“You’re crazy.”
My audience was looking out at me trying to decipher the conversation transpiring in front of them, but they could only hear one side. They all looked puzzled—except for Stormi. She got up from the couch and came to me. She peered up at me as she placed her small hand in my free one, hanging at my side.
“I think Uncle Huntley is crazy about you, Auntie River.”
The others in the room laughed, my kids included, which still kind of amazed me how they’d taken to the man and seemed okay with their cousin's assessment.
“Smart girl,” Huntley said in my ear.
Was he confirming what she said was true?
“She’s right?” I asked, dumbfoundedly.
“Of course she is, sweetheart. Now open up and let me in.”
Just then there was a knock on the door.
“It’s Huntley,” I told everyone, as if they didn’t already know, or at the very least, have a hunch.
Bre jumped off the couch. She still looked shaken, but I guessed Huntley trumped any lingering fear.
“I’ll let Superman in,” she said as she quickly ran for the door.
“Hey, what am I?” Bronson asked her, feigning offense, and further lightening the mood. “Chopped liver?”
“You can be Batman,” Bre fired back.
Huntley must have heard their banter through the phoneand let out another chuckle. That sound was something I could really get used to hearing forever, I thought.
My eyebrows practically hit my hairline at the thought.
I didn’t do men, much less forever. Or more like ever.
But when Bre opened the door and my eyes met Huntley’s, I couldn’t imagine ever giving him up.
Chapter Eighteen
HUNTLEY
Sleep wouldn’t come.
I lay on River’s couch, a fucking load of emotions running wild through me.
Hearing the scream earlier on the phone and not knowing what was happening, even if for only those few minutes it took Bronson to get there, had me going out of my mind.
Seeing River and the kids when I arrived settled me a fraction, but as soon as Bre told me about what she’d see outside her window, adamant that it was a man based on the build, I was struggling to control the rage and worry.
I’d all but barked out orders to Bronson about installing a new security system and cameras like they had at their place. A nice set up that had gone in when someone had broken into Lake’s place when just her and Stormi lived there. And then I all but demanded it happen the next day.
To my relief, he didn’t argue and one call to Lyric, followed by Braxton, the plan was in motion for the next day.
But even one night of leaving them alone wasn’t happening and after Bronson, Lake, and Stormi headed home, I’d asked for a blanket with a plan to sleep in my truck.
River shocked me when she said she wouldn’t have me sleeping in my vehicle and asked if I’d stay on her couch. With Lennon and Bre in agreement, that’s where I found myself, time drifting by and my mind racing, unable to get any shut eye.
Hearing light footsteps coming from the hall, I realized I wasn’t alone any longer. And then I heard River’s soft, sweet voice as she got closer.
“Are you asleep?”
