I suck in a shaky breath and the officer slides a box of tissues across the desk.
“I’m glad you got out,” he says after a beat. “We’ll get this filed tonight. I’ll start the paperwork for a protective order. You have somewhere safe to stay?”
“She’s with me,” Cody says immediately. His tone leaves no room for argument. But it’s not overbearing, it’s protective. Which is exactly what I need.
The officer nods. “Good. I’ll walk you through the rest. We’ll take photos of everything and expedite it.”
Cody still hasn’t moved. Hasn’t touched me. But I can feel how tightly he’s wound. I know I just met him, but I can tell he’s itching to do something. Fix it, fight it, erase it all from my memory. Something.
When the officer gets up to get something from a filing cabinet, Cody leans in, his voice low in my ear.
“You did good,” he tells me, and I feel better already.
* * *
His truck rumbles down a long gravel road. Darkness surrounds us; there are no streetlights wherever we are, and my mind is trying so hard to make me overthink that I’m getting freaked out. Like, what if he’s secretly some crazy person who’s gonna lock me in his basement and make me give birth to this baby all alone? I’ve seen the movies.
“Yes or no?” Cody says, snapping me from my bizarre thoughts.
“What? Sorry.”
“I said, are you okay with dogs?”
“Big dogs?”
“Labs, yeah.”
“I mean…yeah, but it can’t jump on my stomach.”
“I won’t let them.” He shakes his head.
“Them?”
“There’s three.”
“Three?! Geez…” I mutter.
“They’re actually my brother’s dogs, but his wife had a baby a few months ago and it was too much.”
“Mason? The cop?”
“No. Jesse, the oldest.”
“Are you the youngest?”
“No, I’m the second oldest. It goes Jesse, me, Mason, then Addie.”
“Oh, there’s four of you?”
“Yup. Mom and Dad kept busy.” He laughs and I do too.
“How about you? Siblings? Where are your parents?”
“I’m an only child. And my parents died a while back.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“Both in a car accident, together, when I was twenty.”
