me today. It’s getting harder and harder to get up and leave each day and not get to see my rolly polly before he wakes up.”
HE WAS ASKING FOR YOU, I signed.
WAS HE REALLY? Love gushed from her expression.
PRETTY SURE HE WAS ASKING FOR YOU BEFORE HE THOUGHT TO ASK FOR ME. WOKE UP TO HIM STANDING UP IN HIS CRIB, CLINGING TO THE SIDE AND JUMPING AROUND AND SHOUTING ‘GRAMMY’.
“Oh.” Mom pressed a hand to her chest. Overcome by her love for this kid. This sweet child that had come from out of nowhere and now held all of our hearts in the palm of his tiny hand.
She headed around the counter, and Everett nearly lost his shit when he saw her.
“Gammy, Gammy, Gammy! Bwue ball?” He started nodding like crazy, dipping his head way down, looking like he was doing some kind of dance.
“How about some breakfast first, and then you can have a treat. Did he eat?” She turned her head to ask me.
“Had some Cheerios and milk a couple hours ago.”
She tsked a little. “Cereal.”
“Don’t start judging my parenting skills.” I cocked a teasing brow at her. Like I had the first clue what it took to be a good dad. But I was sure as hell going to figure it out. “Pretty sure I did just fine on a bowl or two of Cheerios growing up. They’re good for the heart. I might live a year or two longer.”
Mom scowled. “Evan.”
“Bwue ball. Bwue ball,” Everett chanted.
Was funny how I couldn’t hear, and I still felt the chaotic nature of it. The way a child filled up a room, spirit so big and boisterous.
Filled with awe and untapped potential.
The reason we could recognize hope all over again after we’d thought we lost it.
And then Frankie went and appeared in the doorway, coming up short the second she saw us standing there.
A flashfire of energy dumped on the clutter.
This girl the cause of the pandemonium going down in my chest.
Clutching and pulsing and demanding.
Everything fucking ached for her.
Heart and body and mind.
This girl my picture of perfection.
Wild hair barely tamed in this messy twist on the top of her head, brown, frizzy curls getting loose, eyes wide and full of the same disarray of confusion and need and questions she’d watched me with Saturday night.
If I was being honest, she looked a little feral.
So what if I wanted to fucking pet her again.
Mom scooped Everett into her arms. Her attention darted between me and Frankie Leigh before she murmured to Everett something about eggs.
Figured she was talking food again but I was too wrapped in watching Frankie to get the full gist of it.
Mom rounded the counter and went for the heating station where there were a variety of breakfast sandwiches that were prepared each morning so people had a healthier option than a pound of sugar.
“Hi,” Frankie mumbled, her teeth clamping down on her bottom lip, hesitating, like she didn’t know whether to step out and act like nothing had gone down between us Saturday night or tuck tail and slip back through the door.
Pretend like this wasn’t happening.
“Hey,” I told her, letting the hint of a smirk ride up at one corner of my mouth.
She shook her head a little, half amused and half annoyed. “What are you doing here?”
“Just wanted to . . . check in,” I settled on.
See you.
Talk to you.
Remind you again that we belong together.
So yeah. I’d been worried about her yesterday. Especially considering the last thing I’d told her was that I was in love with her and then she’d split. The four of them had packed up and left before anyone had even woken up Sunday morning. Apparently, Frankie had told her mom that Carly wasn’t feeling well.
Except I’d had a pretty good idea where the illness was coming from. Frankie filled with the fear that I was going to hurt her again.
Wasn’t going to stop until she understood that wasn’t going to happen.
Part of me expected her to do it again—run, turn her back on me like I deserved for her to do. Instead, Frankie’s expression turned soft, the girl glancing between me and Everett and back again.
“How is he today?”
God, didn’t know if I could handle her extending her care to Everett. Had nearly come apart when I’d come up from the lake on Saturday to find her with my son in her arms.
That feeling that had taken hold.
I tried to clear the roughness from my throat.