@2

"Really, baby? You're making me horny, and I'm trying to make your dinner." But she wasn't upset by what was happening. In fact, she tilted her head to the left to allow me to attack more of the exposed skin of her neck.

As my lips and tongue teased her neck and earlobe, Quinn's right leg moved backward. In a move the I immediately liked she wrapped the top of her foot behind my calf and pulled me to her. She stood at the counter with her hands still working on food preparation, but held me tight with the simplest of things, her leg, and to prove it to me, she pushed her ass back against me.

"Oh...I like that, a lot." She said as my thumb rotated over her hard nipple.

I continued the soft bites and kisses on her neck and cheek. The licks and tugs on the gold hoops that adorned her ear lobes. All this while my hands traced circles over her ever expanding belly and breasts.

"Jesus Rob, that feels so...oh my god!" She stopped when I altered my path because a more primal need took over.

Going down on Quinn was something that we both enjoyed, but this was the first time for me doing it like this.

Lowering myself to my knees, I lifted the back tail of the shirt and put my head beneath it. I could smell the fresh scent of soap and the earthy scent of a fully aroused woman.

Without any hesitation, I parted the cheeks of Quinn's firm ass, and buried my tongue into her. Quinn's feet sprung apart to give me better access, then I felt her pushing her ass back so that it was pressed against my face. Just like that, she was leaning forward onto the granite island top, she was spread wide open and giving herself to me.

"Ooooooooooooooooohhhh, shit." I heard her whisper over the sounds of acoustic guitar playing in the background.

I wanted Quinn to enjoy the moment as much as I was, so I let my tongue take long slow swipes on her most private of parts. I started at the hard nub of her clit, pushing through the wet crevice of her meaty lips and over the puckered bud of her asshole, only stopping when I hit dry skin. There wasn't any need for me to apply pressure on her sensitive parts, because she was doing that all by herself.

"Oh baby, you're so bad." She whispered as my tongue drew circles around the button of her clit. "Lick...lick me just like that. Awe, fuck yes, you dirty..."

Quinn's hands held the edge of the counter like she was white knuckling on a rollercoaster ride, and with every swipe of my tongue, she moaned and pushed back onto my face even harder.

The gooey nectar of her sex oozed freely from her. My lover's thick cream coated my tongue and filled my mouth with its sweet tang. It was a flavor that I couldn't get enough of, and when my hands cupped her firm ass and parted her cheeks even further, that was the beginning of the end for Quinn.

Knowing that my lover was close, I stopped the tease and focused on the taking her over the edge. The tip of my nose touched her asshole, and the tip of my tongue started to continuously work on her clit. I licked, sucked and worked it until Quinn's body exploded.

"Make...oooohh...make...oooohh baby...make me cum...pleeeeeease."

My nose was pressed so hard against her ass that I was having trouble breathing, and my tongue was doing exactly what she wanted. I felt her stiffen way beyond tense, and then with small quaking tremors, she let out a loud gush of air.

I stood and held her hips. I planned on waiting until she recovered, but when her ass shook, there was no waiting for me. Her ass, that wet pussy, the way she her arched back was everything to me. It was like all the planets in the universe had aligned. I was torn because her shivers and shakes hadn't even subsided, but I was impossibly hard standing behind her, so I lined myself up, and in a slow but smooth push, I buried myself into the best thing in my life.

"Shhiiiiiittt." She cried, still bent over with the side of her face on the cold granite. "That feels amazing."

My niece was not wrong.

My hands were uncontrollable. They touched her full titties. They caressed her baby bump. They were on her shoulders, and finally they held onto her hips like they were handles, as I eased the length of my manhood in and out of her.

Watching my penis as it worked her pink, frothy, hole didn't help to quell my excitement. If anything, it upped my heartrate and put me closer to the edge. And the vision of her meaty lips, stretched as they wrapped tightly to the intrusion of my cock only made me hornier.

Together, we had found out that we were both very horny. Maybe even equally. But today, for the very first time since we had started making incestuous love, I could feel Quinn's fingers as she rubbed her clit. She had cum just a few minutes before, but with her over energized sex drive, she wanted to feel the extasy again, and she was on the verge.

"Rob..." Her left hand took hold of my wrist as her fingernails clawed into my skin.

