Page 54 of Out Of A Fix

“Carnivorous clown?”

“That’s what Dar named the picture.”

“No way that clown didn’t eat people like Pennywise in It,” Darwin said with a shudder.

“When did you watch that movie?” Luke asked, scowling at me.

“I did not,” I said defensively.

Luke’s focus returned to Darwin. “Well?”

“Are you mad?”

“More invested in the answer at this point.”

“I saw it at Teddy’s house.”

I was surprised. “The nice church lady let you watch that?”

He shook his head. “When Teddy’s dad removed all the child-safety features on all their streaming services so he could watch…you know…I guess he forgot to switch them back on.”

I would not laugh, so I pivoted back to the sink.

“Please don’t watch any R-rated movies at Teddy’s house,” Luke pleaded with his son.

“Fine,” he said, sounding a bit put out.

“Anyway,” Tatum announced, “the clown is gone and⁠—”

“We are talking about the clown sitting on a bench under a streetlamp?”

“That’s the one,” Darwin said, cackling.

“And you got rid of that?” Luke asked his son.

“Yeah, why? Are you mad?”

I turned so I could see Luke’s face. His smile told me he was the exact opposite of mad.

“No,” he said and shivered, and the kids smiled. “You saw it. How creepy was that? Your mother loved it, but you know, she liked to be scared on purpose sometimes. Remember how she would watch all those scary movies and then not be able to sleep?”

They all nodded—Darwin putting the dish towel down and joining the others in the living room—listening to their father, clearly thrilled to hear him bring her up so casually in conversation. It was a good start, and Luke wanting to be part of their discussion was a promising sign.

“She would watch scary movies,” Griff said, “and her brain would change them and make them ten times worse. We’d hear her in the house days later screaming over something. She was such a scaredy-cat.”

“But she also carried a baby cougar back to its mother,” Darwin reminded everyone. “It was so much bigger than I thought it was going to be, but Mom didn’t care. She just walked it back across the highway.”

“That’s Mom,” Griff said, and I could hear the wistfulness in his voice. “Only scared of things that don’t exist.”

“Like you know everything there is to be scared of,” Darwin scoffed. “You don’t.”

They were all talking then, reminiscing, but also doing more, listening, spending time together, and that was good. The fact was, now that their father was home, me being swapped out was no longer a big deal. With a parent in the mix—a strong, actively participating parent—whoever was there to do the bodyguarding became a secondary consideration. It would be easy, after this, for me to step away. I stopped worrying about someone else showing up.

SEVEN

Ileft the family to their time together, wanting to give them their privacy, but when the doorbell rang, I had to check who it was. That was easy because of the cameras I’d installed. From where I was, in the recliner in my room, with Wink curled in my lap, I watched the stream of women coming in to drop off food. I was guessing it was for Luke. There had been no food deliveries before he came home, so the timing told me everything I needed to know. The man was both rugged and beautiful, so I understood. I would have brought him food too.

Into the mix came Shelly Canton—Shaw had provided me with her last name and a photo—and I was not surprised at how wrung out she looked, having lost her mother the week prior. The kids all hugged her, and then she went into Luke’s arms and clung. I would have done that too. He seemed like a good hugger.