“Me? Yeah, sure. Sure.” She smacked her forehead. “You? How is it going at Hillary and Zach’s?”
“Fine. I’ve only been here a couple of hours, but…it’s good. It’s not as…annoying as I thought it’d be.”
Relief sang through her. “I knew you’d like them, if you gave them a chance.”
“Yeah, well. Thanks for calling.”
“Right. Okay.” She swallowed around the lump that had suddenly ballooned in her throat. “Goodbye, Adam.”
“Goodbye, Myra.”
She pressed the screen to hang up and let the phone slide out of her hands onto the bed. And cried.
Adam was man enough to admit that he was scared. He’d been in some tough situations in his life, but he was hard-pressed to think of one that had been more unnerving than having an eight-year-old girl staring into his eyes as if she could read every transgression and sin on his soul.
He refused to squirm, met her gaze, and waited for judgment.
She silently held her hand out to him. Not exactly sure of himself, he took the little hand into his and gave it a gentle shake.
Alexis broke out into a huge grin. “You’re nice,” she declared.
“Well, thank you. You seem pretty nice yourself.”
She sat down on the couch they were standing in front of. The seat next to the one he’d been on when she and Tracy, Zach’s sister-in-law, had come home from school. Hillary had brought him here to Zach’s brother, Aaron’s, house, so that he could meet Alexis. Hillary now held a squirming bundle of boy he’d been told was Ryder, and she shot him a grin but continued whatever conversation she’d started up with her friend, leaving him to his own devices.
“You like it here?” he asked, figuring he might as well cut to the chase.
She nodded.
“Well, that’s good. They treat you nicely?”
She smiled, nodded again. Ryder shouted “Lesis” and Adam watched as Hillary managed to get him to the floor before he launched himself airborne to the couch. The kid made a beeline for them and Alexis giggled. The part of himself that had been reserving judgment on all of these wolves dissolved. He knew it had only been a couple of weeks since the girl had been rescued from an awful situation, and he knew kids were resilient, but he had to take this as evidence that these were good people.
The boy pulled himself up to standing by clutching at Adam’s jeans. When Alexis started to reach down, Adam forced himself to do it instead, plopping the wiggling toddler into her lap for her.
“Lesis!” Ryder pressed his face into her body. Alexis answered by bending down to give him kisses.
He realized the ladies had stopped talking, looked to find them watching the scene with suspiciously watery eyes. Yeah, these were good people.
The front door opened and Alexis attempted to get off the couch, so Adam gave her a little help, but as soon as she was on her feet, she took the kid to his father, who scooped them both up into a bear hug.
Adam stood and gave a nod to the man as he approached. Aaron bent his head a bit to show submission. The wolf inside Adam approved. The man himself was uncomfortable, since he was currently in this guy’s home. Aaron seemed completely unconcerned.
“I’m going to change out of these clothes and then it’s my turn to make dinner tonight. Who’s going to help me?” Aaron asked.
“Me,” Alexis said, laying her head on Aaron’s shoulder. Ryder raised both hands in the air in agreement. Tracy moved to greet her husband, who put the kids down, cupped her face in his hands and did a proper job of kissing her hello.
Before long, Adam found himself helping Alexis tear up lettuce for the salad.
“You were the one who volunteered for kitchen duty, not me,” he teased.
She turned solemn eyes to his, but he saw the twinkle. “You don’t want to help?”
“Ah, I guess it’s okay,” he admitted.
Hillary was chopping carrots at the other end of the table. “You have to watch this one.” She gestured to Alexis. “She has amazing powers of persuasion with just a single look.”
Alexis giggled.
