guilty, okay? I was the one in the middle of the road with Scout. If we hadn’t been there, you wouldn’t have had the accident.”
There was no denying that this particular thought had crossed my mind as well. I’d asked myself a million times why they had to be right there at that exact moment. The guilt apparent on her face as tears streamed freely down her cheeks made me want to ease the burden for her.
“It’s not your fault,” I said quietly, unable to keep blaming her for something that I knew had been my own doing.
“It is!” she yelled. “Why didn’t I cross the street at the crosswalk or go the other way or wait half a second? All of this tragedy could have been avoided if I’d done any of those things.”
She sobbed and tilted her face down toward my son’s bald head. She was torturing herself over this. For the first time since the accident, I thought about someone other than myself. This was hurting Molly, too, and I’d been acting like a selfish bastard.
I tried to reach my hand out to her, but she was out of my reach and my body wouldn’t cooperate with my desire to lean out toward her. Beyond frustrated, I growled, “Give me your hand.”
Molly looked up, obviously surprised by the gruff request, but she complied by adjusting Scout into her right arm and giving me her tiny, cold left hand. I squeezed it within mine, trying to warm it up.
“Why are your hands always so frigid?” I asked her.
“Cold hands, warm heart,” she answered almost immediately.
“I can see that,” I responded without thinking. The look she gave me was filled with adoration. I didn’t want to lead her into a life being stuck taking care of me, so I shifted the conversation back to more familiar territory. “So, you live a life of leisure and don’t need to work for a living?”
“Oh, no… not at all. In fact, I have to find something to bring in some rent money soon, but I’m between dead-end jobs at the moment.” She paused, taking on a pensive expression before adding, “I’m still trying to find something that I’m actually good at. My brother always knew he wanted to be a firefighter, and he’s a damn good one. His girlfriend, Dani, had her nose buried in books preparing to become a doctor since we were little. I’ve never had that kind of passion about anything.”
Her raw, honest humility was touching and so different from the slick, rehearsed Hollywood-types that I normally surrounded myself with. I wasn’t quite sure how to respond to such a real, self-effacing revelation.
Deciding to meet her bold honesty with a bit of my own, I said, “You’re excellent at taking care of Scout.”
Her eyes immediately lit with hope at the compliment. “Do you really think so? I’m trying so hard, and I truly care for the little guy. I only want what’s best for him.”
She’d already proven that, so I nodded in confirmation. That gesture seemed to give her the confidence she needed to say, “Oh, good, because I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”
Great… Here it comes. At least it took her a bit longer than most to ask me for some huge, outlandish favor.
She licked her lips nervously before continuing, which made me think that whatever was coming was bound to be a whopper of a request.
“I was hoping that maybe… that you could… I mean, would you let me… umm.”
Growing impatient with her awkward stammering, I growled, “Spit it out.”
My gruff command must have been just the impetus she needed because her words rushed out in a flurry. “I would like to continue watching Scout on a long-term basis, if it’s okay with you. He and I are already quite attached to each other and settled into a routine. I’ll bring him to see you as much as possible. You don’t have to pay me. I’ll try to find a job where I can bring him with me, or I’ll see if my Mom can watch him while I’m at work.”
I blinked at her, honestly stunned that this was her big request of me. When my silence dragged on, she whispered the word, “Please.”
She seemed so sincere and hopeful. I couldn’t believe the only thing she wanted from me was something that would help me out. I was used to being used for my money and fame, so it didn’t seem possible that anyone could truly