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“Charlie shot back if we went to court, Laurel would be taken away from both of us while social services sorted it out. She’d end up in foster care—the good kind or the bad kind—we wouldn’t know until it was too late. And after all that, I’d stand up before the judge with no home, money, or job, and they’d give Laurel to someone else anyway.” Tears ran down my cheeks. “That’s how I got here, Sunny. Sneaking in windows to see my baby because if I took her and ran, I’d subject her to the hell of running from Digger and sketching out a half-life on scraps. But if I fought, the blackmailing kidnapper trying to steal her from me would get exactly what she wanted.”
A growing pit in my throat—always there and always choking—tugged the tether to a woman possibly awake on that cold night, looking back on the steps that brought her here.
Yes, I do, Mom. I understand.
“Well,” I said as the silence stretched past comfortable. “That’s the truth, Sunny—all of it. I’m sorry I lied and hid it from you. It’s hard to talk about e-even now. It’s hard to admit that I’m failing my daughter, again and again... every day.”
Still, Sunny didn’t speak. He simply observed me, my soaked cheeks and chin reflected in his eyes.
“Say something, please.”
“You know why I didn’t tell you about Athena.”
My mouth opened and closed. Athena? How was she important right now?
“It wasn’t because I was trying to hide it, though I bet that’s what you thought,” he continued. “Deep, dark complicated feelings for her that tear me up when I think about my feelings for you? Nah. I didn’t tell you we slept together because I honestly didn’t think it was important. I don’t pack a shred of romantic feeling for her, and she doesn’t for me. I can say the same of the other women, in and out of my crew, that I’ve hooked up with.
“Sex isn’t all that serious to me, Angel. It’s a fun thing to do, like bungee-jumping, partying, and going a hundred and fifty on the back roads. I’ve always been that guy,” he said, leaning across the table, dabbing my tears with his napkin. “Life’s fun and I’m going to have as much of it till I die.
“A motto that makes for an interesting life, but doesn’t convince people you’re a serious person. Most think I don’t know when to stop playing around or when it’s time to stop laughing, but that’s never been true. I know what’s real, Angel, and when I find it, I don’t let go.”
“What... are you saying?”
“I’m saying it’s you, baby. I take you seriously. Your smile, your laugh, the way you bite your lip when you’re nervous, and hide your grin when I say something dirty. There’s nothing more real to me than the millions of moments that fill your day—making you happy or stealing your tears. It’s been my God-given mandate on this earth since about three—two seconds after we met, to give everything I have if it means you’re still smiling.”
I was not smiling then. Sunny warped in the wetness clinging on my lids. They spilled as a sob escaped me, forced out as his sweet, loving words filled me.
“And now that I finally know what you want more than security deposits and three-quarters of a million dollars, I’m going to get it for you.” Sunny got to his feet, snapping my head up. “Let’s go, sugar lips. There’s a guy I’ve got to get out of bed.”
“Go where? What guy?”
“My obscenely expensive, never-lost-a-case lawyer.” Sunny tugged me out of the restaurant. “We’re getting your daughter back.”
“WHY THE FUCK WOULD you even say that, Sloane? You don’t have any other cases. You don’t have other clients. This case is your first priority. It’s your life.”
“What is he saying?” I asked.
Sunny paced the length of his bedroom, which meant I was pacing his bedroom. I was half a step behind him, straining to hear the nasally man on the other end.
“Because my retainer single-handedly funded both your beach houses.”
“Did he say he can’t do it?” I hopped up, getting my ear closer to the phone. Why was Sunny so tall!
“No, I’m not Laurel’s father. Not yet,” Sunny added. “Will be as soon as I get her mom to sign the marriage license.”
For the love of Jolly Ranchers, this guy.
“I want her away from that woman and home with Kenzie by the end of the week. Then you make it happen!”
“Sunny?”
“No, her parental rights weren’t taken away. She—”
I tackled Sunny.
“Holy shit!”
We collapsed in a heap on his bed. Straddling him, I pinned his shoulders down. “Put it on speaker.”
He put his hands up in surrender. “Yes, ma’am.”
Eric Sloane’s voice filled the room. “—make this easier. How did the child come to be in the custody of Charlie Mayberry?”
