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Luckily, though, I would be there for her when it happened. Picking up the slack with Judah. Allowing her to take all the time she needed to recover mentally.
“I hope he pulls through,” Claire said, dragging me back to the present.
“I have all the faith in Lettie. She’s the best at what she does.”
“So… what now?” Claire asked.
“Now… we settle in,” I said. “Find ways to fill the days. And nights,” I added with a grin that had her cheeks looking a little pink.
“Relo,” Judah said, coming into the room, talking to me.
Aurelio was not the kind of name a two-year-old could say easily. So… Relo it was.
“What’s up, bud?”
“Noodles.”
“Noodles? Already?” I asked. “Where are you putting all this food?” I wondered, then watched as he yanked up his shirt, and pointed at his belly. “In there?” I asked, getting down, and knocking on his stomach. “You know what? It does sound empty,” I said. “Guess I need to make some noodles.”
“I can make the noodles. I know you said you had errands to run today.”
“If you want… we can all go. After noodles,” I said, grabbing a pot, rinsing it off, then filling it before putting it on the burner.
“Really?” she asked, cautiously hopeful.
And it suddenly occurred to me just how much Claire, and Judah, had been missing. The only difference being that Judah had no idea what he was missing out on.
When was the last time Claire had been to a store? Been able to browse aisles and pick out new things?
Had Judah ever been anywhere aside from Warren’s house, mine, and that brief stint to the library?
“Yeah,” I said, nodding. “We shouldn’t make a regular thing of this, for the time being. But there’s no reason we can’t all go to a store today.”
Though I would be sure to pick a store further away from the house. Just to be safe.
“Judah has never seen a store. It might be a bad idea. He will probably pick out everything off the shelves.”
“So?” I asked, shrugging. “He’s gonna have to go to a store sooner or later. If he picks out twenty new toys to keep himself occupied while we’re here, so be it. Maybe we can even introduce him to fast food on the way home. He’s a bottomless pit.”
“I think he’s going through a growth spurt,” she agreed.
“And with all the excitement, he will probably pass out hard after,” I said, letting my hand brush across her lower back as I passed her, fingertips grazing her ass a bit.
“After noodles, do you want to go in the car?” she asked Judah.
Judah wholeheartedly agreed to that.
“Thank God you picked me up that makeup when you went to the store,” she said as she reached up to run a hand over her jaw. “I hope the concealer does a good job.”
She went ahead and got herself ready while I finished the noodles then set Judah in the highchair to eat.
“I don’t like how good you are at covering those up,” I said, walking into the bathroom to find her standing there in a towel, finishing up brushing some loose powder onto her carefully made-up face.
“It’s not a skill I’m going to need after this,” she said with the kind of certainty of a woman who would never again be with a man who raised a hand to her.
“You’ve got that right,” I agreed, pressing a kiss to her temple.
“Where’s Judah?”
