His jaw tensed. “Sutton.”
Ollie came sprinting into the kitchen and ran straight to me to hug me around the hips.
“Sullie! I had a dream that you went for vacation on a boat!”
I grinned down at the little boy.
“Did I have a good time?”
“You didn’t come back.” He pouted up at me. “I was gonna get my boat and come find you.”
“I didn’t come back? Oh, wow. I must’ve had a really, really good time. Maybe I found a treasure to hunt.” I put Lee in her booster seat and then knelt in front of Ollie. “What do you think I was doing?”
Focused more on the idea of treasure hunts than on me leaving him, he got excited again and hopped in place.
“Hunting treasure! With a prince!”
I forced my eyes to stay on him and not shift to his dad like they normally would.
“A prince, huh? A nice prince?”
“Yeah! And he has a horse that you ride. No!” He laughed excitedly. “A whale!”
He entertained himself with the rest of his story, happily carrying on without me. He crawled into his dad’s lap and talked Dominic’s ear off while Dominic frowned at me. I tuned them both out while I greeted Charlie and did my best to feed Lee without her throwing a fit. The kid was not a morning person. Or she was maybe just a tiny female version of her big, cranky Uncle Leon.
Charlie stared up at me and tilted her head to the side.
“Are you sad, Sutton?”
I forced a smile.
“Why would I be sad? I get to hang out with you all day. And Lee and Ollie. I have big plans for us today, too. I thought we’d go to the park.”
“No.” Dominic put Ollie down and walked over to me. “Everything you need is here. The kids stay here.”
I turned away from him and bit back a sigh.
“Of course, Mr. Dominic. I’ll rework our day.”
“Goddammit, Sutton.” He gripped my arm and tried to make me look at him but Charlie was suddenly between us, her back pressed into me.
“Leave her alone.” She sounded like a different kid than the one who’d just been speaking to me. She sounded intense and ready to fight.
I knelt and pulled her into my arms.
“Hey, Charlie, it’s okay. You know your Uncle Dominic wouldn’t hurt me. You don’t need to protect me from him. You don’t need to protect me from anyone. You’re a kid, honey. I’m the one who’s in charge of protecting you. Okay?”
She was shaking in my arms, her eyes still narrowed.
“He made you sad.”
Ollie wedged his way into the hug.
“Daddy made you sad? Bad daddy.”
I raised my voice over everyone to stop the chaos before it got worse.
“Ollie, no. No one is bad here. I just woke up a little sad today. You know how you can wake up on the wrong side of the bed? I think I woke up under the bed. But it’s no one’s fault. So, we’re not going to blame anyone. And we’re all going to be nice to our family. Got it?”
