Page 24 of Jay Bird

Willow nodded, but instead of feeling relieved, her stomach twisted.

She had been so focused on getting away from Chen that she hadn’t really thought beyond that. There hadn’t been room for anything beyond putting as much distance between her and Chen.

But now she had no idea what the hell she was supposed to do next. She had no home. No car. No job. The little cash she had left wouldn’t last long, and as far as the rest of the world was concerned, Willow wasn’t even sure she still existed. She had no valid identification. No bank account she could safely walk into and access. She had nothing for Lily other than what she had managed to stuff into those bags before they ran.

“Willow?” Riley said her name.

“Where am I supposed to go?” The question came out quieter than she meant it to

Riley’s expression immediately softened. “We’ll figure something out.”

“I don’t even have a real ID.” Willow rubbed a hand over her forehead. “My license expired two years ago. I don’t have a birth certificate with me or a Social Security card. I have some money, but not enough to—”

“You can stay with me,” Jay Bird stated.

Willow looked toward him. He was sitting in the chair across from the bed as if he hadn’t just said something that had apparently stunned every other person in the room.

Willow glanced at Riley and found her staring at Jay Bird, just like Mia was, while Nails sat there with one eyebrow raised and Stitch looked like he was doing his best to keep his reaction completely under control.

Apparently this wasn’t normal Jay Bird behavior.

“You want us to stay with you?” Willow asked.

“Yeah.”

“Just… yeah,” he said, as if it were nothing at all. Like him inviting a woman he had known for less than twenty-four hours and her two-year-old into his home was the most natural thing in the world.

“You’ve already done enough.” She shook her head. “You stayed here all night with Lily. You bought her food—”

“Technically, Nails bought the fries.”

Nails held up both hands. “Leave me out of this.”

That earned a tiny smile from her, but Willow shook her head again. “Still. I can’t ask you to do that.”

“You didn’t. I offered.”

There was no pressure in his voice. No expectation. Somehow, that made it harder to refuse right away.

Jay Bird leaned forward, resting his forearms on his thighs. “I’ve got plenty of room. The house is a split floor plan. My room is on one side, and two bedrooms and a bathroom are on the other. You and Lily would have your own space. There’s a big fenced-in backyard, plenty of room for Lily to play. And my security system is probably overkill by normal-people standards.”

“Definitely overkill,” Stitch muttered.

Jay Bird ignored him. “I can assure you that nobody gets near the place without me knowing.”

Willow focused on his last statement. Nobody gets near the place without me knowing.

Her gaze dropped to Lily, who was still absorbed in her show, completely unaware that her mother was seriously considering moving them into the home of a man she didn’t even know the last name of.

It sounded insane, but then again, everything in Willow’s life felt that way right now.

And she kept thinking about the way Jay Bird had stopped before approaching the bed earlier. He had asked permission. Such a ridiculously small thing, yet after three years of having every decision taken away from her, it hadn’t felt small at all. He had given her a choice, and he was doing it again now.

“You don’t know me,” she said.

His expression didn’t change. “I know enough.”

Something about the simple answer squeezed her chest.