“I’m used to pushy people firing off orders.”
She nodded and watched me sip the coffee again. Her focus unnerved me, but the coffee was too good to stop. “I’m Olivia. And there’s creamer in there.”
I spit my mouthful back into the cup and stared down into the black, murky depths.
“Gotcha.”
I scowled. Was she here because she wanted to torture anyone getting together with her ex? She laughed, though, and appeared fairly innocuous, so maybe she was just annoying. “If Cam likes you, we promise not to murder you off the first day.”
“But you don’t promise any other days?”
She shoved my shoulder, and I held back a hiss of pain. “Of course not.”
“Why are you here?” I didn’t mean to sound so rude, but she just covered her mouth with her hand while her eyes laughed at me.
“To see Wayland.” There was a little girl sitting on the counter in the corner who appeared older than the first one I’d met, and somehow I’d missed her. Camden had mentioned he had two little girls. This small person wore yellow sneakers, blue shorts, and aWild KrattsT-shirt. She pushed herself off the counter and hit the floor with a thud.
“Wayland?” I glanced at Camden and felt my lips pursing, in spite of my best efforts. He’d essentially amounted to a shotgun one-night stand. He didn’t owe me anything, obviously, but damn it. “You said you weren’t with anyone. Who’s Wayland?”
Olivia giggled, and when she caught her breath, she said, “Addy, show Mark where Wayland lives.”
I glanced at Camden. He seemed to be thinking very hard about something. “What?” I asked.
“You can’t eat milk products, like, at all?”
“Can’t have cheese, either. Sick of me yet? This was a poor choice right here.” I both felt happy I’d gotten a dig in and awful because I’d made myself feel bad, calling myself defective. “Especially if you already have someone namedWayland.”
Yep, I wasn’t a good pick for a man who could afford this house and already had a family. I didn’t know much about kids, other than they were generally okay, and honestly, I was getting way too fucking far ahead of myself. Addy snagged my hand and made me walk with a tug that had my legs aching. I hadn’t run like I had last night in ages. I nodded to myself. I’d simply enjoy this break from my normal Sunday, and then by next week it would be as if it had never happened. This would be like a lucid dream I told people about at work parties when I’d had one shot too many. I kept that positivity mantra right up until the little girl marched me to the back door.
“I’m not dressed.” I tried to put on the brakes, but she was having none of it.
“You’re fine. Daddy goes outside in only his shorts sometimes. You’re wearing way more than that.” She tugged.
I leaned back, but she had a startling amount of strength for someone two feet shorter than me. “It’s a robe.”
She was unswayed as she tugged on my hand, and finally, with a shrug, I went along. The grass was cold on my feet and the sun wasn’t very high in the sky yet. What was she even doing awake? Didn’t kids sleep in or something? She stomped her tiny self toward a decorative pond in the far-right corner of the backyard near some blooming teacup-rosebushes and a nice fire pit with chairs around it. When she got to the very edge of the pond and the tips of her shoes were touching the water, she studied the ground, then gave a happy cry as she let my hand go. I almost had heart palpitations as she sank down to her knees. What was she doing? She pointed at what I thought was a rock at first, but then it moved, and I jumped back.
She pointed more firmly. “Wayland. He’s a painted box turtle. We saved him from getting smooshed in the road. He’s my good-luck charm.”
All at once I was smiling more than I had in a long time. Addy reminded me of my nephews and nieces. My sister, Maribeth, had five kids, but I never saw them because she lived with her husband in Phoenix. They’d moved for his work. Plus, okay, maybe realizing Wayland was a turtle and not another man with muscles like Camden’s had improved my mood drastically.
I bent forward to examine the yellow and red on the turtle’s shell. “He’s a very beautiful example of the species. And why, Miss Addy, do you need good luck?”
Camden came out the back door holding a banana for some reason and smiled when he noticed me staring. He waved, and I returned it.
Addy popped to her feet and took me by surprise when she shook her fist near my face. “To knock out Henry Raedecker’s tooth.”
“What?” Camden squawked from just behind us.
Olivia, who had come out of the door on his heels, was already tittering before she reached us. Apparently she was familiar with this violent plan. I frowned at Camden because I couldn’t say I approved, but this wasn’t my child.
“Baby,” Camden said with a chuckle. “You can’t punch anyone.”
“But he needs me to!” she wailed at an earsplitting volume. “We need ten bucks!”
Bafflement settled on Camden’s features, and he turned to Olivia with awhat the hell is thisshrug.
Olivia only shook her head. “It’s the neighbor boy in the house on our right. They want to buy bubble guns, and I told them they would also have to buy Eloise and Andrew, Henry’s little brother, one each, so they don’t feel left out. It’s a long, sad tale of tears. They have money for their guns but not the extras.”
