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“Are you always stuck taking care of your sister’s kid?” he followed up as his thumb played with my lower lip.
His face had somehow gotten closer, but the nature of his question irked me the wrong way. My brows scrunched, and I felt myself sitting straighter. His hand on my back followed along with my new posture.
“How do you know he’s Beth’s kid?”
A guilty look crossed his face.
“You looked me up!” I pointed a finger in his face.
“Ori—” he started to say.
“That’s an invasion of privacy,” I spat.
“Not when I’m just doing my job,” he bit back.
So that was what I was? Just a job?
I didn’t know what was worse: this or being labeled as a little sister. My throat constricted, and I felt my chest squeeze, but I ignored both feelings and swallowed any retort.
I needed to be done with this mess and be back on my case and leave all things Sunny Pines in the back of my mind under lock and key. Obviously, nothing good ever came from taking a trip down memory lane.
“I assume since you’re here that you got my car back?”
Clark didn’t answer right away. He looked at my face, searching for something, but then ultimately nodded. He handed me the keys to my car.
“Great. Now I can go home,” I told him as I motioned for him to move with my hand.
My next step was going to be carrying Lucas to the car, but Clark beat me to it and picked him up with gentle ease.
There went my damn heart again doing that squeeze thing, but this time it didn’t hurt like it had earlier. Was I too young to be having heart problems?
I unlocked my car, and as soon as that was done, Clark safely buckled Lucas in. The poor boy stirred a bit, but otherwise stayed asleep.
Being someone’s guardian was hard, because it wasn’t even the big things that made you question if you were doing it wrong. It was all the little moments that added up that made you feel like a failure. I knew I felt it all the time.
Once Clark closed the door, he turned to face me. He took a step forward, and I took one back until my back was pressed against the side of my car. Clark looked too smug about the turn of events. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out my phone. My eyes lit up at the sight of it, and I almost forgot I was mad at him.
“Ah! You got it back for me,” I squealed in delight, almost throwing myself at him, but caught myself at the last second. I plucked the phone from his grip. “Thank you for doing your job, Detective Carson.”
A chill ran down my spine at the look in his eyes. I saluted him and then got in my car and drove away, but not before looking back at him through the rearview mirror.
He was still looking at me as I drove, and I wondered if I had imagined the heat in his gaze.
I was so screwed.
CHAPTERSEVEN
Normalcy was much neededafter the last two days I’d had. As I drove Lucas to daycare while I went to work, Clark’s voice filtered my thoughts.
“Are you always stuck taking care of your sister’s kid?”
I wasn’t stuck, but I also couldn’t help but feel some resentment toward my sister. She had left me her kid, knowing I wouldn’t be able to send him to foster care. Knowing Mom would struggle trying to take care of him. Age had made our mom somewhat bitter. She worked just enough to make ends meet. It was part of the reason neither Bethany nor I lived with her anymore. She was full of advice and wanting us to learn from her mistakes, but all I gained from living with her was feeling suffocated.
Not that I forgave my father, but I had come to accept the fallout of his choices, and I didn’t want to have them define me more than they already did. I decided that he didn’t get a part of me since he had so easily walked away—not that he tried, anyway.
“Oh, the irony,” I mumbled as I took a sip of my coffee.
Bethany had just done the same thing as dear ol’ Dad, except he left for another family. Beth just left to be a whore.