Pushing myself in to the hilt, I shot my huge load into my willing partner as she revved her clit to her finish line. Slowly I could feel her hand as she eased up on the accelerator. Clearing her throat, she coughed and swallowed whatever spit had built up in her mouth. Slowly her head turned, and she looked back at me and smiled a devilish grin.

"You better not tell me that you're tired later, cuz we're doing that again, very soon." I smiled back at her and leaned in for our first kiss of the day. When my tongue touched hers, she pulled away, but only so that she could tease me. "Ewww...I was right here buddy. I know where you had that dirty old thing."

I couldn't get enough of my lover. My hands traced the lines and curves of her body as I nuzzled the sweet nape of her neck. Until in a not so graceful moment, a large glob of our combined juice plopped down on the wood planks of the kitchen floor.

Looking at it, we both laughed.

"That would have been triplets for sure." I teased.

"Oh yeah? In that case, remind me to never let you near me when I'm ovulating. I feel bloated enough with just one baby in me. And speaking about the baby, I'm not sure that you, making me feel so good that I stop breathing, is good for it." She said with a laugh.

The following Tuesday Quinn had her seventh-plus month check-up at the Cox Center. She once again pointed out the irony of the name and joked about, but not as much as her first visit, because this time, she drove the entire way there.

Again, Quinn asked me to be in the room with her, and we had the same doctor as before. This time the doctor did a few things different, and during the ultrasound the doctor asked Quinn if she wanted to know the sex of her baby. Like a child staring at a Christmas present, Quinn nodded in affirmation.

The sound of a humping heartbeat. The gurgling of water. The picture on the screen. The words "it's a baby girl", and "she looks perfect", were enough for Quinn to release a flood of tears. I will remember that moment forever.

In the parking lot we found the car but opted to go and sit under one of the large shade trees instead. Quinn's sobs soaked through my shirt as I held her close to me.

"Don't leave me alone Rob."

"I'm not going anywhere." I assured her.

"I mean with a baby. I don't know if I'm ready. What if I'm an ass...what if I'm like my parents."

"Trust me, you're nothing like your parents." I kissed the top of her head, and she squeezed my hand. "Quinn, you'll be the envy of every kid in the world, because you'll be the most loving and caring mother ever."

That didn't help stop the crying.

Stopping at Walmart for a refill of vitamins and other supplies, Quinn had come around a little. That was until I took her over to the kid's section and showed her a summer dress designed for a baby. As it turned out, she had the last laugh. Considering Quinn grew up a Nieman Marcus girl, she was more than happy to spend over $500 on "cute" things for her daughter. At a Walmart no less.

When we arrived at home, I had every intention of working in the shop for the rest of the day, but by the size of the box propped against the front porch steps, Amazon had other ideas for me.

A huge box was sitting unattended, and Bruce was standing guard. Quinn looked at the tire tracks in the gravel and said that the driver probably afraid of the "hell hound" and pushed it out of his vehicle on the fly.

"What the hell is that?" I hadn't ordered whatever it was.

"It's a surprise, Rob. Can we use it today?"

"Depends on what it is." I told her

Well, what it was, was an inflatable raft. More like an island with a crazy rainbow hanging over it and a ten-foot palm tree. It was quite heavy and would take a powerful pump to blow it up.

"What do you plan on doing with it?"

"Duh...I plan to float. Maybe we can pull it over to our spot, and if you're nice to me, we can do something else on it."

That was more than enough of an offer for me to get to work. I put the box and a pump in my wheelbarrow and headed to the dock. The bulky box fit perfectly in the front, and we were on our way.

Impatiently Quinn teased me as the pump blew air into the oversized toy. 10 minutes in, it started to take shape, and 10 minutes after that Quinn had her island tethered to the bow of the boat and she was floating, naked.

When Quinn climbed aboard her new toy, I noticed changes in her. Not changes that would stand out to most, but to me, they did because I have always been the one to notice the little details. The things that some people don't notice, or maybe they do and choose not to mention, but today, I noticed a big change. Quinn's long blonde hair look a lot lighter against her bronzed skin. It seems that all of her sunbathing had given her an "allover" tan, and it looked good on her. Gone was the pale New Yorker. Enter the hot southern girl.

With her hair brushed back and to the side. Eyes covered by her Wayfarers. Knee bent on one leg, the other one straight out. Arms stretched, with her index finger curled and beckoning me to her.

