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“Seriously?” he asks.
“Fucking think about it.”
My stomach knots as I think about Kristie.
“J, get the footage up,” I whisper, desperate to see if she’s okay.
“Take the long way back,” Ezra says down the line. “Let us check it out and we’ll let you know what’s going on before we?—”
“It’s my fucking house,” Reid complains.
“And it’s our fucking job to go in first, Boss,” Ezra says, falling into line behind the Hawks soon-to-be leader.
“Fine. We’ll await your call.”
Reid hangs up with a grunt of irritation.
Griff reaches over and squeezes his shoulder in a silent show of support.
No words are said as he takes a last-minute turn that will lead us to the edge of town.
“Oh shit.” Mav grunts, clutching Daisy in his arms as his shoulder crashes into the door. “Take it easy. Precious cargo back here.”
Reid’s eyes meet mine briefly before they land on the little girl in Mav’s arms.
“Sorry,” he mutters.
It takes a few minutes, but eventually, Daisy’s sobs lesson and after a little encouragement, she lifts her head from the crook of Mav’s neck.
“Hey, sweetheart,” I say, a wide smile spreading across her lips as I reach out to wipe her sodden cheeks.
“Nana?” she asks, making my heart shatter into a million pieces.
My lips part to respond, but I quickly find that I don’t have any kind of answer.
Thankfully, it seems that one of us might just be better with kids than all the others.
“It’s Daisy, right?” JD asks, reaching his hand in front of me to greet her. “My name is Julian, but everyone calls me JD.”
She studies him. Really studies his face before her eyes drop to his hand.
“You have drawings like Mavwick,” she points out.
“Yeah, I do. Do you like them?” JD asks, holding the back of his hand up so she can look at his ink.
“The pwetty ones,” she says quietly.
JD chuckles as he wraps his other arm around my shoulders. “Yeah, I like the pretty ones too. And I really like your hair,” he says, reaching out and gently tugging one of her ringlets. “Do you have any bows to go into it?”
Wiggling out of Mav’s hold, Daisy climbs onto my lap to get closer to JD.
I swear to God, my ovaries shatter right then and there as I watch her stare up at him with big watery eyes.
I’ve been a part of Daisy’s life since she was born. But I’ve never really got that involved. I didn’t want to step on Sheila’s toes. I knew she was skeptical of mine and Mav’s relationship, so I didn’t want her to think I was trying to steal her great-granddaughter just because I was married to him.
Mav did the right thing with Daisy. I knew that there was likely going to be a time where we’d have to take over the parental role. And I was okay with that. Hell knows it wasn’t going to happen any other way.
But as much as I wanted to be there for her, to get down on the floor and play with her, every single time I looked at her, all I saw was Kristie staring back at me.
