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“Yeah.”
I grinned.
“I’ll tell you a secret,” I said as I leaned closer to him.
“What?” he asked, his interest piqued.
“She makes me clean up my stuff, too.”
I was rewarded with a smile.
“I’m going to go talk to Raine,” I said to Alex. “Will you show me the picture when it’s done?”
“Sure.” Alex righted himself in the chair and went back to his work.
When I came back into the main living area, Raine was in the kitchen with bread and peanut butter on the counter in front of her. She stopped and looked at me as I came out.
“You were right,” I said. I couldn’t stop the smile on my face. “He’s awesome.”
“He really is.” Raine’s expression mirrored my own. “I see more and more of you in him every day.”
“What does he know?” I asked. “I mean, he said a little, and you must have told him I was his father…”
“I didn’t tell him; Landon did,” Raine informed me. “When he brought me here, and Alex came out of his room, Landon told him I was going to take care of him until his dad got here.”
“Fuck,” I muttered. “How did he react?”
“I think he already knew Jillian’s husband wasn’t his father,” Raine said. “He didn’t seem surprised, just took it all in stride. I tried to talk to him about his mother a little, but he doesn’t say much. He knows they’re both dead, but I can’t get much of a reaction out of him. I kind of think he’s in shock about it all.”
“Why don’t you know who your parents are?”
“I don’t remember them.”
“How can you not remember your own parents?”
“I just don’t, okay?”
“Everyone remembers their parents. Are yours dead?”
“I don’t know.”
“How can you not know that?”
“Just shut the fuck up!”
I tried to shake the memory from my head, but it lingered a while. If anything, it solidified my resolve to win this tournament and give Raine and Alex some kind of normal life—the kind of life I never had. There was no way I’d let Alex be bombarded with the kinds of questions I always had to deal with as a child.
No fucking way was that going to happen to my kid.
“Bastian? You okay?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Just thinking. I don’t want him to grow up like I did.”
Raine lowered the knife full of peanut butter and walked over to me. She coiled her arms around my back and held me against her. I brought my arms up and returned the embrace.
“He’s so smart,” Raine said quietly. “You won’t believe how smart he is. I think as long as he knows we’re going to take care of him, he’ll be just fine.”
I wasn’t sure if it was going to be that simple or not, but I was willing to believe it. I wanted to believe it. I wanted to know he was going to be all right when all this was over.
