Chloe and Rhodes are just finishing the cleanup, and he snags my dish before I can take care of washing it.
“I can?—”
“You cooked.” A smile that cuts off my protest. “And thanks for that. It was really good.”
“It wasa-licious,” Chloe says, making me grin.
Rhodes’s amused eyes hold mine and my pulse skitters—but it’s only for a heartbeat. Then he’s washing the plate, loading it into the dishwasher. “Bath time, pumpkin,” he announces as he dries his hands.
“Bath time!” she yells, running down the hall.
I chuckle, tucking my hair behind my ears. “I wish I had her energy.”
“We all do.” He lifts a hand and I freeze as his fingers brushoh solightly over my cheek, my heart pounding hard against my ribs, my lips parting on a shaky exhale. “You have—” He pulls back, shows me a thread that must have come loose from Chloe’s blanket.
“Oh,” I whisper. “Thanks.”
One big shoulder lifts and drops. “I should be thanking you.” His eyes are warm and serious. “I appreciate all you’re doing for Chloe and me.”
Now I shrug. “It’s nothing.”
“Not to me,” he says solemnly. “Not to Chloe.”
I open my mouth to reply—to say what, I have no idea—but right on cue, Chloe’s sprinting back into the room. “It’s bath time!” she shouts, taking her dad’s hand and all but dragging him from the room. He laughs and scoops her up, tossing her over her shoulder. “Say goodnight to Finn first.”
“Night, Finn!” she shouts.
“Night, Chloe baloney.”
She giggles.
Rhodes grins, his deep brown gaze coming to mine. “Goodnight, Finn,” he murmurs.
“Night,” I say softly.
And then they’re gone, their voices fading.
And for some strange reason, standing there alone in the kitchen…
I wish I could go with them.
Four
Rhodes
The house smells like cookies,and Chloe’s giggles radiate down the hall.
I pause just inside the door to the garage, one hand wrapped tightly around the strap of my duffel bag, soaking in the scent, the sound, thefeeling.
Of our home feeling like ahomeagain.
It’s like the moment that Finn knocked on the door—or well, from the moment I almost bowled her down on the front porch—the world grew a little brighter.
My lungs loosened, the heaviness clinging to the air eased.
Chloe wasn’t quite as sad.
It wasn’t conscious, the cloud that had settled into the corners of the house, that clung to the walls like the fog that sometimes crawls across the Bay.
