Page 58 of Plain Sight

“Free pass,” Charlotte announces. “Robin is asleep, and he’s too young to know what swear words are, anyway, so we’re all good.”

In his cage on the countertop, Snowball rustles.

“Maybe not all of us,” Charlotte amends.

Snowball stretches his wings, then hops up and down in his bedding, then lets out a questioning tweet?

“Mason and Gabriel are bringing him back,” I answer, moving across the room with Robin. “He left to…run an errand.”

Snowball lets out a series of tweets that sound like what do you mean, Mason and Gabriel are bringing him back? Why did you let him leave? You should be with him!

“I get it.” My eyes burn. I’m exhausted, but there’s no way I could fall asleep right now. I might also be a little out of my mind. Pregnancy hormones? Post-wedding dress? The wait? It’s probably all three. “I didn’t know he was leaving, or I’d have gone with him.”

You need to be there with him, admonishes Snowball. He is suffering.

“Yeah, I know.” I blink away more tears. “I won’t let it happen again.”

Snowball’s tweets turn mournful. I should have been with him, too.

“You couldn’t help it. You were sleeping. We’ll just have to do our best from now on. If you see him leaving in the night, you can sound the alarm, and I’ll go after him. Okay?”

Snowball’s next tweet sounds like agreement. He lowers himself down to his bedding, fluffing his wings as he goes.

When I turn around, everyone in the room is staring at me.

“Okay.” Nate smiles, his voice meticulously gentle. “Was there anything else you wanted to talk about, Lily? If there’s anything Snowball has to say, you can let us know that, too.”

I let my head fall back, my cheeks hot as an undergrad message board on the last day of finals.

“I know he can’t talk,” I admit, picking my head up. “Jameson talks to him, so I—I also talk to him. He just has a big personality. It’s easy to get into the habit.”

“We all talk to him,” Elise says. “It’s not weird at all.”

Lydia stares at her sister. “We do?”

Elise gives her a look.

“We do!” Lydia chirps. “Of course we do. We all talk to our cute little guy, Snowball.”

“We could get a doctor to stop by,” Nate offers. “Or a psychiatrist. If you feel like you’re under too much stress.”

He’s teasing. I think.

“I’m holding Robin. I will be fine.”

We stop talking about the bird. Charlotte pours tea for everyone, and we sit around the table and drink it like we’re not anxiously waiting for what’s sure to be bad news. Elise steers the conversation toward baked goods, which is a topic that lends itself to more conversation than you might think.

It seems like a long time, and no time, before the sound of the elevator opening reaches us.

Then there are voices.

We leave the kitchen en masse. Mason, Gabriel, and Jameson are stepping out of the foyer when we get to them. I’m in front with Robin.

“You have blood on you!” Emotion wells up in me. Or explodes up in me. Oh—I’m angry. I was scared, and I was worried, and I was in love, and now I’m also angry. “Jameson, you’re all bloody! What were you thinking? Did you kill my grandfather?”

“No,” Jameson answers.

“You can’t keep doing this.” It’s unstoppable, like pregnancy hormones or falling in love. “You’re my husband. We’re supposed to be part of a team.”