“Sure.” I bit my tongue to keep from asking about why he needed the picture.
He placed Ron on the ground with Andy, and I followed suit with Harper. As he stood, he looked back at me and gave a playful shrug. “Or we could save it for after sex.”
“How many did you get?”
“Four.”
“Perfect.” I stepped closer to him, running the back of my fingers up his stomach and over his chest. “How about two during the sex and then two for after?”
Noah reached out and started tugging my T-shirt up. “Guess Kayla isn’t the only one who’s pretty and brilliant.”
“I SEEwhat you mean about the linoleum.” Kayla cringed.
“And everything else.”
She nodded. “Yes. Everything else. From the crooked window to the view.” She grinned at me. “You’re going to be crazy happy here.”
“Yeah. I will.” I paused for a moment, peering out of the kitchen and watching Bailey play with the three dogs. Though she’d been ecstatic to see me, this was the only time all the sadness seemed to leave her eyes. Of course, there wasn’t much three puppies couldn’t cure in a little girl. At least for a few minutes. I turned back to Kayla. “Hard to believe. We got movers scheduled for next week.”
“Wow. Once you decide, you move fast.” She took a sip of her tea. “Sounds like you. The real you.”
It was only two days since the showdown at her house. We’d seen each other the day before, but we were both on eggshells, and we didn’t have a moment without Bailey, which was the point. She knew her dad hadn’t gone on a business trip and that all of us were fighting. Obviously. Kayla thought it would help her for the three of us to be together and watch movies and eat pizza. I think it did help. But I’d never seen Bailey like this. So sad and worried.
All my fault.
Kinda.
I could have at least found a way where she wasn’t the witness.
To Kayla’s credit, and for the first time I could remember, she was careful in how she spoke about Dustin in front of Bailey. Even now, she glanced toward Bailey and the dogs before looking back to me. “Dustin called again this morning. Swearing he didn’t do anything other than find Stewart. And begging to come home. Begging, Randall. I’ve never heard him like this before. Not even when we were dating and he was sweet, before I realized I’d married into a dictatorship.”
I studied her. “You believe him, don’t you?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Almost. Yeah. But I don’t. I’m not going to let myself be talked into something stupid.”
“Are you thinking about leaving him?”
“Of course I am. How could I not?”
I contorted my face in sympathy.
“No, Randall, I’m serious. I need you to tell me. How could I not leave him? If I stay, I’ll look like the weakest woman in the world. And what kind of example will I be giving Bailey? I’ve already done a bad enough job of that, showing her a husband is supposed to control his wife. Sure, she doesn’t know all that’s going on right now, but she will one day. And what will she think then? When she learns that I stayed with a man who accused her beloved uncle of such horrid things? I can’t do that to her. Of course I have to leave him.”
Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised by the pain in her voice, but I was. “You really do love him, don’t you?”
She winced. “Yes. And I hate myself for it. I hate how weak it proves I am. I love the man he was when we were dating. When I first got pregnant. The man he still is every once in a great while when your father isn’t looking.” She let out a disgusted sound, then glanced toward Bailey. “Lord, I sound like an abused wife, don’t I?”
I didn’t answer her. I had no idea what to say.
“You know what he said?” She looked back at me, her voice lowering even more. “He told me he’d go to marriage counseling with me if I wanted. That he’d do anything to prove that he is willing to change.”
I gawked at her. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah. I know, right? Your brother. Not in a million years.” Kayla’s face fell. “Of course, I asked him if he was willing to be honest and admit to all the shit he’s doing to you if he was willing to do anything.”
“What’d he say?”
“You know what he said. Sticking to that same lie.” Kayla took another drink of tea. “I also feel bad for the pictures.”
