AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Cullen snorted. “That will never happen.”
Lily stopped just short of the SUV. If looks could kill, she would’ve skewered him with a death glare.
“They’re good kids, Cullen,” she snapped. “Especially given all that they’ve been through.”
“Of course they are. I know that.”
“You have plenty of room in your house. I don’t understand why you wouldn’t take them in.”
“I don’t have room in my life for four kids. It wouldn’t be fair to them.”
“But you’re doing such a good job with them. Would it really be so different than it is now? I mean right now. Look at how happy they are and she’d be able to help you out.”
The words had poured out of her as if someone had turned on the tap. Lily’s heart pounded in her chest. As she grabbed the last of the stollen loaves, taking care not to reach in when Cullen did to avoid physical contact, she knew she should stop pushing the issue.
“We never wanted kids,” he said. “That was one of the few things we did agree on.”
He really didn’t want kids? Even after spending nearly two weeks with the Thomas kids? The truth slapped her in the face. She deserved it. He’d told her this about himself how many times now?
Yet she still believed the kids would change him.
“She’s a pediatrician and she doesn’t want kids? Isn’t that against the law of everything that’s natural? Or at least against the oath she had to take as a kids’ doctor?”
He shrugged again, and she knew they’d better steer the conversation to neutral territory. Especially since he hadn’t denied the unspoken possibility of getting back together with her.
Her.
Lily hadn’t even asked her name. He hadn’t offered it. That was fine. She didn’t want to know. Lily felt sick to her stomach. But better to know now than to get in any deeper than she already was. Really, she should thank him for this.
She forced another smile as he closed the SUV’s hatchback. “I was so proud of the kids when they told me they want to donate the money they made selling the stollen to charity. And I was even more touched when I found out that you’re going to match their donation. That’s really great of you, Cullen.”
As they walked back to the building, she purposely didn’t look at him. Her heart needed more time to set after turning to jelly thanks to the news about his ex-wife. If she let him back in too soon, she risked it seeping out of her chest and spilling on the floor.
“It’s the least I can do. But really, in the grand scheme of things, it’s nothing. It’s the time of year when we should be charitable. Or at least I should. I know I should be benevolent all year long, but—” He shrugged. “I get the idea that being altruistic is just your nature.”
She slanted him a glance but took care not to let her gaze linger. “Well, I’m a teacher by trade. I guess being charitable comes with the territory. But you…you’re really good with them, Cullen. They love you so much.”
There it was again. Words flowing like water. Like a babbling brook, as Josh used to say.
Josh had such a mean streak.
Still, she clamped her lips together to keep from saying anything else. She’d already used the word love.
Out of her peripheral vision, she saw Cullen roll his shoulder again. “I’m just doing right by Greg. He and Rosa were the ones who raised the kids right. I’m just continuing what they started. It’s weird, thinking that they’re gone. It makes you realize just how damn short life is. It makes you step back and take inventory of what’s important and what isn’t.”
Somehow he managed to shift the loaves he was carrying—twice as many as she held—and open the door. She made the mistake of looking him in the eye. For a second that seemed to last an eternity, his hazel eyes were filled with pain and torment and something else that she couldn’t quite define.
She looked down and stepped inside.
Oh, but he was a complicated one.
“They’re just with me until I can find a family that will take all four of them. They have to stay together. I won’t let them be broken up.”
