Mrs. Dayne was there, her hand on my forearm. “Don’t worry. I’ve got her. You do what you’ve got to do.”
She picked up Frankie where she was laying on the gravel, face-down, barely able to process what was happening through the daze that clouded my mind. My daughter’s cries. Taillights.
What had I done?
What had I done?
A shovel.
Dirt.
Sweat on my nape.
I struggled for a breath, that numbness fracturing when I picked Missy up and carried her to the hole. I laid her in it.
I squinted, trying to see through the haze.
A shovelful of dirt.
Another.
A mound of nothing.
My girl. My wife. Gone.
They always were.
* * *
“You wants to be my bestest friend?” Frankie’s small voice slipped through the thin wall, muted just the same as the light. Rynna’s echoed back, so goddamned soft it penetrated to the depths of me.
“You want me to be your best friend?”
There was no answer, but my mind was conjuring a clear picture of Frankie vigorously nodding her head against her pillow. Could picture Rynna where she knelt on the ground beside her bed where she’d been reading my daughter her bedtime story.
Of course, because Frankie had again insisted.
“I’d like that,” Rynna murmured, and there was shuffling, what I knew was a tender kiss.
My heart fisted. There was a special kind of terror when things felt too right. Too good. That lulling calm before your life was demolished by a devastating storm.
“Good night, Sweet Pea,” Rynna said.
My ear was tuned to the movement in Frankie’s room as Rynna stood and flipped off the light. Her presence grew denser with each step. Could feel it swallow me from behind when she emerged at the end of the hall.
An avalanche of need.
A landslide of desire.
She edged around the couch. Since Frankie was safely tucked away in bed, Rynna curled up at my side. We were still being careful, easing Frankie into the idea of Rynna and me.
I wound an arm around her, pressed a kiss to her temple.
Milo yipped, and Rynna cooed, pulling him into her arms. She settled back into my chest and released a contented breath.
A breath that filtered through me like peace.
Like warmth and light.
