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“We can’t do this, Seth,” she said, gaze on my chest, like she didn’t trust herself to say the words if she had to look me in the eye.
“Give me… three good reasons,” I suggested.
“Okay. Isaac… Hazel… Clara.”
My fingers snagged her chin, pulling it up until she had no choice to look at me.
“Explain that one to me,” I demanded. “I get that you need to be careful with them. But from where I’m standing, I don’t understand why they’re a reason we can’t do this.”
“Kids… make things complicated.”
“Sure,” I agreed, nodding. “But not impossible. Hey,” I said when she tried to drop her gaze again. “I like your kids, Lana. They’re a part of you. And in case this shit isn’t clear yet, I like you too.”
“You barely know me,” she tried to insist.
“Babe, you’ve been living here for weeks. I see you every damn day. I get that there is shit I don’t know about you yet, and shit you don’t know about me, but I like what I do know. And whether you want to admit it or not, you like what you know too.”
“I never said I didn’t like you,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s just…”
“Say ‘complicated’ one more time and I’m gonna scream,” I said, letting out a humorless chuckle.
“But it is.”
“If we make it complicated, yeah. How about… we just… don’t fucking do that?” I suggested. “I’m not saying you have to move in here, and the kids need to call me Dad or anything like that. I’m saying… let’s… feel this shit out. Because I think we can both agree there’s something here.”
“There might be,” she agreed, voice so small that I barely heard it. Like maybe she was afraid even to admit it to herself out loud.
“So let’s give it a try, yeah?” I asked.
She was opening her mouth to answer when, from somewhere downstairs, Layna’s voice rang out. “Hey, we got a ripe one here,” she called, making Lana let out a little laugh. “I like playing with them, the changing them part… that’s for the mom.”
With that, Lana untangled from me, and headed downstairs.
I collected the towels I’d dropped, then made my way down just as she was going back up with Clara.
“So, ah, what’s going on there?” Layna asked, eyes bright as I went to the window to check on the other two.
“Can we not do this?” I asked.
“Oh, no. We are absolutely doing this. Are you sweet on the single mama? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I think we all kind of saw you ending up with a single mom, but—“
“Why?” I asked, looking over at her.
“I don’t know really. It’s just a feeling we’ve always had. You’re good with kids. You haven’t been into the club girl shenanigans in a long time. Been getting serious about life and a future. I think we all just pictured you finding someone like Lana. Who is fucking gorgeous, by the way.”
“Yeah, she is.”
“And her kids are super sweet.”
“Yeah, they are. Sully is good with them,” I said as he ducked behind a bush to avoid a spray from the very precise Isaac.
“Because he’s practically a child himself,” she said. “And you’re not throwing me off the topic,” she said. “So… something is going on, right?”
“Starting to,” I agreed.
“What about their dad?” she asked, moving next to me.
“I… don’t know,” I admitted. “It seems to be a sore spot, and I don’t want to press it too soon,” I said.
“They never talk about him?”
“No. And Isaac has a protectiveness about his mother that… makes me think that shit was not good there.”
“Well, if this goes somewhere, those kids would be lucky to have you step into that role,” she said, resting her head on my arm, then started up toward the front of the house, likely to go reclaim Clara from her mother.
It was right about then that I watched in fucking slow motion as Hazel’s foot caught on the bottom step of the cottage porch, and her body went hurtling forward. The gun flew, her arms went out, but she was going down and hard on the little cement slab at the bottom of the steps.
“Fuck,” I hissed, going toward the door, but Sully was doing some fucking ninja jump over a shrub, leaning down, scooping her up, and making a mad dash for the back door even as her cries just started to break free.
“We have a soldier down,” Sully declared as he came rushing in the door with Isaac in tow. “We’re gonna need supplies,” he added.
“Here,” I said, taking a sobbing Hazel from him. “Closet in the bathroom,” I said, nodding toward it. “There’s a whole kit,” I added. “You’re alright,” I said, rocking Hazel. “Your knees, huh?” I asked, moving toward the island to set her down even as I heard Lana’s panicked footsteps running down the stairs.
