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His woman was going to toss me out on my ass, and then where would I be?
“I was hoping he could stay here a few days,” Pick started. “Just until he found a place of his own.”
Yeah, I was screwed. Eva looked startled to find a large, intimidating ex-con in her living room. “I can go,” I offered, hooking my thumb over my shoulder to motion toward the exit of the building.
But Eva lifted her hand to stop me. “Don’t be ridiculous. Of course you can stay. We’re happy to have you.” Then she waved me forward. “Come in and shut the door already.”
“Thank you, baby.” Pick kissed her on the mouth, and then kissed the girl in her arms on top of the head. “I swear, we’ll get him back on his feet in no time. But right now, I really need to make a phone call.”
“Are you going to call—” Eva started, but Pick answered, “Yeah,” before she could finish the question. Then he kissed her again and strode from the room with a baby still on his hip.
Left alone with Pick’s wife...girlfriend...whatever she was...didn’t sit well with me. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other and tried not to look her straight in the eye.
“So.” She put an overwhelming oomph of cheer in her voice. “Welcome to Casa de Ryan. I’m Eva, by the way. This little sleepyhead is Skylar. Pick just took off with Julian, and this is our humble abode. We’ll bunk the kids together so you can have Julian’s bedroom since his bed is bigger than—”
“I can sleep on the couch,” I offered, not planning to kick anyone out of his bed, especially a little boy.
“Oh, no. It’s fine.” She waved my offer aside. “Those two prefer to sleep together anyway. One usually gets up in the middle of the night to find his or her way into the other’s bedroom. I’m not sure why we bother to even try to separate them.”
As she spoke, the girl in her arms wiggled free to get down.
Eva let the child slide to the floor. “So, we’ll just set you up in Julian’s room, like I said,” she went on as if she didn’t even notice her child was tottering straight for me. “Because it’ll be easier for me not to have to dress up the couch every night.”
The kid stopped in front of me and lifted her arms, clearly wanting me to hold her.
I darted my gaze to her mother, but Eva just smiled at me and lifted her eyebrows as if to say, Well, what’re you waiting for?
I hadn’t held a baby since the morning of the day I was arrested, when my sister Mercy had needed me to rock Bentley to sleep for her nap.
A needle of agony burrowed into my chest.
Bentley probably hadn’t even made it to this age.
I knelt in front of Skylar, trying not to let my grief get the best of me, but then she smiled, and I wanted to bawl even more.
“Maw-maw-da-da-gah-gah-bah,” she said, waving her hands with each word.
I glanced at Eva to see if I was supposed to understand something in all that mess, but she only shook her head and shrugged.
“Skylar’s our little jabber box. Julian’s usually the one who doesn’t say anything unless he has something serious and understandable to say.”
Skylar stepped closer to me, and whacked me in the eye. “Maw-maw-da-da-gah-gah-baw.”
Eva gasped and stepped forward. “Skylar! No hitting.”
“No, it’s okay,” I assured her, holding up a hand to let her know I wasn’t hurt...right before Skylar grabbed me by both ears and stared me straight in the eyes. “Maw-maw-dadddddaaaa,” she hollered.
I had no idea what she was trying to tell me, so I picked her up. Her diaper-clad tush mashed against my forearm, sending up a sharp reminder of the times I’d held Bentley, and how Mercedes had screeched at me that she was too young to be held upright that way, except I’d always held the kid’s head securely and she’d seemed to enjoy being able to gaze around a room, so I’d kept doing it.
“Gah-gah-baw,” Skylar murmured as if appeased before she rested her head on my shoulder and went limp and satisfied against me.
“Well...” Eva lifted her eyebrows as if impr
essed by my skill. “I guess she got what she wanted.”
I tried to relax, but the tension made that impossible. I should not be holding such innocence, standing in such a nice, family-oriented home, sleeping in some cute little boy’s bed. I didn’t belong here, and I kept waiting for the moment when someone finally fucking realized that.
To make matters worse, my stomach growled. I’d been released midmorning, and it was long past time when our noon meal would’ve been served.
