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“Nope.” Aubree pokes her head up, meerkat style, so I see her over the back of the long couch. “Your present is here. She was just waiting for you to arrive before she opened it.”
“Really?” I push up to stand and take Moo’s hand in mine. Then I cast a look to Fletch and wait for his go-ahead.
I’m in his home, with his daughter, and he and I weren’t doing great all that long ago.
But of course he nods. Because he’s a better man than me. He bends where I am rigid. He forgives, when I can’t see light at the end of a long tunnel.
Smiling in response, I reach back and pat his shoulder with my free hand, then I let Moo lead me toward the gathering in the living room. “I can’t believe you waited all this time for me to get here, Moo. I would’ve opened it as soon as I got it.”
“I was waiting for Aunty Minka, too.”
She drags me around the couch, and I skid to a stop when I find my wife asleep, curled up on her good side, and snoring with deep, chest-rumbling, nose-stripping breaths that have Felix’s lips curled up in happiness.
“When did Aunty Minka get here?” I look to Aubree, since I left them together in my apartment, but then I lower into a crouch and press my palm to Minka’s brow.
I don’t know why. I’m not a fuckin’ doctor. But she kept checking Micah’s temperature when he was laid out on our couch with injuries, so I do the same, and find her completely and utterly… normal.
Except for the weird sounds she makes with her nose.
“Aubree brought her here.” Moo drops to her butt on the rug beside Fifi, and smiles up at the woman when she passes her the paper bag that has endured a toy store, a bank robbery, a hospital stay, and a mysterious trek to Fletcher’s apartment.
“But she fell asleep almost straight away.” My niece giggles and digs her hand into the bag. “She snores really loudly, huh? I didn’t fink her nose would do that.”
“I didn’t know she could make those sounds either,” I chuckle. “But I guess being sick does that to her.”
I lower to my knees and watch as she pulls a giant teddy from the bag. It’s blue with a cloud on its stomach; the right choice, according to Moo’s squeals of delight as she crushes it, cardboard packaging and all, against her body for a hug.
“It’s exactly what I wanted, Uncle Arch!” She thrusts her hand toward her new collection: pink, yellow, purple. “I got a whole family of bears now!”
“Well, hell, baby. That’s awesome.”
I study the mess on the floor. And the Malones who observe us from the outside. Tim, who sits behind Aubree anddoesn’ttouch, and Felix, who hovers near Minka. He doesn’t touch either. Cato remains on the chair, his elbows on his knees, but his eyes are softer now. Less homicidal.
Finally, I bring my gaze to the uncharacteristically warm Fifi. “What games are we playing for Moo’s party?”
“Miss Sera was doing my hair!” Mia picks up a brush and thrusts it back into the hands of the woman who wears jeans today, and a plain black shirt that hugs her body and captures the attention of any man with eyes. “She said she would braid my hair, Uncle Arch! She was just getting started when you came in.”
“I, uh…” Nervous, Fifi fumbles the brush between her fingers as several sets of eyes stop on her. “To stimulate growth. Her hair will grow faster if we brush it more often.”
“Ya wanna know whatIfind stimulating?” Felix peeks at Aubree’s backside, and smirks. “Things I see on the news, over and over andoveragain.”
Slowly, dangerously, Tim turns to the secondborn Malone and pins him with a glare. “Not another word, Felix.”
“Doctor Derrière,” he sniggers anyway. “It’s only fair I get to mention it, since it’s on the news. Freedom of Information Act. It’s a thing!”
“We were going to play a game wif chocolate soon too,” Mia inserts, unaware she saves Felix’s life. “We’re just waiting for Mommy to get here.”
“Oh…?” I glance back to Fletch and feel a tug in my stomach when he shakes his head.
The gesture is tiny. Subtle. But we’ve been partners for far too long for me not to understand what he’s saying.
“What time was she supposed to be here, Moo?”
“My party started atfree.” She looks toward the clock, though I’m damn sure she can’t tell time. “She’ll be here soon. I was saving a spot for her on the rug.”
Fuck.
“But until then,” Aubree sits forward and picks up a packet of hair elastics. “We’ve got you, huh, Moo?”
