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Landry looks at her yawning and confused kids. She glances around the room before her worried gaze finds me.
“This is happening?”
“Yes.”
Landry looks at Blair and shrugs. “Well, I can’t claim this is the first time I’ve bolted into the night.”
I smirk at her comment while she looks at her children. Suddenly, her gaze returns to me.
“Do you have milk at your house?”
“Yes. Little sippy cups and other small-people crap.”
“Crap,” Brooklyn tells Beckett.
“Night-night?” he asks her in return.
Feeling Landry stuck again, I announce, “I’ll take the bags. Everyone needs to follow me to my car. We’ll be at my place in around twenty minutes.”
“Where do you live?” Blair asks after Beau slides off the bed and takes her hand.
“McMurdo Valley.”
“I don’t know where that is,” she says, following me. “Mama, are you coming?”
Landry stands in the middle of her kids’ overcrowded room. Their toys litter the floor. The closet is bursting with clothes, most of which I sense are hand-me-downs. Her own clothes seem worn and faded after so many pregnancies.
Landry reaches for Brooklyn’s hand. Beckett asks to be picked up. She stares at me, saying something with her eyes.
Though I’m unsure what she’s asking, I reply with what I hope is the truth, “Everything will be easier tomorrow.”
Landry blinks a few times and almost smiles. She leans down to pick up the boy.
“We’re going on an adventure,” she explains as she shuffles after Blair, Beau, and me. “We’re explorers tonight.”
My SUV is filled with car seats organized by Rosemary. The booster in the third row is for Beau. Blair slides in next to him. The car seats on the second row seem to fit Brooklyn and Beckett. Landry checks everything twice before looking around.
Large trucks roll down the nearby interstate. The street is quiet except for a barking dog and someone playing their TV near an open window.
Walking around the side of the SUV, I say Landry’s name. I love the sound of it. She looks at me and seems nervous.
“We need to leave. The kids are tired.”
Her gaze studies me in the murky night. Only the faint yellow light from a nearby streetlamp illuminates her beautiful, tired face.
“Are you going to hurt my babies?”
“What did I say I want from you?”
“To love you,” she mumbles as if the words are a lie.
“If I hurt your babies, you’ll never love me.”
Biting nervously at her fingers, she struggles for the right choice. Finally, she nods. “This feels like a trick.”
“You’re tired in a way that won’t wash off, but I’m not. I have energy for us both, so let me be in charge.”
Landry exhales softly and nods before climbing into the SUV. I hear the kids talking about the cat. I think they’re trying to spot her in the dark.
