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I left them to negotiate an acceptable amount of beach days, knowing we’d be down there nearly every day. Lucius still carried so much guilt for leaving Sofie that he gave in on most things.
Finding Carter standing in the open fridge door, studying the contents, made me smile. He was such a conundrum. Family man and jokester at home, badass commando and computer genius at work.
I looked over his shoulder, noticing the nearly empty fridge. “What are we having for dinner?”
“Pizza. We forgot to go to the store.”
“Rosie’s?”
He pulled his phone out, nodding. “Of course. I’ll order if you get out the carrots so Blake won’t complain about the unhealthy dinner we’re about to feed his daughter.”
I snorted but peeled and cut the carrots. Carter still called Lucius by the name he’d used when he first met him. But to me he’d always be Lucius.
We settled around the kitchen table to eat twenty minutes later. Lucius shot a reprimanding look at Carter about our dinner choice, and Santino made a rare appearance, opting to stay at a hotel in town after spending one night on Carter’s couch and waking up to Sofie putting hairbands in his hair.
He was going to San Diego with us, agreeing to come as soon as Lucius asked him. They were both restless, but I hoped they’d be happy there.
“You good to leave in two days?” Lucius asked between bites of pizza.
Santino grunted in affirmation, then continued eating. He’d barely swallowed the last piece of his pizza when Sofie asked him if he wanted to watch The Little Mermaid with us. Mumbling something about an errant he had to run he left shortly after. Carter locked himself into his office, leaving the three of us to cuddle up on Carter’s couch.
Sofie was tucked tightly into Lucius’ side, her face awash with happiness. She fell asleep within the first ten minutes, and Lucius put her in our bed. She’d been refusing to stay in her own, worried that she’d wake up and Lucius would be gone.
I understood her fears and would do whatever it took to make her feel comfortable and safe. We already felt like a family, so sleeping in the same bed seemed normal. I missed spending time with Lucius, but Sofie needed us right now.
When he came back, he lifted me up from where I’d been sitting on the couch, then dropped down on the cushion, settling me sideways on his lap. I laid my head on his chest, my arm winding around his middle.
“Do you mind if I ask what happened to Sofie’s mom?”
The question had been on my mind for a while, but I hadn’t been sure if it was my place to ask. Neither Lucius nor Sofie ever mentioned her. But if we wanted to make this work, I had to know if she would come back at some point.
“Isobel was a one-night stand. One that I can’t regret because it got me Sofie. Last I heard she was living in Houston. But I haven’t checked in on her for nearly two years. So who knows.”
“She never calls? Or visits Sofie?”
Lucius pressed a kiss to the top of my head, gathering me closer. “She wanted Twenty thousand dollars to go through with the pregnancy. Her name isn’t even on the birth certificate. She walked out of the hospital the day after giving birth and hasn’t seen Sofie since.”
I tilted my head back, unable to believe someone would just walk away from their child. “Her loss, my gain.”
His mouth twitched and he leaned down, pressing his lips to mine.
Being with Lucius was better than anything I could have imagined. I couldn’t wait to start our life together and I was excited to show him and Sofie my hometown.
28
LUCIUS
San Diego was the opposite of Chicago. The sun shone most days, temperatures hovered around seventy degrees, and it barely rained.
Sofie loved the beach, and Everleigh never tired of wandering up and down the sand with her, looking for shells. We already had quite the collection at the house.
We were staying with Everleigh, and Santino got an apartment in the same complex.
But I wasn’t settled. I’d been working all my life, so sitting around, doing nothing was making me restless. Which in turn made me feel guilty because I should have been happy.
I needed something to do and had been diving headfirst into finding out why Maurizio sent money to a place I’d never heard of every month. It was bothering me. He was not the charitable type. If he sent money somewhere, it was for a reason.
And I needed to know why. Tie up the last loose end. I’d been trying to dig through a mountain of information Carter sent me, but the account statements and emails between Maurizio and Hills View Berries told me nothing. My last option was to google the name and see what came up.
