Page 102 of Well Aware

I turned my back on her, knowing that it would be near impossible to ignore her.

Luckily, she saw someone she knew and left the suite almost as fast as she’d arrived.

She had, however, left all her things there.

I swept them all into the trash can with the remnants of our meal that no one could stomach eating.

Which had me worried all over again for Magnolia and Nettie.

They hadn’t eaten much in the past seventy-two hours, and they were about to play one hell of a tough game.

Charleigh snorted as she watched my sister’s phone land in a pile of chicken salad.

“We should take the trash out while we’re at it,” she said as she pulled the nearly full trash bag free. “I’ll handle that.”

She had the bag out, and the attendant outside immediately removed it from her hands. “I got it!”

Charleigh came back into the room and leaned against the wall, angry and hurt just like the rest of us.

The game went about as to be expected.

Thankfully, we were able to pull off a win by the skin of our teeth, our rookie pulling off an impossible shot that won us the game one to zero.

“That was rough,” Court murmured quietly, watching as the Cowgirls walked to their sideline, solemn despite the win.

The team knew that Nettie had nearly lost her sister-in-law—might still lose—and they were quiet out of respect.

Nettie was bawling by the time that she made it to the bench.

Boone handed me Margie and said, “Gonna head down.”

I took the sleeping girl into my arms, then dropped down to Iris who was surprisingly quiet, very aware of the temperature of the room and her life the past few days. She may not know exactly what was going on, but she was intelligent enough to know that something wasn’t right, and her family was sad.

“Ready, Freddy?”

She frowned. “Who’s Freddy?”

I grinned. “It’s just a saying. I think it’s from a movie.”

“Oh.” She nodded. “I’m ready.”

She hadn’t brought her tablet with her today, choosing to watch the entire game without distraction.

I lifted her into my arms and snuggled her close. “How’s my girl?”

She turned her face into my neck and wrapped one arm around me, and one around Margie. “Good.”

My heart melted as we walked out of the room, Court leading the way.

When we got down to Magnolia, my arms were on fire from carrying both girls.

Magnolia saw my dilemma and grinned. “Want me to take her?”

I shook my head. “I’m good.”

And I was.

Dropping my mouth to hers, she stood up on tiptoes and gave me the softest of kisses. “You look good with a baby.”