for the sound of tires in the parking lot. CJ had called as soon as Dom sent the last text, and Evan had already been moving around in the background. The second they’d realized he was serious and it wasn’t Dom being dramatic, they’d been on their way.

He knew they were his friends. He believed them when they called him their little brother. But every now and then, an old insecurity crept in, leaving him feeling like the kid who trailed after his older brothers and cousins, wondering if they actually liked having him there or if they simply hadn’t found a way to ditch him. Evan and CJ had a history that stretched back years before he’d ever met either of them. They’d survived heartbreak and found their way back to each other. Compared to that, Dom sometimes felt…temporary.

Yet neither of them had hesitated. They’d dropped everything and come running because he’d called.

Somewhere along the way, they’d stopped being teammates. Stopped even just being friends. Dom wasn’t entirely sure when it happened. Maybe it had been the countless dinners at their house, or the holidays they refused to let him spend alone, or the spare key to their place sitting on his key ring. Whatever the moment had been, he’d missed it.

But they were family now. He smoothed a thumb gently over Lucia’s tiny shoulder as he looked down at her, quiet now and impossibly small against his chest.

“There you go,” he whispered. “We’re gonna be okay.”

Lucia made a soft, sleepy sigh against his chest, her tiny fingers curling around the fabric of his T-shirt. Dom’s eyes drifted back toward the window, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth despite everything.

“Your uncles will know what to do.”

Uncles. He could already hear CJ insisting he was the fun one. He would teach her to throw a baseball before she could spell her own name. Evan would roll his eyes, pretend to object, then spend hours throwing soft tosses with a foam baseball in the tiny patch of grass in front of Dom’s building.

Dom huffed a laugh. He hoped they didn’t mind getting promoted tonight.

The front door flew open, and CJ came into the living room first, with Evan on his heels. Both of them stopped dead at the sight of Dominic sitting rigidly on the couch with a newborn tucked against his chest.

“Holy shit,” Evan whispered.

Dom looked up at them. “Help.”

“You weren’t kidding,” CJ said.

“No shit!” Lucia squirmed against his chest, and her cries started up again.