Rachel ran to him, and he laughed as he lifted her up and swung her around. “Hey, sweetheart.”
“Reggie, I missed you.” She planted a kiss smack on his cheek.
“Me too.” He looked over her shoulder at Amy, who smiled at him. He didn’t smile back, not sure what to feel about her. “Amy.”
“Hi, Reggie.”
“What the hell is this?” Mack said, sounding colder than Reggie had ever heard him.
He turned around to see Mack glaring at Amy.
“Mack, you remember Amy andRachel.”
Mack glanced at the little girl Reggie held and eased back on the animosity. He flashed her a charming grin. “Hello there, lovely lady. You sure got big.”
She giggled. “Hi, Mack.”
Reggie set her down, but she continued to stand close, wrapping an arm around his waist.
“Reggie, can I talk to you?” Amy asked, her voice soft.
Mack snorted. “Oh,nowyou want to talk? What’s wrong? You need a place to stay again?”
Amy blushed. Rachel looked back and forth between her mother and Mack but said nothing.
“Mack.” Reggie shook his head.
“Yeah?” Mack crossed his arms over his chest and planted himself by Reggie’s car.
Reggie sighed. “Amy, let’s head to the diner.” A familiar spot the gang often went for breakfast after a shift, back when they’d been at their old station. Since they’d made the move to Station 44, they no longer frequented the place, preferring a diner closer, in Beacon Hill.
“I’ll come with you,” Mack offered.
Surprised, Reggie looked at him. “Ah, I think it would be best if I talked to Amy alone.”
“Sure. But what do you thinkMaggiewill think?”
“Maggie?” Amy frowned.
“His girlfriend,” Mack blurted. Then he turned and left mumbling, “Stupid bastard.”
Reggie let Amy drive them to the diner since he no longer had a booster seat for Rachel. Which made him wonder if he should get a new one for Emily.
“You have a girlfriend?” Amy asked.
She looked good. The same. Smiling yet resigned, her hazel eyes bright in an otherwise beautiful yet drawn face. Amy had freckles across the bridge of her nose that turned her from bombshell sexy to a mix of glamorous beautiful. Her melancholy added a hint of drama, and he’d always considered her intriguing rather than gloomy.
Rachel, on the other hand, was an exuberant girl, with her mother’s riot of dark-brown curls, hazel eyes, and freckles. Fortunately, she looked more like her mother than her father. Devon was a con man with a criminal past who’d deserted his family. And this was the man Amy thought her daughter needed?
Realizing she’d asked about his new girlfriend, he answered, “Yeah. Maggie’s great.”
“I’m happy for you.”
Yeah? So why don’t you look happy?
She kept her eyes on the road as she drove and said, “Reggie, I need help.”
He swallowed a sigh. They pulled into the diner. She turned off the car. “Shall we go in?”
