“Mama, your fingers are cold against my back. Cover them up.”
Smiling, I remove my hand, boop her tiny nose, then tuck my fingers between my thighs.
“You okay?” I whisper.
“Yeah,” she whispers back. “But that sure was scary.”
My throat tightens.
“Yeah,” I say, fighting tears. “It sure was.”
Her eyes search mine.
“Mama, are the animals okay?”
Shoot.
“Most of them,” I admit.
Her little face crumples. “Who isn’t okay?”
I swallow hard.
“Bobcat Billie.”
Livy’s eyes fill immediately.
“I wanted to save her, baby. I did. But I couldn’t open the cage and let her loose. She was scared and would have run and attacked the first thing she sensed.”
“I understand,” she whispers, tears sliding down her cheeks. “Was it bad?”
“No,piccola,” Maverick says gently, moving to sit on her other side.
Livy rolls onto her back and looks up at him.
“The smoke got into her lungs,” he tells her. “That’s how she died.”
The lie is soft.
Merciful.
The fire did reach Billie.
Her screams will follow me for the rest of my life.
“But smoke got in my lungs too,” Livy says. “Does that mean I’m gonna die?”
“No.” Maverick’s voice is steady. “Foster got you away from the fire before it was too late. We owe him for that.”
Her chin lifts.
“And asDons, we have to honor that, right?”
She coughs, but it’s not as bad as before.
Maverick smiles. “That’s right, littleDon. He saved our lives, so we owe him.”
Livy frowns. “Wait. Were you trapped too?”
