“She’s two,” I said absently. “She doesn’t know anything apart from how to hide M&Ms in mycouch.”
“Then give her organic raisins like Ash does. Theydon’tmelt.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” My face twisted into a wry smile. Ash had been Cosmo’s best friend since the day she was born. Some days I was lucky to get a look in with either of them, and Joe suffered the same. Not that we minded. A child could never be loved too much, andno onecould be loved too much by Ash. “I shouldcallhim.”
I reached for my cell phone, but Danni's knowing smirk stopped me. I followed her gaze to the lone figure sitting on a bench across the street, and all the doubtful tension in my bodyfadedaway.
I’d told him not to come to the courthouse. He was a gentle soul, but he didn’t take kindly to well-meaning social workers picking our lives to shreds. After the first hearing, I’d convinced him to stay home. It appeared I’d been talking to myself, though, because there he was, slouched down with his hood up, looking a decade younger than his twenty-seven years. Fucker hadn’t agedabit.
On cue, he looked up, and as he found my eyes, everything fell into place. I’d felt off kilter when I’d walked out of the courthouse, but Ash grounded me, like he always had. Securing Liam’s future had been our focus for months. Now it was over, all that was left was to makeitwork.
Right?
Heh.
A conversation flashed into my mind, whispered a few months ago in the dead of night when I’d started awake to find Ash staringatme.
“You’re nothappy.”
“Iknow.”
“Why?”
“I’mjust…not.”
And despite the efforts of the people who loved me most, nothing hadchanged.
ChapterTwo
Ash
November
The blast of the alarm clock woke me. I jumped and slammed my hand down on it, then rolled over and eyed Pete. Years ago he’d been such a light sleeper that his cell phone had only needed to vibrate under his pillow and he’d be up, wide awake and ready to go. He didn’t stir now. These days, two years after an accident that had nearly killed him, it took him a while and several nudges from me to getgoing.
Not that I often nudged him much, unless he had somewhere to be. Pete sleeping, his strong chest bare, his arm flung over his head, was the kind of beautiful that made the rude awakening from the alarm clock totallyworthwhile.
Unfortunately, though, it was one of those mornings when we both had to get up. Pete had to work, and after a morning of working on the accounts at the studio, I’d be driving across the city to pick Liam up from his foster family and bring him home for the weekend. “Pete?” I put my hand on his chest and shook him gently. “Wake up, fucker. It’smorning.”
Pete groaned and shook his head. “No…s’not.”
“Would I lietoyou?”
Pete opened one deep brown eye and then the other. I watched the haze clear and his brain work to gather his thoughts. “What timeisit?”
“Five-thirty. You’re starting early today so you can take Liam to that movie he wantstosee.”
“The one about themeatballs?”
“Somethinglikethat.”
Pete sat up and rubbed his eyes. “He knows I’m on the third shift on Sunday,right?”
“I thought you were going to try and change thatshift?”
Pete’s answering grunt was noncommittal, and for a brief moment, I felt like punching him. But the feeling faded as quickly as it had come. I’d grown used to this in recent months, and I tried not to compare him to the Pete I’d woken up with this time last year. The Pete who’d rolled over and smiled sleepily at me like he was the happiest guy in the world. The Pete whohadbeen happy. For a whole year, we’d been blissfully content, but then Maggie had gotten sick and died, and part of Pete had diedwithher.
I started to get out of bed. Pete’s hands on my shoulders caught me off guard. He yanked me over him and locked his arms around me in a grip that left me plenty of room to breathe. “Nope,” he said with a sleepy smirk. “You’rewarm.”
