Page 75 of Resist

“Whoa!” I say as I come face-to-face with a large stuffed unicorn. “What’s this?”

Joey laughs as he makes his way into the house; seconds later Lucy’s screeching in excitement. “It was on the front porch!” he says as Lucy grabs it and wraps her arms around it.

“I love it!” Lucy says, holding it out to look at it before bringing it closer for another squeeze. “Who’s it from?”

“There was no name on it,” he says and reaches out to tug on her ponytail.

I roll my eyes, well aware that Joey’s not allowed to buy toys for his charges—favoritism frowned upon and all that. “The front porch, huh?”

“The front porch. I swear.” He holds his hands up to refute it, but the smile on his face has me shaking my head.

“Kind of like how you weren’t allowed to buy her that princess doll you did last month but that miraculously showed up in her bag?”

“I have no recollection of what you’re talking about.” He laughs.

“I bet it was from Mr. Ryker,” Lucy says and causes me to choke out a laugh at all of the problems that being true would present to me. First one being that would mean he knows where I live.

“Mr. Ryker?” Joey says with a lift of his brows.

“It’s no one. A client from work.” I shrug it off.

“Mm-hmm,” Lucy chimes in. “He was at the park today. He said I ride my bike like . . . like a guy in the Tour-duh-something.”

“Tour de France?” I ask with a laugh, and she nods emphatically.

“Is that so?” Joey emits a low whistle.

I wave a hand his way. “Like I said, work. He was jogging in the park today, saw us, stopped to say hi.”

“He’s my new friend,” Lucy asserts and kisses the unicorn.

“No wonder you’re in a good mood . . . with a little man on the side,” Joey says to me, and I push him playfully out the open doorway.

“Go. Stop being ridiculous.”

“Uh-huh,” he says with a smile as I pull Lucy into a hug that I don’t want to let her out of.

“You have a good time with your dad tomorrow night,” I force myself to say, knowing that I’ll be worried about her the entire time.

“Mm-hmm,” she says into my chest.

“I love you, Lucy Loo.” I press a kiss to the top of her head.

“I love you too, Auntie Loo.”

“You ready, kiddo?” Joey asks and picks up her bag.

“Yep.” She hugs her unicorn tighter.

“Thank you for that,” I say with a tilt of my chin to the animal.

Joey just laughs and says, “Not me!” as he turns around and the two of them bound down the pathway to his car.

And I stand there and watch until the waves are all waved out, the kisses are blown, and the car is gone.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Ryker