Fine by me. I’d learned the hard way that trying to cook with a two-year-old wrapped around my legs was a pain intheass.
Danni left, and I spent the rest of my day refilling juice cups and drawing fairies. Cosmo and I were outside decorating the front steps when Pete finally appeared in theafternoon.
I sensed his gaze on me long before I saw him, and I forced myself to wait to look up until he put his foot on the first step. “Mornin’.”
“Afternoon, more like.” Pete grinned and sank down on the step beside me, not quite touching me, but close enough that I could feel the current between us—the current that still made my palms itch to touch him, feel him… and give him everythingIhad.
“How was yournight?”
Pete shrugged. “Quiet until thismorning.”
“Then all hell broke loose?” I refrained from pointing out that he should’ve been home before dawn. “Where’sGlenn?”
“Still working. I left him stitching the lastfewkids.”
I winced. “Wasitbad?”
“Not as bad as it could’ve been. Nofatalitiesyet.”
I didn’t ask anymore. Some days Pete saw things even my twisted mind couldn’timagine. “So…”
Pete raised an eyebrow. “So what? Something onyourmind?”
“No.”
“Liar.”
“You looktired.”
“Tired, Unky Pete.” Cosmo ditched her chalk and climbed into Pete’s lap. “Daddys’mores.”
“S’mores, huh?” Pete looked to me fortranslation.
“Joe cooked on the roof lastnight.”
“Ah, the roof. My favoriteplace.”
Pete buried his face in Cosmo’s sweet-scented hair. She wound her chubby arms around his neck and laid her cheek on his shoulder. Like me, Pete was her calm place. She liked to play games with me and run her parents ragged, but it was Pete she sought out when she was frazzled and craved some quiet time. I caught his smirk over her golden hair, though. Before the roof garden had become our hodge-podge family’s favorite hangout, Pete and I had used it for something else entirely, and the mere mention of it never failed to send his thoughtssouth.
I got up to fetch Cosmo a drink. When I got back, Pete had slumped back on the steps, face tilted to the sun, playing absently with Cosmo’s hair. Two years and it had never been cut. Shimmering in the sun, she was the image of her mother, and seeing her content in Pete’s arms was always magical for me. He claimed he wasn’t good with kids, but he was. He so fucking was. “You should get some sleep. Danni wants to have Glenn and his buddy over for dinnerlater.”
“Jed? What’shelike?”
I shrugged. “He seemedprettycool.”
“I’ll say.” Cosmo had begun to doze in Pete’s arms. He shifted her carefully. “I don’t think Glenn wasexpectinghim.”
“Yeah?”
Pete shrugged. “I think it’s some kind of anniversary. Glenn’s been quiet all week, and I got the impression that he was pretty fucking pleased to see an old friend. Told me over a trauma case that he’s known Jed twentyyears.”
Twenty years. That killed my theory about Jed’s age. “What does he need thedogfor?”
“Hmm?” Pete stared blearily at me. “Oh, the service dog? I forgot about that. He didn’t bring it intotheER.”
“Him,notit.”
Pete rolled his eyes. “Whatever, but in answer to your question, I don’t know. Glenn was pretty cagey, so I reckon something bad went down when they were serving together. I’m pretty sure he’s got a bum leg, but he wouldn’t need a dog for that. He could be diabetic, epileptic, um… balance issues? Huh. Maybe it istheleg…”
