Written with You (The Regret Duet #2) - Aly Martinez Page 0,48

my face that her eyeball was all I could see. She leaned to the side to get a better view of my bruise. It had to have been at least her tenth inspection of the night.

“And clearly he’s right.”

I hadn’t been sure what to say to her when we’d arrived and she’d asked me what had happened to my face. The last thing I wanted was for Caven to see me lie again. But the kid was four. She didn’t need to know that some guy had attacked me in a parking lot. Or that he was looking for her mother. And she definitely didn’t need to know that there was a very real chance that he was going to come looking for me again. Thankfully, Caven had jumped in with an elaborate story about shoestrings and tripping down the stairs. It ended with a moral and everything. Seriously, his dad level was epic.

“Did you get to pick purple?” she asked.

“No. That’s just what color bruises are. Black, blue, purple, and sometimes green.”

“No pink?” she whispered, thoroughly offended as she lifted her finger to trace around the edge. Again.

“Don’t do it,” Caven scolded as he walked into the room wearing the universal hot-guy sleeping attire of gray sweats and a plain white tee. He set a glass of water and two Tylenol on the end table next to me and hooked his daughter around the stomach, plopping her on the middle cushion of the couch while he settled on the other side of her. “Quit touching her face. A bruise is an ouchy. You wouldn’t like it if I was poking at your ouchy, would you?”

“I was being careful.”

“Careful is not touching it.” He kicked his feet up onto the coffee table and nabbed the remote. “What are we watching tonight, Willow?”

It was a miracle, but I wasn’t even breathy as I replied, “Oh, um, it doesn’t matter. Whatever.”

He shot me a teasing glare. “You do know that if you don’t pick something we have to watch the Animal Channel, right?”

“Yesssssss!” Rosalee hissed.

God, I loved her.

I loved this.

The casual comfort of three people just lounging on the couch. In recent memory, I’d never been that happy before.

I wasn’t hiding a ticking time bomb.

I wasn’t pretending.

I wasn’t lying for the sake of someone else.

I was Willow Banks sitting on Caven Hunt’s couch. With his daughter. My niece. The only remaining member of my family. It was all so perfectly boring that it wasn’t even worth noting.

And that might have been what made it the most noteworthy of all.

“Then I guess we’re watching the Animal Channel,” I said, flashing him the most genuine smile that had ever crossed my lips.

She bounced in her seat as Caven groaned. He wasn’t the least bit annoyed though. Based on his subtle smiles, he loved the monotony almost as much as I did.

We were absolutely living in the seconds that night.

I’d thought it would be strange to be at his house again. But from the moment I’d walked through the door, everything had felt right.

After inspecting my face the first time, Rosalee had cornered me with a box of crayons and a mountain of coloring books. Caven had attempted to come to my rescue, but after the day I’d had, sitting at his dining room table and quietly coloring with the girl I loved most in the world seemed like the best way to unwind.

Much to my surprise, Caven didn’t hover. Well, at least not over Rosalee. I’d caught him creeping on me several times when he’d thought I wasn’t looking. I had no idea how he did it, but the moment my ice pack would start to warm, he’d magically appear with another one. Thanks to his constant care, the swelling on my cheek was minimal. But given the ache behind my eye, I had a sneaking suspicion the bruising wasn’t going to cooperate as nicely.

Hence the Tylenol and water—another of his magic tricks.

Caven proved his experience by clicking exactly two buttons on the remote. When two lizards duking it out appeared on the screen, Rosalee squealed almost as loudly as she had when she’d learned we were having cake and french fries for dinner.

Caven grinned down at his daughter before he turned his attention on me. “Did you talk to Beth?”

Boy, had I talked to Beth. First, she’d screamed at me when she found out I’d gotten attacked and hadn’t called her. Then she’d screamed in surprise when she found out Caven showed up