"You plan on joining me any time soon lover?" She called from the inflatable raft.

"Lover? Man, I sure like the sound of that." Her screams filled the air as my "Cannonball" threw waves of water up in the air, splashing and soaking, her and her plastic island.

As promised, we made love as the music from Quinn's playlist drifted out from the boat's speakers. Man, she loved to listen to the stories sung by Ryan Adams.

Quinn reminded me how much she loved the gentle roll of the water as we lay in one another's arms. From the very first weekend, when I brought her fishing with me, she has loved the water, and for the next few weeks, her inflatable island was her new favorite place to be. It was almost as if everything in ours lives was going right for us. That is, until it wasn't.

"Ironworks." I was unfortunate enough to not have call display on my shop phone, and when I heard the voice on the other end, I instantly regretted answering.

"Robby, what's shaking buddy?" My brother asked.

"Oh, you know, working away. Not much else to keep me busy. It's not like I have anything or anyone here with me."

"Yeah, about that...well...Meredith is in Paris for the next month or so, so if you want to ship Quinn home, you can. I'll find someplace for her around here. I came up with a quick fix solution that will clean-up that little problem."

"Well, aren't you father of the year. That little problem? What are gonna do, find your pregnant daughter a place to live now that your girlfriend isn't around to disapprove? How do you plan on cleaning up that little problem, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Slow down pal. You can get off that high and mighty horse any time you want." He huffed into the phone and continued. "I suppose she told you what happened. Is that why you're pissed off. Look, I'll take the blame, but I'm not the only one at fault."

"Yeah, she told me." She hadn't told me anything, nor had I asked, so I had no idea what he was talking about.

"As God is my witness Rob, it was a mistake." I heard him clear his throat. "I was out with the boys after work. I was drunk Rob, real drunk, and when I got home, I thought that Meredith had come home early from her trip. I mean, I had no idea. I didn't know what I was doing."

At first it made no sense to me, yet in my head, it was all coming together.

"And that makes it okay?" I asked, trying to get him to continue.

"No, it doesn't fucking make it alright. Nothing makes it alright. But what's done is done. I talked to her. I tried to reason with her, and that's part of the reason she hates me. I begged her Rob. I begged her, but she refused to get an abortion."

That was the final piece of the puzzle. The world as I knew it stopped turning. My head spun and my ears buzzed, yet I heard not a sound. I was immediately surrounded by a heat and humidity that came in waves. Bile filled my mouth and I had to choke back the urge to vomit.

There I stood, the main character in a living soap opera, that just turned into a nightmare. It was the one with the sickest plotline of any episode ever written. The one where I am in love with my only brother's daughter, and the icing on the cake, if it could even get any better than it already was, was that she's pregnant with her father's child. It was the cruelest punchline to the worst joke that had ever been written.

"Rob? Robby? Come on little brother, answer me. Are you still fucking there? It was a mistake man. It's not like it happened before that night or that it ever happen again. Rob, for fuck sakes." I had no idea if I had blacked out or for how long he had been calling my name

"What?" I said in disgust.

"Send her home. I'll take care of her, and Meredith will never know. It will all go away, like a bad debt."

"I'll know. I'll know what you did. Do you think that she wants to be hidden away Daniel?" I wanted to crawl through the phone and choke him.

"If anyone finds out before she puts it up for adoption, we'll tell them that she got knocked-up at school. I mean, that's a fairly plausible story."

"She's your daughter." My moral compass was out of control. I wasn't sure what upset me more. Was it that he had sex with Quinn, or the fact that he wanted to hide her away and lie about what had happened?

"Yeah, I know, and I get it. I'm sorry that I pawned her off on you, but I needed some time to get things right, and set things up. Unlike you, I have a career and I have people that I answer to, important people. People that would hold me accountable." He was getting louder as he continued.

"Don't apologized, sending her down here was the best thing that's ever happened in my life. Daniel I'm in..."

"Send her home tomorrow." Were his final words.

"I'm not sending her anywhere."

There was no dramatic click or slamming of the phone to end to our conversation, just silence. Not telling Daniel how much I loved Quinn seemed to be an opportunity squandered

With my chin on my chest, I stared at the floor. Thoughts and questions raced through my head at a dizzying speed. I was lost. Lost in time. Lost in what I could only imagine was some sort of jealous self-pity.

