Ultimate Surrender: The Surrender Series, Book 2 by Jennifer Kacey

lot of you in him. His ears are yours. His toes. The way he snores.”
    “How dare you.” Angela’s mouth fell open and she tried not to smile through her fake outrage. Then a tiny snore filled the space between them.
    Both women laughed and Natalie rubbed his little back.
    “I love seeing you with kids. With Wyatt. At the clinic. Love it.”
    “Love them. Love holding them, comforting them. It makes me happy even on hard days. You’re going to make the best mom one of these days.”
    Sadness and longing expanded inside her, but she tamped it down. Shoving it inside a closet, she forced the door closed and took a deep breath. “Who knows what I have in my future?”
    “Do you really believe that? Do you really and truly think your future doesn’t include children?”
    Natalie shrugged and rocked baby Wyatt slowly back and forth. “Some days I’m just not certain what my future holds. Other days it’s been a bit scarier lately.”
    “Which you should have told me about months ago, and I’m still mad at you about it in case you wondered.”
    “You had enough on your plate,” Natalie countered.
    “What a bunch of poop.”
    “Well yes that too.”
    “Ha ha ha,” Angela fake laughed and sat down in a chair on the other side of Campbell’s desk. “Be serious.”
    “I am being serious.” Natalie turned a bit to face her but kept up the slow back and forth. “You’ve had a huge amount on your plate.”
    “And you haven’t?”
    “Sure I’ve been busy but nothing like you.”
    “Bullshit,” Angela sneezed the word out and then smiled at her cleverness. “You run the clinic with very few other staff members. The hours you work are insane. Turning anyone away isn’t in your nature. And now you’re battling grant cuts so that’s even more dropped on your very full plate.”
    Natalie tried to jump in but Angela squinted at her.
    “And you’ve had nutso hit-and-run guy trying to hurt you. I’d say you have more on your plate than I do at the moment.”
    When she said it all like that, it was kind of hard to argue but she hated being a burden to anyone to the sole pits of her being. If she couldn’t do it herself, then she didn’t want to do it.
    “It’s been a little busy lately.”
    “And if I’d had someone trying to mow me down and decided not to tell anyone about it? How would you feel?”
    “Pissed.” It was true.
    “My point exactly. You and I, we’re family. You’re like a sister from another mister.”
    Natalie snickered. “You come up with that all on your own?”
    “Don’t you love it?” Angela winked at her. “All I’m saying is, you have people all around you who love you. Who want to help you. And I’m sorry if you thought I was too busy to help. But I’m also incredibly glad you finally went to Clay and told him what was going on.”
    “I didn’t want to.” That was so true. The last thing she needed was some public scandal where her damn family decided they needed to get involved and tell her again what a disappointment she was to them.
    She’d had enough of that to last a lifetime.
    “Hey.”
    She looked at Angela, who wore a worried expression.
    “You know the guys are going to catch this douche canoe, right?”
    Natalie smiled and tried not to laugh too hard. “Douche canoe? Oh my gawd, how do you come up with this stuff?”
    “I read.”
    “What? The Smut Gazette?”
    “No. But if that were a real thing I totally would.”
    “Seriously?” Another laugh threatened to bubble out but she tried to hold it in. Her mouth hurt by the time she could speak again. “You really read that stuff?”
    “A little bit each night if I can.”
    “Why?”
    “Research.” Angela bobbed her eyebrows at Natalie and then smiled. “I don’t ever want to lose my connection with Clay. That part of us is ours forever. Wyatt,” she nodded at her son. “He’s going to grow up and become an amazing person and then go out into the world to make his stamp on it. But Clay?