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Derek: We’re leaving.
Piper: Bring her home safe.
Piper: And stay safe.
Derek: We will. Love you.
ChapterThirty-Five
Piper
Charles leavesearly in the morning to visit his best friends who live in Boulder. I wish he had taken me with him. I’m too stressed about the mission Finn and Derek are on—trying to save Teddy—to stay in one place. Music is the only outlet I have to take my mind off the worry. I head to the library, where I attempt to find solace in the grand piano. The instrument’s deep tones fill the room as I lose myself in the melody.
Just then, I hear a small voice interrupting my reverie. Startled, I open my eyes and find a boy no more than four years old, with light brown hair and emerald eyes right in front of me.
He blinks at me with curiosity and asks, “Who aw you?”
I have no idea where he comes from, but I wonder if he belongs to one of Charles’s godchildren. Surveying the room for any signs of his parents, I find none.
“Piper,” I answer after a moment of contemplation. “What’s your name?”
“Milo,” he replies with a shy smile.
“How old are you, Milo?”
He holds up four fingers and then points to the piano. “Can I pway da plano wif you?”
“Of course, you can,” I say, looking up to see Jared panting in the doorway.
The poor man is huffing and puffing. “Here you are, Milo.”
“Did you lose him?” I ask, trying to bite back my smile.
Jared nods as he regains his breath. “He’s fast. We came from the playground to get a snack and suddenly he was gone.”
I smile down at the boy, charmed by his cheekiness. “Why don’t we go to the kitchen for a snack, and then maybe I can teach you how to play the piano?”
He perks up momentarily, pointing at the crutches near the wall. “What aw dose?”
I lift my leg and show him the brace that’s kept me confined to this house for weeks. “Crutches. They help me walk while my leg heals.”
“Mom can make it bettah,” he says assuredly, as if his mother were a superhero of sorts.
I chuckle softly. “She can?”
“Yes,” he says, nodding sharply. “She’s a doctah.”
The way he mispronounces the word is too adorable for me to correct him. “That’s a pretty cool career. Do you want to be that when you grow up?”
“I don’t want to interrupt the chat, but we don’t want to mess with his schedule,” Jared says, glancing at the grandfather clock on the wall. “I was given instructions that he has to be taking a nap by noon and not a minute later.”
Jared shakes his head vigorously, eyes wide with alarm, and Milo makes a face as if he just smelled something nasty. “Yuck! Lunch, bleh.”
Okay, so this kid doesn’t like lunch. “Then, why don’t we grab a yummy snack?” I rub my stomach for emphasis. “I love snacks. Don’t you?”
He grins, nodding his head in agreement.
We walk into the small kitchen, and I survey the table. There are several containers filled with cubed cheese, ham rolls, and little pieces of fruit. A sippy cup with cartoon characters sits next to it.
