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She turned the volume down on his radio before walking over to his toddler bed.
“Morning, kiddo. What are you doing?”
“Reading. Peri likes it if we start the morning quiet,” he said softly.
“I’m not Peri,” Gabi said, sitting on the edge of his bed and glancing over at the book. It was a picture book—One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss. She smiled as she noticed that he was rubbing his finger over the pictures and not really reading. But then he was only three, a little young for true reading.
“Do you like this one?” she asked.
“Yes. Daddy took me fishing in summer.”
“Did you catch a red or blue fish?”
He laughed at her. “Nope. They were brown.”
She ruffled his hair. “They usually are.”
His room was neat and she noticed that someone had laid his clothes out for the day on a chair facing the window. She suspected that Conner had opened the curtains because they were only parted nearest the floor.
“What do you want to do today?”
He looked up at her, and it was odd seeing the innocence in a pair of eyes that reminded her very strongly of Kingsley. King had never been that innocent. Never.
“Can we go to the beach? Daddy and I walk in the morning after breffest.”
She smiled and nodded. “Where do we eat breakfast?”
“In the kitchen with Mrs. Tillman. I have to finish my book first,” he said.
“Want to read it to me?” she asked.
He nodded. “Uncle Hun taught me a rap.”
Hunter was seemingly full of surprises. She chastised herself for thinking that. To be honest, she’d never really known Hunter, just his reputation, which prior to Stacia’s death had been one of a charming Romeo, playful, sexy and fun. It was only afterward that she’d started to have doubts about him.
“I’d love to hear it.”
Conner grinned up at her and then pushed the covers down and stood up on his bed. “Gimme a beat.”
She had no idea how to beatbox. She wasn’t too sure she’d have the nerve to ever try doing this if her audience was anyone other than a toddler, but he was waiting for her and she didn’t want to let him down.
She made some beat noises and heard laughter from the door behind her.
“Finally we find the one thing that Gabi can’t do,” Kingsley said from the doorway. His hair was damp, presumably from his shower, and he had on a pair of faded jeans and a faded Buffalo Bills T-shirt. His feet were bare.
“Daddy, can you gimme a beat?”
Kingsley nodded. Gabi pretended not to notice how his shirt clung to his thickly muscled arms or the way he walked over to the bed.
Conner started jumping and rapping Dr. Seuss’s timeless story. She had to admit she fell a little in love with Conner, and that cold lump in the pit of her stomach that had to do with old bitterness and resentment started to loosen.
For the first time since she left the jailhouse ten years ago she felt a spark of something like real emotion. She’d never been able to let a man get close to her after what Kingsley had done. Caution should be her watchword, but instead she wanted to throw it to the wind and find a little of the innocence she’d seen in Conner’s eyes in her own life and in Kingsley’s.
* * *
Every morning since his son was born Kingsley had woken with the desire to put the past to rest. This morning was no exception. As he’d lain in his bed watching the small bit of sun shining in through the crack in his blinds and realizing he was back in California, he’d felt the familiar anger and determination rise inside him.
He needed answers and if he were being totally honest, revenge against whomever had killed Stacia and set Hunter and him up. But rapping with his son and Gabi first thing in the morning brought peace to some long-forgotten part of his soul. A part he thought had died a long time ago.
As Conner finished rapping about the fish and did his “gangsta” pose, Gabi applauded. The little boy looked as if he’d swallowed the sun. He wasn’t immune to Gabi, either.
Kingsley’s entire life had been set on course by the actions of someone else. His silver-spoon existence had been taken away but he’d done his best to claw his way back, and having Conner made it all the more important that he succeed. But when he stood here near Gabi he had a glimpse of a life that might have been. Something he could have had if life hadn’t been so cruel.
Damn. He was feeling sorry for himself and he couldn’t tolerate that.
“I can get Conner ready if you want to get dressed and then we can go have breakfast.”
