Basil (The Brinnswick Chronicles #3) - Michele Notaro Page 0,86

take you and Rasha there if you’re feeling up to it.”

I nodded. “Yeah, let’s do one thing at a time.” Not that I was about to admit it, but I was already feeling worn out, and I’d probably walked less than fifty feet.

“Okay.” He sounded disappointed, but he still shot me a small smile that seemed genuine.

As he opened the door, I heard a little girl’s voice floating toward us. I was so surprised by the amount of words I could hear that it took me a second to realize it was Rasha speaking a million miles a minute. My eyes widened, and I turned to see Basil grinning at me.

“Do you want to go in and say hi, or go straight up to shower first?”

“Can I pop in to say hi?” I asked.

He nodded and led me farther into the house, then turned into a large living room.

“Daddy!” Rasha yelled way louder than I’d expect when we were in someone else’s home. She ran over and threw her arms around my waist, so I bent down to hug her back without fully releasing Basil. I wasn’t ready to be separated from him.

“Are you having fun, peanut?” I asked.

“Yes!” She giggled. “Niya’s letting me help decorate her new dollhouse.”

I glanced into the living room and saw a dollhouse that was probably as tall as my daughter and a little girl about the same size as Rasha standing there with her arms buried in the dollhouse.

The little girl grinned at me with her two front teeth missing, then looked at Basil and said, “You have grass in your hair.”

Basil snorted. “I’m sure I do. Niya, this is Hiro, my viramore and Rasha’s dad.”

“I know,” Niya said with an attitude and an eye roll that made me want to laugh.

“Okay, brat, I just wanted to make sure.”

Niya stuck her tongue out at him, and Basil did it right back at her. This time I did chuckle.

Basil shrugged a shoulder at me and said, “What can I say? She’s got the whole bratty little sister thing down pat, and somehow I always fall for it.”

“Wasn’t gonna say a thing,” I said.

“Yeah right, asshat.” He cringed when he realized Rasha was still standing there. “Sorry.”

Rasha giggled, then ran back over to her new friend, and to my surprise said, “We should paint that room gray and pink since that’s Daddy and Basil’s favorite colors.”

“Okay, you do that one,” Niya said with her tongue sticking between her teeth as she tried reaching something again.

Basil said, “Do you need some help, Ni? I can—”

“No!” Niya and Rasha both yelled together—I couldn’t believe Rasha had as well—and Rasha added, “We’re doing it all by ourselves. No adults allowed.”

“And definitely no annoying brothers,” Niya said.

“No dads either,” Rasha said with a pointed look aimed my way.

My eyebrows rose, but I held my hands up in defeat. “Okay, have fun.” Basil led me back toward the stairs, and as we ascended them, I whispered, “I’ve never seen her so comfortable around someone she just met. I can’t believe she yelled at you like that when we’re in someone else’s home. That was… kinda amazin’.”

Basil grinned at me. “I’m glad she’s comfortable here. I knew she and Niya would get along.”

When we reached the top of the stairs, I grabbed him, pushed him against the wall, and leaned down to bury my face in his neck. My hands were fisting his shirt as I took a deep breath and murmured, “She doesn’t make friends easily, Basil. She… she doesn’t really have any friends, so to see her like that…” I trailed off and breathed to keep my emotions at bay.

Basil wrapped his arms around me, kissed the side of my head, and settled in, just holdin’ me while I pulled myself together. The crazy thing was, I could actually feel his affection for me through our bond. So even though I was embarrassed and worried that he’d see this as a weakness, I could tell he didn’t. In fact, if anything, his affection seemed to be growing with every passing second, and feeling that, knowing that, it was making my own affection for him grow, too.

Eventually, I got my shit together enough to let him lead me to his old room and the bathroom in there. After he showed me what to do—because apparently it was a fuckin’ magic shower, which was so far out of my norm, I was in shock—he asked, “Are you going to be okay by

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