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The small house was silent, save for the steady tick of the clock in the hallway. Chloe sat cross-legged on the couch in the dim light of a lamp, a book balanced on her knees, she has started researching the Quipu of Pachakamaq in Peru for their next adventure “According to myth, the quipu was created by an Incan priest who feared Spanish invaders would plunder their sacred sites. It was hidden in a temple deep in the Amazon, protected by natural and spiritual traps designed to test the worthiness of seekers. The treasure includes ancient gold artifacts, ceremonial weapons, and manuscripts that reveal Incan wisdom about astronomy, medicine, and architecture.” Chloe scribbled some notes down the soft rustle breaking the stillness, but the sound that followed made her pause. A faint shuffle, then the quiet creak of a door opening. Chloe tilted her head, listening.
The bedroom door opened just as Chloe set her book down. Nadine emerged from the room to her left, holding her small godchild on her hip. The heat of the night made the baby’s loose strands of hair stick to Nadine's bare stomach under her sports bra.
“She okay?” Chloe asked, getting up.
“Yeah, just a little fussy.” Nadine’s voice was low, her face softened with that sleepy tenderness Chloe loved. Noel stirred against her, one hand clutched in a small fist, her round cheeks damp with sweat.
“She doesn’t like the heat either” Nadine murmured, shifting the child higher on her hip. “She didn’t cry, just wriggled a bit. Woke me up before she really got going.”
Nadine swayed gently, the glow of the lamp light bathed them in a soft halo as Noel’s breathing slowed, her tiny body curling into Nadine’s body. Chloe leaned back, her gaze lingering on Nadine’s bare skin, the way the light danced in her hair, the tenderness in her movements. The warmth of the room seemed to wrap around them, pulling everything else out of focus. Nadine’s gaze met Chloe’s, and for a moment, everything else disappeared.
It wasn’t hard in moments like this to picture Nadine as a mother, when she’s holding a child that looks so similar to herself it pulls at Chloe’s heart a touch. Noel’s tiny features, her dark eyes, the way her hair curled just like Nadine’s. She looked just like every baby photo of Nadine Chloe had ever had the pleasure (and Nadine’s embarrassment) of seeing.
It brought a twinge of something bittersweet in her chest. It was a strange mix of content and longing, knowing that in another life, in another time, this could be their reality. The thought of Nadine as a mother wasn’t new to Chloe, it had crossed her mind before when they had been with Cassie or when they had been roped into playing with Nadine’s other nieces and nephews, made her heart ache in a way she couldn’t quite explain, even if it was something they ultimately didn’t want right then, the draw of adventure was too much to settle down, but in the dead this hot summer night she would let herself indulge.
Chloe pushed herself off the counter then and reached out, brushing a strand of hair from Nadine’s sightly sweaty face, her fingers lingering at the curve of her jaw “You’re amazing,” she said softly, her lips brushing against Nadine’s warm skin of her shoulder.
Nadine rolled her eyes, but her cheeks warmed. “Go back to your book.”
Chloe laughed softly pressing a kiss into Nadine’s neck, but she didn’t pull away. Instead, she let herself fall into the rhythm of the quiet night, Noel’s slow breathing, the distant tick of the clock. She could stay here forever, just this, this feeling of being around Nadine, it never got old.