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I bounced excitedly on the bed. “That’s okay! I can introduce you to all my favorites.”
Kara smiled softly. “I wanted my daughter to grow up with music. All different types. I wanted to play her all of it, so she could choose which one was her favorite.”
I stared her dead in the eye. “You will, Kara. We’ll teach her everything from The Beatles to Metallica.”
“Your bands have odd names.”
I grinned at her. “Just wait until you get to know Kian. He loves the big belt-it-out female singers of the nineties.” I smiled just thinking about his little quirks.
“Kian is your boyfriend? Husband? Who is Fang then?”
I cringed. “Not husband. Maybe boyfriend? I don’t really know what to class him as. Because there’s also Fang… And Vaughn. I think I’m kind of dating all of them.”
Kara gaped at me. “Seriously?”
I bit my lip. “Do you think I’m a slut?”
She recoiled at the word. “What? No! Never. I think that’s…maybe actually really lovely. If you’re all open and honest about it, why would having more love be a bad thing?”
It was so simple when she said it like that.
But then she continued, “It’s the other way around where I come from, though. It’s the man who has multiple wives or girlfriends.”
A weird feeling twisted my stomach, and Vaughn’s and Kian’s accusations that my father and his family were part of a cult came rushing back. I wanted to blurt out a bunch of questions, but I didn’t want to push her too hard and too fast either.
So I let the comment pass.
For now.
I wound the sheet around my fingers and changed the subject. “You and your sisters all have two names. Are you going to do the same for the baby?”
Kara looked down again.
I pinched myself. I’d just gotten her talking, and now she was clamming up again. “It’s okay. You don’t have to talk about it.”
“I’ve been thinking about naming her Hayley.”
I blinked. “That’s a beautiful name. Does it have a special meaning to you, or do you just like it?”
“You’re going to think it’s stupid.”
I frowned. “Try me.”
She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly before she responded. “When Caleb left me in that house with the Sinners, Hayden took care of me.”
I clapped a hand over my mouth, instantly making the connection. “Oh my God. You’re naming her after him?”
She twisted her fingers round and round themselves and choked on a sob. “It’s my fault he’s dead. It seems the least I can do.”
I needed to wipe that idea from her brain immediately. “What happened with Hayden is absolutely not your fault. It’s his fault. His and Caleb’s. They’re as bad as each other. That man does not deserve a place in your baby’s name, Kara.”
Her eyes blazed hot at the insult. “You don’t know him. He’s nothing like Caleb. Nothing!”
Kara had so far been such a quiet, timid little mouse that I hadn’t expected the sudden outburst of passion. I sat back and took in her fierce expression. I actually liked it. It was a thousand times better than her barely daring to whisper. I could see in her eyes she truly believed what she was saying.
I was willing to hear her side of the story. “Tell me why, then. Make me believe that everything I know about him isn’t true.”
She answered so quickly it was clear she’d already extensively thought this through. “He didn’t like that we were being held there. He made sure we had everything we needed and we were as comfortable as we could be.”
