Craving Molly (The Aces' Sons 2)

“Come on, sugar,” he said, wrapping his arms around us from behind. “Just bring her to bed with us.”

I had a rule that Rebel had to sleep in her own bed—I didn’t want her to get into a routine where she wouldn’t sleep in her crib—but at that moment, I was so tired that anything that would let me sleep sounded like a good idea. I let Will guide me back to my room, and I climbed into my bed still holding Rebel to my chest. As soon as I lay down, her little head popped up to see what was going on.

“Time to sleep, baby girl,” Will said firmly as he lay down on the other side of the bed. He reached out as I rolled to the side and started rubbing Rebel’s back as I laid her on the bed between us.

“Do you think this will work?” I whispered as Rebel pulled her knees up to press against my belly.

“Willin’ to try anything at this point,” Will murmured back.

I gave him a small smile and closed my eyes, falling asleep to the quiet sound of the callouses on Will’s hand scraping against Rebel’s pajama shirt and her warm breath against my chest.

Three hours later, we were awake again.

“Might as well get up for the day,” Will mumbled as he sat up and slid hid his feet to the floor. “You don’t work today?”

“No, I’m off,” I said, as Rebel popped up and started bouncing on the mattress.

“Got an hour before I gotta head out.” Will grabbed Rebel under the armpits and swung her up off the bed. “Go back to sleep for a bit.” He stood up from the bed as Rebel wrapped one arm around his neck and grabbed a fist full of his beard with her other hand.

“She needs her diaper changed and breakfast, and you need to get ready,” I replied, shaking my head as I moved to get up.

“Sleep, sugar,” Will ordered, putting a hand to my chest and shoving me gently back down. He leaned over with Rebel clinging to him like a monkey and kissed my lips lightly. “I’ll take care of Reb, and I’ll take a shower at the clubhouse.”

He stood back up and strode out of the room, saying something quietly to Rebel. I heard his footsteps fade down the hallway as I closed my eyes again, but before I could fall asleep, his voice came over the baby monitor that we’d never turned off the night before.

“You sleepy, princess? Yeah, me, too.” I smiled as I heard the drawers in Rebel’s dresser open and close. “We’re gonna get you dressed since your mama keeps the house so damn cold. Sound good?”

It really wasn’t that cold.

Will’s voice grew faint, like he’d moved away from the monitor, so I reached out of the blankets and turned the volume up a little.

“I gotta work on an old Mustang today, which should be pretty nice. Beats working on a 1994 Mazda, you know? Those cars are shit. Don’t know if you’ll ever be able to drive, baby, but if you do? I’ll get you a good car. Something that’s built like a tank, cause if you’re anything like your mama, you’ll be running into shit left and right.”

“Mama,” Rebel replied.

I backed into something once. One time. And it hadn’t even been anything important—it was a stupid curb that shouldn’t have been there.

“I can teach you all sorts of shit about cars. You gotta know how to check your oil and change your tires just in case I’m not around to help ya with that. Don’t wanna get stuck out on the road somewhere with a flat.”

Will was quiet for a few moments.

“It’s alright if you can’t drive, though,” he said quietly. “I’ll still teach you about cars. Maybe when you’re older, I can take you out to the garage and you can help me with shit. Show you how to change the oil and stuff so you can help your mama out.”

“Mama,” Rebel said again.

“Yeah, princess, your mama’s sleepin’. You’ve been keepin’ her up all night. What’s that about, huh?” Rebel giggled the way she always did when Will was tickling her ribs. “Nah, don’t pull at your ears, baby. You’re gonna hurt yourself.”

He kept talking for a little while longer, but eventually they left Rebel’s room and I fell back asleep to the low sounds of Will making Rebel breakfast in the kitchen.

* * *

“I’m not sure what’s going on,” I told Rebel’s doctor later that day. Thankfully, the doctor’s office knew Reb and all of her medical history, so when I’d said that she wasn’t sleeping well, they’d gotten us an appointment right away. You really couldn’t overlook anything when dealing with a child with Down syndrome, because all of their habits and medical issues wove together into a bigger picture that we had to keep an eye on. I couldn’t just say something was a phase and would get better, because there was always a chance that there was an underlying issue that I wasn’t seeing, especially since Rebel couldn’t tell me what was wrong yet.