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“It’s still school break, we have until after this weekend…” Maddy argued, crossing her arms.
Liam’s face grew tight, but he ducked it to hide any emotion.
“Let’s go. Shoes, coats…come on.”
The girls listened, filing out of the room.
“Can we please go see Haley tomorrow? I’ve never had a tea party before, and she looks fancy, like she knows how to have them,” Mila whined, tugging on a coat that looked like it was too small for her. Something probably from last winter.
I eyed the other girls and sure enough each of them seemed to have older coats, worn, faded—even torn and ripped in a few places. My gaze traveled to their boots next. They were in even worse shape. The rubber around one sole was split on Maddy’s shoe. Seraphina had colored flowers and hearts all over hers, but the laces had been removed.
Liam glanced up and noticed me looking, which made his jawline clench tight. Fuck I didn’t want to embarrass him. The comment I had delivered in his gym burned like acid in my stomach. But he shouldn’t feel ashamed; he had three kids— girls at that—who needed all sorts of things.
“No, I’ll see if Millie can watch you at the diner for a bit. You guys’ love helping her with the sugar shakers.”
All the girls whined in unison, all complaining about different aspects of the small-town diner.
“Look, I know you don’t know me well, but Cole will be right next doo—”
“Let’s go,” Liam interrupted, cutting a sharp look my way, then walked outside.
He was being ridiculous. Grabbing my coat and sliding my feet back into my boots, I ran after Liam.
I noted the black truck he drove so I would know to look for it next time I traipsed over to my brother’s house. As quick as I could, I plucked one of my business cards I kept inside my cell phone case and once Liam shut the back passenger door, I shoved it at him.
“Here.”
It seemed to catch him off guard, although he didn’t miss a step or even move backward. Probably because he was nothing but muscle. Still, his brows jumped, and his mouth gaped.
The tiny cardstock ridges indented his shirt under his unzipped jacket. It was dark enough now that the streetlights had come on and the shadows of his face were highlighted.
“If for some reason the diner lady can’t watch them, call me. I’m happy to help.”
Before he could respond, I started toward Nora’s porch.
In Malibu, the sway of my hips in my six-inch stilettos would have kept a man’s eye on me and likely had him pulling out his phone to call me before I even got inside my house. Here, in Macon? My snow boots were too loose. There was no swaying of hips…just awkwardly navigating chunks of ice and bits of snow while trying not to face plant.
4
LIAM
You’d thinkafter being a parent for ten years I would learn not to let my kids have ice cream before bed, but no, I just had to let Millie give them a scoop of her famous marionberry. That was only an hour ago, and now Mila was standing in the tub, crying, while Maddy was arguing with her over it being her turn to take a shower. Seraphina was trying to brush her teeth at the sink, and I was standing in the hall with my head hanging in defeat.
They had two speeds when they had too much sugar—they either became incredibly cranky or hyper. It seemed tonight was going to be a full-on meltdown.
“It’s my turn, did you take all the hot water?” Maddy yelled, which made Mila cry harder. I just needed Mila to wash the ice cream out of her hair before her tangles got any worse. She could usually do this on her own, but when she felt like her sisters were mad at her, she had the tendency to overreact.
“Stop yelling at me!”
“Girls, that’s enough!” I bellowed from my place in the hall.
Maddy turned toward me with a red face and her arms tucked into her chest.
“Maddy, go take a shower in my bathroom. Mila has to wash her hair before the ice cream dries.”
With a roll of her eyes, Maddy agreed and took off upstairs.
With Mila turning five, we were past the point where I helped her in the bath anymore, unless she wore a bathing suit. I was her dad and I’d never hurt her, she knew that, but I wanted to drill into her head that she was growing up, and there were ways to be safe as she grew up, no matter who it was. We kept a suit hanging on the towel rack for situations like this.
