Page 26

I lost contact with the triplets as a hand drifted out of my grip and warm bodies were no longer pressed onto me. The patter of feet echoed over the floor and up the stairs. But I wasn’t alone. Sinclair paused in the kitchen doorway.

I couldn’t look at him and strode to the sink and stared out the window. The exit was still there. Nothing had changed. And yet it had.

“No.” I swung around and looked at Sinclair. His ashen face and stooped shoulders almost broke me.

“Oh goody, you don’t want us to brush our teeth.” Poppy’s voice came from the second floor. “Our dragons are pleased. They don’t like that yucky minty taste.”

“Teeth now or I might produce fire,” I told her.

She giggled and tore into her room.

“I don’t want to leave.”

Sinclair lifted his head. “Because you love my girls.”

“No, I mean yes, I adore them. But if I stayed for them, that would be because of the job.” I tugged at my hair. This was complicated. “I think I have feelings for you. Maybe.”

His face brightened. “You think?” He smirked.

“Hey, this is new for me. Give me some wriggle room.”

“We’re done.”

I’d never heard dragons trailing down the stairs, but I imagined they’d sound like three triplets.

“Surprise, I’m taking you to school today.” Sinclair picked up the three school bags.

The girls looked at me and then their father.

“Are you going to pick us up?” Ivy asked.

“You’re not leaving today, are you?” Wren tugged at my hand.

“Don’t worry. I’m not leaving at all.”

They flung themselves at me, and we would have fallen into a heap except their father held us upright. Their hot little bodies clung to me, and I embraced all three while their father’s even hotter body radiated comfort and safety.

I assured them we’d talk more after school, and they and their never-ending chaos left the house and quiet settled over the stone building. Walking upstairs to my room, I dragged my duffel out of the closet, the one I never unpacked.

Pulling out drawers and opening doors, I hung pants and shirts and folded underwear and vests. The now empty bag went under the bed, and I sat on the mattress and examined myself in the mirror. There was no difference in my features, and even though I wasn’t smiling, I appeared lighter somehow. One decision didn’t change my appearance. My life? Yes.

I ran my mind over all the times I’d left. They were right for me back then. And now, I was staying.

I must have been sitting there for a while because I lifted my head at slow steady footsteps on the stairs, ones that hit the squeaky one. I didn’t look up, though I sensed him looking at me. And when I did, he was leaning against the doorway, his arms crossed, reminding me of Poppy.

“You stood on the squeaky step again. I know you’re doing it deliberately.”

“Mmmm.” He nodded. “I think that’s our signal now.”

I shook my head and told him that was silly, but I kinda liked it.

His gaze left me and went to the open drawers and doors that I hadn’t bothered to close.

“I unpacked.”

“I see that. But I can’t stay.”

“What?” I shrieked.