Page 178 of Reeves

“Careful,” I call out, my voice steady.

“I’m fine!” he says, already distracted, pointing at the water. “Mom, do you have a penny? I want to make a wish.”

Reeves reaches into his pocket, but I pull out a few coins from my purse first, handing them to him. He takes off again, circling the fountain, completely absorbed.

I slow near the edge, the mist from the water cooling my skin. Reeves stops a step beside me.

Neither of us says anything.

I pull my phone from my bag, more out of habit than anything else, and open my email. I scroll back to the message I sent earlier, checking the time I'd sent it.

And then I realize he's already responded. I tap it.

It's short, and the message is clear. I'm officially pissed, now.

I lock the screen and lower my hand, gripping the phone tighter than I should.

“You had someone run the details for what, Reeves? Why would you do that? I didn't ask you to do that.”

He nods once, cautious. “I wanted to find out about the Medicaid thing. That's all. It snowballed from there.”

“How, exactly, did that lead you to know about the offer from Dr. Henderson?”

His jaw tightens, but he doesn't answer.

“You don’t get to do that.” My voice stays even, but my fingers curl around the phone. “You don’t get to show up in my life and start making decisions about things you don’t understand.”

“I wasn’t making decisions,” he says, quieter now. “I was trying to protect you.”

“Protect me? I've been just fine, Reeves, before you showedup on Thursday. I didn’t ask you to step into my business and make decisions for me. That was my decision, not yours.”

Benjy runs past us, tossing a coin into the fountain. “I made a wish!” he shouts, already reaching for another.

I don’t look away from Reeves.

“Your little protection scared off Henderson. He's no longer interested in purchasing my practice. What did you do? Did you call him? He called you my representative.”

I'm so mad I can hardly see straight.

“Charli, I know you don't want to hear this, but he is a bad guy. He was trying?—.”

"You know what? Stop. I don't want to hear another word. I don't care what you did because you overstepped and that isn't okay."

The words sit between us.

“He was going to take advantage of you,” Reeves says, his voice low but firm. “I wasn’t going to let that happen.”

“It wasn’t your call to make.”

His eyes lock on mine. “I’m not going to stand by while someone?—”

“You don’t get to decide what’s best for me,” I say, cutting him off again. “Not now. Not ever.”

It’s the same look. The same certainty. Like he already decided what was best and acted on it. The only thing different now is we aren't yelling and screaming.

We can't.

Benjy runs up beside us, breathless. “Can we walk around again? I want to see if my wish comes true.”