AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“When was the last time you had time to yourself?”
She blinks in my direction as if she can’t believe I had the nerve to ask about her well-being. It becomes very clear, very quickly, that she isn’t impressed with the way I’m crossing her boundaries.
I hold my hands up near my ears in mock surrender.
“I don’t get much time alone. Being a single parent isn’t easy.”
My jaw flexes in annoyance, but I do my best to control those emotions. I told myself I wasn’t going to keep rubbing her face into something neither one of us can change, but it feels like a jab, like it’s my fault she’s been doing everything alone.
“I spent a little time at Carlen and Janet’s after the funeral,” she says instead of biting my head off. “You ran into me there, twice.”
I look over my shoulder at the boys, conscious that they could possibly be listening despite their attention seeming to be on their coloring.
“That wasn’t exactly leisure activities,” I say, cognizant not to mention what she was actually doing there.
She shrugs. “I work six days a week.”
My frown deepens.
“Where have you been?” Jace asks.
We both look at the boy.
“Hmm?” she asks, but her nephew’s attention isn’t on her. It’s on me.
“You’re Sutton’s dad, right?”
I look at Mila before looking back at the kid and responding. “I am.”
“Where have you been?”
Instead of letting me flounder on what I feel I should say, she explains first. “I never told Vincent that he was Sutton’s dad.”
“What?” Jace says. “You hid her from him? You shouldn’t have done that.”
“You’re right, Jace,” she tells him. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
I look back at her but she seems reluctant to meet my eyes.
Had things been different…
I don’t know how many times I’ve thought that very same thing since she showed up at the hotel with a little girl that has my eyes.
Had things been different, I probably never would’ve joined Cerberus. I might still be in the military because of the job security it provides had I been responsible for Mila and Sutton. I know technically Sutton would be my responsibility, but making sure her mother was safe and happy, caring for my child, I never would’ve been able to walk away from either of them.
When the food arrives, the boys don’t argue when I split the two vegetable sides between their plates. They continue to play tic-tac-toe in the margins of the menus and alternate between veggies and their other food.
Mila smiles at Sutton as she places bites of her food on the empty plate the dinner rolls came on. Just as she predicted, Sutton plays with her food more than eats it.
I send Mila a glance when our child reaches for one of the mushrooms sitting on top of my plate. I hand it over to the little girl, watching her pull it from the tines of my fork with her hand after Mila nods, telling me it’s okay to give it to her.
Mila is a good mom. She’s attentive. Despite her exhaustion, I haven’t heard her raise her voice once to the kids. She made Luca a promise about tearless shampoo, and she kept it. I witnessed that entire conversation between the two of them, and I even forgot about the shampoo until it was mentioned again last night at bath time.
Dinner continues with no more conversation about right and wrong choices. The trip to the hotel is uneventful, a text from Wren coming in just as we pull up outside letting me know that Adrian Larrick and all of his other men are accounted for in St. Louis.
Mila runs through another bath routine for all three kids, and I step out to call Kincaid and give him updates. He doesn’t brag about being right with traveling with kids, and for that I’m grateful. There’s a huge learning curve when it comes to kids, and as willing as I am to learn, I also appreciate the grace provided when I end up in a situation where I get it wrong.
Mila is standing in the middle of the room when I reenter.