I was shocked back into reality when I heard Bruce shuffle his feet behind me, and since her arrival, if Bruce was near me, it was because Quinn was also there.

The plate holding a roast beef sandwich and some potato salad was shaking so badly that it was likely to topple to the ground at any second. Huge tears streamed down the beautiful cheeks of my niece.

"Did he tell you?" She asked through the tears.

This was all very new to me. It was a situation that I had never really been in. A situation that I would imagine most people have never been in. I have loved, but not like I thought that I loved Quinn. I wanted to run to her. Hold her body against me. Protect her from the outside world, but I didn't know where to start.

"Not everything." I said honestly.

I took the plate from her and put it on the workbench. My hand touched her shoulder and it seemed as if she pulled away from me.

"Don't." After a pause, she wanted clarification. "What did he tell you?"

"Probably some things that he shouldn't have."

With an anxious and worried look, Quinn bit down on her lip and stood before me wringing her hands. She was trying everything to keep it together and stop crying. So far, it wasn't working.

"Did he tell you that he raped me?"

"No. He seemed to forget to mention that part. Did you report it?"

"I tried to explain it to a counselor, but she said that because I took sleeping pills and I was passed out, there was no proof that I declined his advances."

"Quinn, I'm so..."

"He wants to take her away from me. He plans on having one of his clients adopt her. He can't. I won't let him do it."

I couldn't believe how weak I was being. Quinn seemed to be carrying the weight of the world, and the sins of her father on her shoulders, yet like a weakling, I stood there doing nothing. But I wanted to help.

Her body was shaking in fear as I wrapped her in my arms. Her once silent tears had turned into sobs of despair.

"Shhh, you're safe here." I told her as I squeezed her to me.

Unfortunately, in the end, any reassurances I gave her, were lies.

We stayed close to home after the call. We went for long, slow walks around the property and still had enough energy to find time to "float". Our only trips seemed to be for supplies and to the clinic.

Dr. Naumov was very pleased with Quinn's health and growth progress, but she was also upset with how tanned her skin had become. After a lengthy lecture about keeping babies out of the sun, she gave us all of the information needed for the upcoming delivery, including emergency phone numbers and the expected due date. It was just around the corner and coming up fast, because Quinn had just entered into her last month of pregnancy.

"Have you thought of any names?" I asked to break the silence.

I should have known better. The emotional rollercoaster that was her pregnancy caused tears to flow down her cheek so rapidly that she had troubles wiping them away. Damned hormones. It was only after I had stopped to fill the car with gas that she had stopped crying. It was only then, that she was able to tell me.

"Rhylee." She said in an uncertain tone. "Maybe. I like that name, and Brooklyn. I also like Abby. What do you think?" Quinn was calling out random names and smiling.

"I think that you will pick the perfect name once you see her for the first time. She'll tell you what she likes. I'm sure that the two of you will come up with the one that fits her best." With that, the tears were back.

It was a special night for us. We made love slowly and gently. Quinn searched names, and name meanings until late in the evening. Finally, it was time for sleep. I had a long trip the following day, and Quinn seemed to have found some happiness in her name hunting. When a woke in the middle of the night, she was asleep with her Ipad still on her belly.

The next day, I found out that happiness can be overrated, but was reminded that you should never underestimate the way loneliness is able to control your life. This I found this out the hard way after returning from a delivery that took me 200 miles from home. I had been away from Quinn for only 11 hours, but I hated every minute of it.

Parking the truck and trailer, I stepped out to stretch and was surprised when I heard Bruce barking in the shop, my surprise immediately became concern. Why was he in the shop?

I found him locked up, and that was something that never happened. He had a visible limp as he tried his best to run toward the house. I felt a tense pull in my chest as we sprinted across the compound and into the house. Bruce led the way, growling as he went.

It was too late. I was too late. We were too late.My worst fears were realized. Quinn was gone.

Her luggage had been taken out of the walk-in closet in the spare room and filled with her possessions. I found an empty house that appeared as if it had been turned upside down when she left in a rush. With Quinn gone, the empty house only had music to fill it.

"It's so hard to be without you

Lying in the bed, you are so much to be without"

I recognized the song and the guitar sounds. The music was Quinn's playlist. Ryan Adam's. I was certain.

