He shakes his head. “No.”
“Why not?”
He looks toward the doorway to his son’s room. “She’s not who I thought she was.” I must look blankly at him because he goes on to say, “She left him. The woman I loved would never have done that.”
“Maybe she had a reason.”
“She didn’t pick me. That’s all I know.” A muscle in his jaw jerks. He takes a breath and relaxes a little. “When I get myself settled, I’m going to ask you out on a real date.”
My heart jumps. “Will that involve sticking two straws in a soda? Or will you let me wear your class ring?”
He smiles. “You’ll have to wait and see.”
He bends down and kisses my cheek, his warmth hovering delicately over my skin like the sweetest of breaths, and then he waves at me and goes back to his son. I sink back against the wall, because my knees are suddenly weak.
I don’t like this feeling. I don’t like it at all.
Tag
I walk back into the room and find both my sisters with their arms crossed in front of them, glaring at me. I stumble to a stop. “What? Did I do something wrong?”
“What’s up with you and Finny?” Wren asks. She’s still scowling.
“Nothing. Why?” I cross the room and pretend to be busy looking down at my son.
“Finny doesn’t let anyone hold her,” Wren says vehemently.
“I wasn’t holding her,” I toss back. “I was just standing behind her.” Actually, I was sniffing her perfume like a total perv, but I’m not going to tell them that.
“Standing behind her holding her,” Star clarifies. “Did you slip her some kind of drug or something?”
“No! I don’t have to slip a girl a drug to get her to like me.”
“Fin doesn’t like anyone,” Wren tells me.
“Tell that to the guy she brought home tonight. She was liking him all over the place.” I blow them off.
“No,” Star says slowly, “she was going to have sex with him.”
I look up. “What’s the difference?”
Wren laughs. “Oh, you’re in major big trouble.”
Star joins her in her merriment. “You have no idea,” she says.
They’re starting to get on my nerves. “Explain, please.”
“Finny grew up different from the way we did,” Star says.
“Everyone grows up differently.” I can’t tell where she’s going with this.
Wren holds up a hand. “No, you don’t understand. She grew up very differently.” She points from me to Star and back to herself. “We had parents who loved us until they were gone. Finny never had that. Not really. So she has a hard time getting close to people.”
“I already met her mom,” I say quietly.
“What?” Star reaches out to grab a nearby chair like she’s going to fall over. “You met her mom?” She starts to grin and she looks at Wren. “He met her mom.”
“It was an accident, really,” I say.
“What happened when you met her mom?”
Well, I had to subdue her to keep her from killing Fin, and then let someone jab medicine in her so she would pass out. But I can’t betray her confidence. I lie. “It was just a normal meeting.”
“And how was she when you were there?”
“Who?” I ask, trying to sound stupid so they’ll drop it.
“Finny’s mom. How was she?”
Homicidal. “Mom-like.”
“Mm-hmm.” Star nods. “You’re lying.”
“Am not.”
“Are too.”
“Am not!” I say a little louder.
“Whatever,” Star says. She walks over to the bassinette. “Can I hold him?”
“If it’ll make you stop grilling me, yes.”
Careful of the IV, she picks Benji up and sits down in a rocking chair with him. She holds him close. She stares down at him for a few minutes of blissful silence. Then she finally looks up. “I’m really glad you’re here,” she finally tells me.
I nod. “Me too.”
“We’re going on tour in two weeks,” she says. “Just six small-town gigs.”
“Okay…”
“We want you to go with us. We need some help with set-up and tear-down.”
“Okay,” I say again.
“It pays.”
“I don’t need for it to pay. You’re already putting a roof over our heads.”
“And Paul Reed says he needs some help at his apartment building. Some kind of maintenance job. You interested?”
“Heck yeah, I’m interested. But what do I do with Benji?”
“When we’re on tour, Marta can watch him. She goes with us sometimes. She’s going to be watching Peck’s baby too, so one more won’t matter.”
Anyone who says one more baby won’t matter has never had a kid around. “Are you sure?”
She nods. “I already talked to her about it. And when you’re working for the Reeds, we’ll take turns watching him.”
“Seriously?” The band that was so tight around my heart eases a little.
Star smiles at me. “Seriously.” She looks down at my son and then back up at me. “That’s what family is for. To pick us up when we fall.”
“Or when we get knocked down,” Wren says. She stares at me hard.