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We continued our way into the dining room, taking a seat at the table.
“Who wants spaghetti?” Carter asked, scooping pasta and sauce into bowls.
Dinner went surprisingly well, Santino keeping the scowls to a minimum. Sofie even warmed up to him, offering him a room in Carter’s house.
“If Tino wants to stay, he can too.”
Once she’d gotten used to Santino, she’d given him the nickname, declaring it was perfect. He, surprisingly, didn’t seem to mind.
“This is Carter’s house, preciosa. I don’t think we can all stay here,” I said, already dreading the moment I had to leave her, if only for a night.
Carter pushed his plate away, leaning back with a sigh. “Stay the night and then decide what to do tomorrow. Like Sofie said, I have plenty of room. And it might make the transition easier.”
“Are you sure? I understand if you don’t want me here.”
He waved me off. “Gunner is the only stubborn poop shoot around these parts. He’s too hardheaded to see past his pride. But he’ll come around.”
I raised a brow at him, and he laughed. “Yeah, you’re right, he probably won’t,” he agreed. “He’s not big on forgiveness.”
“Guess we’re staying the night, then.”
Jumping up, Sofie brought her plate into the kitchen. “Can we play more Uno?”
Grinning, Everleigh pointed to the cake sitting on the table. “Sounds good. But don’t you want to eat your cake first?”
Sofie shook her head, sending her lopsided pigtails flying. “Nah. Carter burned it again. I tried putting sugar over it, but it still tastes bad.”
Carter narrowed his eyes at her. “That’s the last time I’ll bake anything with you.”
Giggling, Sofie avoided his attempts to lift her up. “That’s okay. I bet Ever knows how to bake.”
After playing a few rounds of Uno we all sat in the living room, watching a movie. Sofie had chosen the seat next to me, making a hopeful spark flicker to live that Everleigh was right and all she needed was time.
When Carter declared it was bedtime—taking care of my daughter in my place—the pressure on my chest at hearing his words made hard it to breathe. But then a small hand on my arm sent air rushing back in. “Will you read me a story?”
“Of course,” I whispered, afraid to talk too loudly and scare her away. We stood up, Sofie taking my hand, not realizing how much it meant to me.
“Want me to come tuck you in?” Carter asked, watching us walk out of the room.
“That’s okay, daddy can do it,” my daughter responded, then picked four books.
And for the first time since seeing her, I had hope that we’d be okay.
27
EVERLEIGH
“Any news?” I worried my bottom lip, an annoying habit I’d picked up. Carter kept typing away at his keyboard, showing me footage of a surveillance camera.
We’d been staying with him for the past few days. Lucius coming back was a huge change for Sofie, and we were trying to give her as much time to get used to her dad again as we could.
She wouldn’t let Lucius out of her sight, but she also asked for Carter when he wasn’t in the house. Lucius was slowly building back the trust he’d destroyed by leaving, spending every free minute he had with his daughter.
But he also constantly checked all the exits and barely slept. He was on edge, and I knew it was because he was expecting someone to charge through the door and tell us we had to get out of Chicago.
“Maybe. There hasn’t been another clear image like the last one. But have a look at this.”
Carter brought up a few grainy still images, most likely taken from security cameras. He was amazing with computers. And when he’d heard about my brother disappearing, he offered to help.