On the counter-top, the same granite slab where we had made love on more than one occasion, I found her letter. A letter that was addressed to me. My hands trembled as I picked up the sheet of paper and read. Her words explained to me how after talking with her father, she reconsidered, and determined that moving back to NYC and putting the baby up for adoption was what was best for all parties involved. Her words seemed strange and contrary to anything that we had ever discussed about parenthood, but there they were, in my hand. Written on the paper in front of me, for me to see with my own eyes.

"Everything you lose, the wisdom will find its way out"

I finished the letter and in disgust, I crumpled it up, then threw it in the trash, only to retrieve it and read it again.

"It's so hard to be without you

Used to feel so angry, and now only I feel humble"

That fucking song. It was playing on loop in the background. Why?

"When everything was new and colorful, it's gotten darker

Every day's a lesson, things were brighter before

Nothing really matters anymore"

Quinn's playlist was on her phone. If she was gone, why was the song still playing? Where was her phone?

The paper felt weird in my hands as I read the letter for the third time. There was something about it. It wasn't from here. I didn't have anything that matched it. My mind churned. Where did it come from? I couldn't put my finger on it, but I finally put the crumpled sheet flat on the countertop and thought hard. It was close, really fucking close, but not close enough.

My feet didn't touch a step as I jumped from the porch and raced to the car. In a frantic effort to find what I was looking for, I started pulling papers from the console, until I held what I wanted in my hand.

"Daniel, you son-of-a-fucking-bitch." I tried his number. I called and I text. He had blocked both.

It wasn't her handwriting, none of it was. Quinn used a more feminine touch, flowing with big round letters, even when writing out her shopping list she took time to make it presentable. Her handwriting was evident on the same list that I held in my hand. Holding her list and the letter side by side, you could tell that they were written by 2 different people.

Bruce must have thought that the world had gone mad. I was once again running. There was a pair of spots that I needed to check. Places that would help me to confirm my suspicions.

My room told the tale. Quinn had left most of her belongings hanging in the spare room, because she didn't like sharing my "small" closet, but from the day we first made love, she kept things close by that were special to her. Yes, she kept some things in my room, and there they still were.

The second stop was the laundry. As Quinn's belly expanded, she had limited things that she wore or as she claimed, "fit her", so they were frequently in the wash. And today, the dryer was full of a dried load of her cloths, including some of my shirts that she had stolen from me.

"I feel empty, I feel tired, I feel worn

Nothing really matters anymore"

That fucking song. As much as I like it, it was wrong. Some things did matter, and I was about to go and get what mattered most.

The 17-hour drive to Connecticut seemed more like 3 days. Tired and angry, my mind raced as every fence and telephone post whizzed by the truck window. At times I wondered out loud if I was doing the right thing. What if Quinn had changed her mind? What if she had actually did want to go back home? Either way, with no way to contact other than face to face I continued on. I needed to find out for myself.

Pulling up in front of a house that I hadn't been to in many years brought back a lot of memories. Like Daniel, I had grown up in Greenwich, just not in this neighborhood. As Daniel likes to boast, "it's the priciest zip code in Connecticut". The old brick home with manicured lawns was enough to give away that money lived inside, but when you looked at the Range Rover and Ferrari out front, there was no way you could mistake it.

I knocked. No one answered, so I knocked again. After the third knock, I knew that no one was planning on opening the door.

I was never one to cause a scene or to create a disturbance or a ruckus, but today was a different day. A new me stood outside the huge oak door that was holding something behind it. Something that I loved dearly. Standing back from the door, I kicked it hard enough to rattle the frame and let anyone inside know that I was there.

"Open it Danny, or I'll kick the fucking thing in." Most anyone that was outside in the neighboring yards, was now looking in my direction. Another kick. "Open it or I'll call the cops and have you charged with kidnapping." Now everyone was looking my way, they were paying attention.

Before my next kick, the door slowly opened. A woman in her late 50's stood to the side. Her hand was out as if waving me in. By her attire, she was easily distinguished as one of "the help".

"Mister Cooke, is in the study."

"Quinn?" I asked. The maids head looked down the foyer hall. She was trying to see if her boss was within earshot.

In a whisper, "Upstairs." Her long slender finger pointing toward the ceiling so that only I could see it.

Daniel was seated in a leather chair behind his huge desk. His phone was out in the open. and the screen was still lit. With a huge "shit eating" grin he looked down his nose at me.

