Theo’s eyes are fond. “I’ve gotta get to bed, Ken. The truck comes tomorrow, so I’ve got an early morning.”
“I never saidyoucouldn’t leave. She can spend the night and I’ll bring her with me tomorrow morning.”
I cringe. I like Callie well enough, but I wasn’t great with kids. Not like Kenny is, at least. I didn’t know how to talk to them, didn’t know how to play along with their made up games.
Though, if Kenny had known I planned to spend the night, she wouldn’t have offered to let Callie stay. I’d made that excuse up on the spot to get rid of that pitiful look Maddox had in his eyes earlier. I’d rather anyone else in this entire room find outabout the bruises beneath my clothes and makeup before Maddox did.
Theo sighs like he’s being put out, but he’s still smiling at her. “Kenny, I can’t keep asking you to babysit my four-year-old.”
“You didn’t ask. I offered. I need more time with my little sunshine and you need a good night’s sleep,” she says, pushing Callie’s hair behind the ear that isn’t resting against her chest. “It’s a win-win.”
He contemplates for a few more seconds, twisting his wedding ring around his finger. His wife’s been gone for a couple years now, but he still wears it. Kenny’s right, he looks absolutely exhausted.
“Okay,” he finally says, blowing out a breath. “Thank you, Ken.”
She beams. “If you’ll leave her booster in the back seat, Maddie will buckle it in for us tomorrow morning,” she promises on Maddox’s behalf.
I snort. It’s not like he wouldn’t have done it for her anyway, but her volunteering him is funny, especially when she spends half her time complaining about how much he hovers.
“Anything specific you want her to have for breakfast, or just whatever we fix?”
Theo shakes his head, still grinning. “I trust your choices,” he says, and I roll my eyes, letting my head fall back against the couch. This house is so full of love—and what’s worse is that most of the occupants inside of it are thoroughly unaware of how loved they are. “Just remember, if she doesn’t have?—”
“Her blankie, she’ll throw a fit. And she needs a light left on. And she has to brush her teeth in the morning, even if she pitches a fit. And I can call you and wake you up if she needs to talk to you or wants to come home,” Kendall recites. “She’s spent the night before, Theodore.”
His eyes narrow at her. “That’s not my name.”
“It is,” I interject quickly on Kenny’s behalf. “Your dad told me.”
Theo’s irritated gaze slides over to me. “Since when are you buddy-buddy with my dad?” he asks suspiciously.
I roll my eyes. “I’m notbuddy-buddywith him. He just mentioned it in passing when I was there the other night.”
“Why were you hanging out at the jail?” Maddox finally speaks up. Jameson lifts the hat off his face to look over at me as well, nosy.
“Noneya,” I respond. I’d been bailing my dad out again, but I worked hard to keep that information away from the gossiping ears of Cedar Creek and I wasn’t going to go blabbing now.
Either way, in the ten minutes I was there, Deputy Walker had boasted aboutTheodoreno less than twenty times.
Maddox grumbles at my response and I know it irritates him a little extra because it’s what Bailey had said to him earlier. He gets up from the chair and kisses his mama on the cheek. “Sleeping in the barn tonight, so if you see the light on, don’t fret,” he tells her.
“It is way too cold to sleep in the barn, Maddox Clyde!”
I snicker because that’s the second time he’s been middle-named tonight, and he shoots me a glare.
“I’ll let the heifer know to hold off on having her calf til spring then,” he deadpans on his way out the door.
THIRTEEN
AUSTIN
Sharinga bed with my best friend and a child is a nightmare. Kenny and I slept in the same bed all the time, but Callie… Why on earth was the girl laying sideways across the bed, using my ass as a pillow right now?
I repositioned her as gently as I could, getting up to go to the bathroom across the hall. When I came back, she’d taken over my side of the bed entirely. My phone says it’s two in the morning, but something about wrangling a sleeping toddler has made my mind decide it’s time to wake up for the day.
I planned to get a drink of water and maybe sit in the living room to play on my phone until everyone else woke up, but when I crept downstairs, I could see the silhouette of the barn in the moonlight. Maddox was out there in the cold.
His face in the hallway earlier tonight had haunted me. He’d looked so tortured—so worried that he might’ve made me uncomfortable. Something about that was fucking with my head. I wasn’t used to anyone—especially not men—giving a fuck if they made me feel uncomfortable or not.
