It wasn’t lost on me, either, that our first kiss in seventeen years almost came after two men tried to abduct our son. Of course, nothing in my life was ever ordinary—certainly not my feelings for her—so why wouldn’t this moment we’d shared happen in the same way?

“You can look, silly,” she said when Colin had yet to lower his hand.

“So, you’re an adrenaline junky, too, huh?” Colin pointed at his mother, his tan skin a little red in his throat. “Action turns you on, Ma?”

Juliette was the one now covering her mouth in mortification. I was about to be there with her in a second.

Time to shift gears really damn fast and go full-on dad mode. “Please tell me it doesn’t for you.”

At least Colin didn’t seem as shaken up and rattled by what happened not even an hour ago. And while it made sense for him to be, something told me he’d control-override the way I would and move forward.

Hell, the same way his mother seemed to be doing. She was handling everything far better than I could’ve hoped.

“Ah, what’s that?” Colin bypassed my comment and went straight for the room behind us.

Juliette closed one eye, shooting me an adorable and slightly self-conscious smile before we followed our son into the room as he did a three-sixty.

“Promise you’ll teach me to use all this stuff here?” He twirled his finger like the blade of a helo.

“Not a chance,” Juliette beat me to it.

Although, I was more inclined to say maybe instead of a flat-out no.

“Wait, is that real-time footage?” Colin walked over to the largest screen mounted on the back wall. Four quadrants displayed rotating views of different angles from inside and outside Lennon and Jamie’s hotel. “This is my girl’s hotel, isn’t it?”

“It is,” I said casually. “I’ve been keeping an eye on them. We have a guy parked outside on overwatch as well.”

“Well, this makes me feel better.” Colin pulled at the drawstrings of the old, ratty-looking hoodie he’d tossed earlier, wearing it in place of the NYU shirt.

This morning felt like it was last week.

“Thank you,” he said while facing me.

The original goal wasn’t to protect his girlfriend, but I supposed we’d need to now. I’d have to arrange for her to be held somewhere safe after we picked up Jamie and Daniel.

When I felt a vibration in my pocket, I reached for my phone, assuming it was the security detail letting me know they’d arrived.

Hudson: I’m outside. I dropped Izzy off already.

Me: You didn’t have to be our escort.

Hudson: I know. I wanted to be.

Me: Thanks. You have backup?