"You wasted gas money coming here Robby, she's not going anywhere."

"That's fine. I'll leave as soon as she tells me so."

"She's not here, so you'll have to take my word on that." The grin was getting bigger.

"Well, we both know that that's not going to happen. Your phone is right there, call her up. When she tells me, I'll leave, and you'll never see me again."

"You wasted you time asshole. You made a long trip for nothing."

"Not really. I wanted to see the old town again. Maybe I'll go out for a couple of beers tonight and remind everyone we know what a huge piece of shit you are." Daniel scowled at my words and waited for a second to collect himself.

"Come on Rob, do you think you can give her what I can? Can you give her what she wants? Look at her, she's Park Avenue all the way. Christ, she's always had nothing but the best. She walks on streets paved with gold. You think she's gonna be happy living in the bayou's, walking dirt roads and driving a fucking pick-up truck?"

"We have cars in Missouri."

"I know that you fucking asshole. I was making a goddamn point." His hand slamming the table.

"If you're making a point, make it worthwhile. Call her. Have her tell me herself, so I can be on my way."

"What, do you think this is love? No, Robby. It was just a fling. Yeah, she told me all about it. A tawdry affair with, of all people, your own niece. Do either of you even know what love is? She's too young and stupid to know what love is. I promise you that."

"Well, I bet you've shown her a great example of what love is. And yeah, she's my niece, who happens to be your daughter, Daniel."

"Don't judge me you fuckin hypocrite. You're a piece of shit Rob. She's your own fucking niece. I did it once by mistake. But you, you fucking knew from the start. For Christ's sake, do the right thing here." Spittle flew from his mouth as he screamed.

"I'm not sinking to your level Danny. There's so much that I could say, but what purpose would it serve? I love her, and she loves me. Nobody, not even you, can stand between us. So, don't even try to." I said, keeping my tone down, which made him even more angry.

I heard a loud thud and a bang in the hallway and went to see what it was. Daniel's maid was helping Quinn down the stairs with her luggage. There were no longer 2 bags. No, they had multiplied. 4 large suitcases and a pair of small ones stood by the door.

"Took you long enough to get here." Her words came out through tiny sobs.

"Yeah, well you know how much I like fishing, and they were biting. So, I figured that you could wait a while for me to get here."

"Jerk." Her belly bump pushed into me as she wrapped her arms over my neck. She moved her head as to show me all of her luggage. "I hope you brought the truck."

I had brought the truck, and it took me 3 trips to load all of the precious merchandise. The first load was helping Quinn down the long stone walkway, to the street. The last 2 loads were for her things. All the while Daniel stood out of sight, but he talked shit the entire time.

The last thing that I heard him says was, "This ain't over Robby", but it was. Daniel had too much to lose if the news ever got out. It would be the demise of his relationship with his girlfriend client, and a lot of his other connections, and I gladly pointed as much out to him. No, I knew my brother, he took his shot and missed. That would be it. Now he would go into personal damage control. If it ever came up, he would have a very solid alibi.

The front tires of the F350 hopped the curb and clawed over the manicured front lawn as I pulled a U-turn and headed back toward the highway. Leaning on her pillow, Quinn just stared at me as I drove.

"What?" I asked.

"It's nothing really."

But there was something, so I pulled to the shoulder.

"Tell me." Her glossy eyes turned away, and in a timid whisper, I heard her say.

"I wasn't sure that you would come for me."

I was going to make another joke about fishing or some other stupid thing, but now wasn't the right time. The hurt in her piercing blue eyes told me as much.

"You always say not to say it unless I mean it, well, I do mean it. I love you more than I've ever loved anyone else in my life, ever." Her hand found the back of mine, and she squeezed. "Quinn, you need to know that I will always be there for you, and I will always try my best to never let you down. So, you better get used to me telling you that I love you, because I plan on doing it daily."

She nodded silently and squeezed even harder on my hand. She knew how much I loved her. Even if what we had was wrong, nothing had ever felt so right.

I pulled the truck back onto the roadway and headed south-west. We were going home.

"Do you know what I'm looking forward to?" Quinn broke the silence as the tires hummed along the highway pavement.

"Tell me."

"I can hardly wait to curl up on the sofa and read a book with the fireplace heating the room."

It as a visual that I could see in my head, and it made me happy.

