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“Oh my God, let me get some frozen peas.” She takes a few steps to the freezers and grabs a large pack before coming back and taking her phone from my hands and shoving the peas there instead.
“You call me the minute you see him,” I say to her, leaving no room for discussion. “I don’t want him touching you. I don’t want him anywhere near you or your daughter.”
She nods, and I notice her eyes fill with tears, but she is trying to remain composed as she takes a deep breath and exhales slowly.
“Fuck.” My one good hand wraps around her waist, and I pull her to me, her head reaching my chest, where she settles against my pounding heart. Her hands wrap around my torso, and I toss the peas onto the floor as my other hand grabs the back of her head. Holding her close to me, I bury my nose into her hair, something I have wanted to do since I first met her in the ER. It is so soft and smells too good to be in my damaged hands, yet I don’t move them, preferring to have the silkiness in my grip.
She is fucking small in my arms, and I have the strong desire to pick her up and take her home with me. Usually, I would, but this is different. She is different.
“Mom?” Ivy’s voice is quiet, and Cat and I pull away from each other like we are on fire.
“Hey, Ivy,” I say as I squat down to Ivy’s height.
“I’m friends with your mom, and I just gave her my cell number. I want you to call me any time you need to, okay? No matter what the time, or what is happening, you just give me a call.” As a kid, I wish that I had an adult who offered an out, someone who I could pass on my worries to.
“Okay,” she says quietly, her eyes skirting from me to her mom and back again. I see Cat nod to her out the corner of my eye, and then Ivy smiles to us both as I stand back up.
“Carter, did you know that there are over one thousand different ice cream flavors in the world?” And now she’s back to her bubbly self, licking a chocolate ice cream, with Tony nowhere in sight.
“I don’t eat ice cream,” I mumble, though it looks fucking delicious.
“What?” Both Cat and Ivy baulk, looking at me like I have grown two heads.
“I’m a fighter. I need a clean diet.” I shrug, but that explanation isn’t enough for them.
“Is he serious?” little Ivy whispers to her mom, even though I can hear every word, and I need to hide my grin.
“Afraid so, honey,” she says in a disappointed tone.
“So I guess he can’t come to our movie nights, then?” she asks, looking up at Cat.
“I’m not sure we can trust a man who doesn’t eat ice cream, Ivy,” Cat says back, the two of them whispering about me like I am not even here. Although Cat gives me a cheeky wink, making my heart thump, the feeling then traveling directly south. Her face has now relaxed a little more, her eyes twinkling as she chats with her daughter. She looks good with a smile. And I bet she would look even better in my bed.
“What about candy? Do you eat candy?” Ivy asks as she looks at me with a penetrating gaze like I am a suspect in a trial, and I am glad she is back to her original self.
“Nope. No candy,” I say, shaking my head, and both their eyes grow wider than they did about the ice cream.
“No candy?!” Ivy whisper-shouts to Cat again, and even she needs to stifle her grin.
“What do you think? Do you think he can be friends with us if he doesn’t eat candy?” she asks Ivy.
“Hmm… maybe…” Ivy thinks it over as she continues to lick her ice cream, assessing me.
Cat looks at me and smiles again, which I find myself returning. I’m fucking mush in front of this woman. I need to get a grip.
“Thanks, Carter. For helping earlier. I appreciate it.” The way she says it, it’s like I have given her the world. Who he is to her, I still don’t know.
“I will see you at the self-defense class next week, right?” I want her to have every tool in her arsenal in case that dickhead ever comes back and I am not around. I also want to see her again. Badly.
She sighs and raises her eyebrows. “Yep, I will be there.” There’s exhaustion in her expression, and it’s then I find myself in awe. How does she do it? A doctor, at the top of her game, with a daughter full of energy and sass, having to deal with a man who seems intent on hurting her, and then moving to a new city only a few months ago.
The urge to protect her runs through my body. And now, to know she also has a little girl to protect as well, it has me thinking about when I was a kid. I know how that shit affects a person, and that sweet girl doesn’t need that in her life. All I want to do is wrap them both in my arms and take them to my place, where I know they’ll be safe and cared for.
Cat is too good for me, I know this. My job is dangerous, I fight, I hate almost everyone and everything… but none of that has helped to push her from my mind.
Maybe I just need to get her out of my system? Maybe we just need something from each other, and one time would be enough.
Only, I know even as I think it, that could never be true. That would never be enough.
