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Only she was the siren where she sat in the middle of them.
A five-alarm fire raging in the room.
Legs curled beneath her as she sang another silly song to my kids, using her hands to orchestrate. “The itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the waterspout. Down came the rain and washed the spider out.”
Her hands swooshed down, and Oliver toppled over onto his mattress like he was the one who was getting washed away.
Like it wasn’t me who was getting caught in a flash flood.
Oliver cracked up as he flailed on his back, kicking his chubby legs into the air. “I got washed out!”
Owen bounced on his knees on his own bed, the child wearing a light-blue tee and his sleep undies since he still had accidents, his little hands following along as he sang at the top of his lungs, “Out came dee sun and dwied up aww the wain…”
“And the itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the spout again.” Savannah used her fingertips to crawl up Owen’s belly, and he grabbed her hand in both of his, cackling toward the ceiling. “You get me, Miss S’vannah.”
No question, the two of them were so enraptured by the woman’s attention they were going to get hooked.
Addicted.
Or maybe I was just worried that was going to be me. That I liked her here too much. Overcome by the sense that it was right, and I wasn’t committing a thousand wrongs by inviting her into our home, barring the semantics that Olivia had been the one to do it.
Because I was the one who’d done this. I’d invited her into our lives, and I knew, without a doubt, that I couldn’t stomach the idea of her walking.
A part of me recoiled, and my mind tumbled to find logic.
Reason.
Searching around inside of myself to try to put a finger on what this was.
At the heart of it?
I needed to know that she was safe.
Whole.
That we made sure whoever the fuck had tried to break into her motel room last night wasn’t a threat. But it went deeper than that. I knew it. This ache to hold her close, an urge I didn’t think I’d ever feel again.
As if she felt me staring, she looked my way where I hovered at the doorway. The smile on her face was so real that it nearly knocked me on my ass. I’d seen a lot of faulty smiles out of this woman. Feigned indifference. Brittle joy. But this wasn’t one of them.
I didn’t miss the way it tipped at the side, either, dipping in her own misgivings as our gazes caught and held.
A moment of vulnerability.
A moment of possibility.
A moment of us.
We were snapped out of it when Owen jumped onto her back, and he curled his little arms around her neck. “I a kowawa bear, Miss S’vannah!”
Laughing, Savannah reached around and hauled him to her front, and she tickled his side before she carefully tossed him back onto his bed. “You are a little bear,” she said as she poked his belly, making my son squeal.
“A little bear who is going to sleep,” I rumbled as I stepped into the room.
I figured it was time for me to come to her aid, to offer her some mercy since she’d gotten wrangled into story-time by Olivia who I’d finally forced to go wash her face and brush her teeth after the three of them had had Savannah ensconced in here for the last thirty-five minutes.
Oliver and Owen had demanded one more song like they were at a concert begging for an encore from their favorite band.
I understood the affliction, but it was time to put Savannah out of her misery.
“Oh, man, do we have to?” Oliver stuck out his bottom lip in a pout.
“Yes, you do. You have school in the morning.”
“But it’s only preschool that my brothers go to, so it’s not even that important so I think it’s okay if we stay up past our bedtime since I’m already almost seven.” Olivia issued it from where she’d come up behind me.
I sent her a pointed look. “Not gonna happen, Livvie. You might as well drop it.”
“Dang it.”
I could feel Savannah trying to hide her smile. Could feel the waft of affection. And God, I liked it. I liked it when she carefully climbed to her feet, a bit awkwardly since she was trying to keep the skirt of her dress down. I liked it when she went to Oliver and pressed a kiss to his forehead then turned to do the same to Owen.
“Goodnight, little men,” she murmured.
Then she wound around me to stop in front of Olivia who’d changed into her Moana pajamas. Savannah tipped up my daughter’s chin. “Thank you for making this the best night I’ve had in a very long time.”
Olivia beamed up at her. “It was very much my pleasure.”