When the sun came up on that Sunday morning, I knew that today was the day. Quinn had barely slept a wink the night before. She was restless and grouchy. She had in fact been a bit of a bear the whole week, but today was different. Today she was very uncomfortable. So, doing what I did best, I tried to make her happy.

Pulling her giant island into the water just off of our dock, I lifted Quinn onto the raft and set her up in the shade with an iced tea.

"You need anything else?"

"Just you. Stay with me."

Shaking my head, and giving her a, "I'll be right back", I headed back to the house. I was going to get a few things to try and make her more at ease. I wasn't even gone 10 minutes when I heard her yelling my name. The longer it took me to respond, the louder it got. Finally, I went out onto the porch and looked down to the lake.

"What? I be there in a minute."

She was sitting up, looking for me.

"My water broke."

"Your what?" I was alright heading to the dock. Running to her. Phone in hand, I was dialing the hospital at the same time. "Are you sure? I mean you were sitting in a puddle to begin with." Her head tilted in a "don't even question me" look.

"Rob, oh my god. It's time."

"You're ready, baby. You're about to be the hottest mommy in the world." Quinn smiled at me until her very first contraction took over.

My call had gone directly to Quinn's doctors voice mail, but surprisingly, she called us back less than 5 minutes later. Dr. Naumov gave me instructions and told me not to worry or rush. Easy for her to say. She had done this about a thousand times more than we had.

Helping Quinn out of her swimsuit, I pulled a floral summer dress over her head and ran a brush through her wet hair. Slipping on a pair of flip flops, she was ready to go. Finally, I grabbed that hospital bag she had packed and re-packed, over and over again.

The next few hours flew by in a blur. It was a maze of sights and sounds. Hospital gowns and face masks surrounded us at every corner. Metal tools clanging on steel trays. The continuous beeping of hospital equipment that had no name. Bloody handfuls of gaze and cotton being dropped to the floor. The sounds of screams. The sounds of laughter. And at last, the sound of a baby crying. The sound of the world being filled with another bundle of joy.

A delivery room nurse put a tightly wrapped package into my arms. Quinn looked at me with flush cheeks. She had been a champ the entire time, but it was evident that she was so tired. It had been the longest day of her life, and she was drifting in and out, as sleep tried its best to steal her away.

"Sleep baby, I'll be right here." I told her.

It was late when I left the hospital, but both her and the baby needed to rest.

Alone it the kitchen of the house Bruce whined as I filled his dinner bowl. It felt odd to be here without Quinn. It was as if something was missing in my life. I turned on the speaker and pushed play on my phone. I needed some music.

"It's so hard to be without you

Lying in the bed, you are so much to be without"

Are you fucking kidding me? I hadn't heard this song since the day Quinn was taken away, and now, by some weird karma, here it was playing for me again, on the first night that she is staying in the hospital. It would be a long, lonely time until I picked her up on Wednesday morning. So, I swiped the icon and made the music stop. There was no need to be reminded of the solitude that I faced.

The sun didn't beat me on the morning when I headed to the hospital to pick up my family. We were ready. Everything had been well planned and was ready for the baby. You couldn't have more prepared if you were a Boy Scout. Diapers, wipes, clothes, a crib and a pantry full of assorted foods. We had chairs that rocked. Chairs that sat still. Chairs that swung. Chairs that went into vehicles. We had them all. There was enough sheets and blankets that if you didn't want to, you wouldn't have to do laundry for a month. Yeah, we were ready.

It was strange, in a loving way, when Quinn carried Rhylee Harper Cooke into her new home. Bruce did something that I had never witnessed him do before. He stood on his back legs and begged for a better look at the new addition to the family. His stub tail wagging 90 miles an hour. Quinn, being far braver than I was, bent down to let him give her a look and a sniff. We were one big happy family.

As far as days went, this one was a good one. As far as evenings went, this was the best one so far.

Together as a family, we sat in silence on the soft, cushions of the large wooden porch swing and drifted freely in the cool evening breeze. Cuddled as one, covered by a large king-sized, antique quilt that Quinn had purchased at a Flea Market. My arm over Quinn's shoulder as she held Rhylee to her chest. We watched the colorful sunset sinking below the horizon, giving the trees a shimmering, pinkish silhouette.

It may have been the first time the three of us spent an evening on the porch as a family, but it would be what was to become the first of many.