For them, I’d find them.
“Will I still be strong if I…if I talk to you?” Abel’s voice is soft now as he looks down at me and I finally watch some of his walls come down.
“You’ll be strong no matter what you choose to do, Abel, but I hope you consider talking to me. I would love to get to know you.”
He’s quiet again as he thinks it over. “Okay, but I don’t want to call you dad yet.”
“That’s okay. You can call me Atlas for as long as you like.”
I give his hand a final squeeze as he gets down from the bed, reaching underneath it to grab at the bags from the mall. He pulls out the blue shirt Eve was looking for and looks up at me sheepishly. “I’m sorry I hid the clothes.”
I stand with him, keeping Eve’s hand in mine as sherises after me. “It’s okay, but you should probably change if you want to catch the bus, it’s almost time for it to be here.”
He nods and immediately strips his itchy shirt to trade it for the blue polo. “This one is soft. I like it.”
“Good.” Eve reaches down and finishes packing his bag before handing it over to him. “Get outside, Bel, I hear the bus coming.”
How the hell – oh, there it is.
“Bye!” Abel gives Eve a quick hug and shoots me a wave before running downstairs. I hear the guy’s saying goodbye, and we make it down just in time to see Abel running out the door with a waffle in his hand.
Eve stops beside me and wraps an arm around my waist. “You did good up there.” She huffs out a soft laugh and wipes her face. “Ruined my fucking mascara, though.”
I look down into her steel grey eyes, red rimmed and surrounded by bits of makeup that’s come off from her tears. “You’re beautiful, Eve, and tears can’t decay a diamond.”
She smiles, coming around to lay her head on my chest. We stand there in the middle of the living room as I watch Abel get on the bus through the window. Roman walks through the living room with a bagel in one hand and a gray blob in the other.
“Who’s a good boy? You are! Yes, you are.”
“Roman! Did you steal my fucking cat?” Eve unwraps herself from my arms and places her hands on her hips as Roman freezes in his tracks.
“Um…”
Wylder walks into the living room and places a cup of coffee in Eve’s hand before dropping a kiss onto her forehead. “Yes, he did. Haven’t you realized Terry’sbeen missing ever since Roman moved into my place?”
Eve crosses her arms and grumbles, “Well, not really. He’s always been independent.” She sighs and rubs her forehead, “I’m a bad cat mom.”
I wrap an arm around her waist and pull her back to me. “No, you’re not; Roman’s just a fucking thief.”
My phone begins to buzz in my pocket and as much as I want to let it go to voicemail, I know I can’t.
Eve stays where she is as I slide my phone from my pocket and hold it up to my ear, “Atlas here.”
I feel Eve’s laugh but the voice on the other end of the line grabs my attention before I can say anything else.
“Wade is in Colorado.”
Chapter 29
Eve
Myhand falls to my side as I watch Atlas and Kor climb into Wylder’s truck with him at the wheel, ready to drive them nearly three hours away to a town at the base of the Rockies – the place one of Atlas’s men spotted Wade just an hour ago.
Why the fuck is Wade in Colorado?
He can’t answer my phone calls, but he can mosey around playing tourist in the fucking mountains like he’s got all the time in the world.
But he doesn’t. We don’t.
