by Linda Kage
But instead of calling me out, he smiled softly. “Yeah,” he murmured. “Arrow. It’s after the DC Comic, Green Arrow. But don’t ask me where any of the other names in the family came from; I’m pretty sure I don’t even want to know.”
His smile settled a little as he watched me, but his eyes—those golden brown beauties—continued to glimmer with amusement. “So, really.” He lifted the Kindle. “How’d you get this picture of Bentley?” He gazed at it thoughtfully. “It looks kind of dated. Like, really dated.”
“Hey.” I frowned, offended, and ripped the Kindle from his hand. “That photo’s not even sixteen years old yet, thank you very much.”
His eyes flared. “You mean—”
“This is my baby picture.”
Mouth falling open, he looked back at the portrait. “Oh my God.”
“I don’t know why you’re so surprised,” I started conversationally. “You already told me she looked like me. And then I saw her for myself in town, so...it’s no shock to either of us.”
“Yes, it is. I said she looked like you, not that she could make an exact carbon copy of your baby picture. Holy shit, Felicity. This is...”
Words failed him, so I nodded. “I know. She’s really Garrett’s baby. She’s my…niece.”
It was the first time I’d uttered the admission aloud, so I said it again. “I have a niece, and I’ve never met her, didn’t even know her name until today. I have no idea when her birthday is.”
“April thirtieth,” Knox said quietly.
I sent him a look, and he shrugged.
I hugged myself as we stood there, neither of us speaking. Then I quietly murmured, “I’m sorry.”
He glanced at me and frowned. “About what?”
“I didn’t believe you.”
Stepping closer to me, he slowly lifted his hand before grasping a wayward piece of my hair and winding it around his finger, then tucking it behind my ear. “You really had no reason to believe me until you saw her for yourself. I’m a Parker. You’re a Bainbridge. Remember? It’s in our blood not to trust each other.”
“But I should’ve at least admitted it was a possibility. Except, it still makes no sense. Garrett is acting so indignant and insulted.”
Knox snorted. “And you thought he’d act different?”
“Well...yeah. You don’t understand. When he’s getting away with something he did wrong, he’s always so much more...smug.”
Catching another few pieces of my hair, he began to braid them together. “Maybe he’s still worried he’ll get caught, so he’s acting it off.”
“Hmm. Maybe.” I watched his face as he played so intently with my hair. I was just as drawn under as he was while he twisted two strands together, only to let them go and watch them spiral apart, before he did it all over again.
A content, peaceful quiet grew between us. I don’t think he even realized neither of us had talked for over a minute.
Finally, I sighed as I studied him, soaking in his striking, Parker features.
“You know, I am aware my father is a shrewd, calculating businessman with no mercy or softness whatsoever, but he works hard to take care of our family. And my mother...sure, she’s the biggest snob of the century, but so many of her charitable events have made this town beautiful and helped—”
“Are you trying to get me to like your family?” Knox cocked me a strange look.
“What? No.” I sputtered for a moment, trying to remember what point I’d been getting at. Then it all came back. “I just...everyone treats me nice because of who my family is. And I...I’ve always kind of been proud to be a Bainbridge, you know. I would’ve defended any of my relatives, whether I knew if they were right or wrong.”
I looked up into his curious eyes and bit my lip. “And I know it looked like I was going against my brother when I didn’t help him catch you for what you did to his bed, but that wasn’t any disrespect to him. It was just—”
“Kindness?” Knox said quietly, watching me intently. “To me.”
I blushed and gently pulled my hair from his hand because it was distracting me too much. “I don’t know. Maybe. But the fact of the matter is, until the other day, I respected my family. But when my mother refused to even accept the possibility that the baby could be her own granddaughter, especially after seeing her, I...I felt...shame. I was so ashamed to be a snooty, ignorant Bainbridge.”
With a sniff, Knox reached for my hair again. “That’s not such a deep, dark confession. I’m ashamed of being a Parker damn near every day.”
Meeting his gaze, I shook my head solemnly. “Yet you’ve snuck over here three times to get vengeance for your sister’s honor.”
He shrugged and focused his attention on slowly sliding his finger down one glistening red lock. “I get what you’re saying. They’re our families. Flaws and all, they’re ours, and they’re the only one we’re ever going to get. So, we naturally want to feel loyal toward them. But you also have to admit it’s okay to be disappointed when they let us down. And you don’t always have to agree or follow what they say or do.”
When his brown gaze lifted to meet mine, I expelled a breath I hadn’t even known I’d been holding. “Good point,” I whispered. Then I realized something. With a flash of clarity, I blurted, “Bentley’s my family.”
He dropped my hair from his hands and frowned, almost suspiciously. “Okay, yeah. I guess. Your point?”
I straightened my back. “The rest of my...relatives might not claim her, but I’m going to.” Except, I wasn’t sure how. I’d probably never see that little redheaded baby again, unless... I tilted my head to the side. “Hey... Do you think...?”
I flushed, knowing it was an impossible request.
“What?” he asked, shifting closer.
“Nothing. I just...I want to see her again. I mean, can I... I don’t know.” Feeling like the idiot I was, I set my hand against my forehead and began to turn away, but Knox’s voice stopped me.
“You want me to set you up with an introduction with Miss Bentley? Without anyone else knowing about it?”
I whirled back to him, hopeful. “Do you think that’s possible?”
He shrugged. “I don’t see why not. I could say I was taking her outside for a walk or something. Mercy would be grateful for a break. Then you could just meet us in the woods.”
I tucked the piece of hair he’d been playing with behind my ear. “Really?”
He nodded. “Sure.”
My heart began to gallop. I was setting up a rendezvous meeting with Knox Parker. Yeah, there’d be a baby present, but still...it was too exciting to handle.
I bobbed my head. “Okay, that sounds...that sounds great. Thank you.”
He nodded as well. “No problem. Does this afternoon work for you?” When I nodded again, he grinned. “Cool. We could meet, I don’t know, by the tree where we first ran into each other.”
He remembered the tree where we’d met? Aww. Okay, fine, it’d only been a few weeks ago. Of course he’d remember the place where he’d pinned a girl to keep her from screaming to her brothers and alerting them of his presence so they didn’t kill him.
But still...he remembered!
“Sounds like a plan,” I answered, sounding way too casual for how much I was really flipping out inside. “I’ll see you there.”
So, I went home with Pick Ryan.
In high school, I’d always felt sorry for the guy. Everyone knew the story of how he’d been abandoned at the hospital by his birth mother when he was born. He’d never known anything but foster care, and he’d always seemed to get the worst possible luck in caregivers.
My family had been poor, my father a no-account drunk, and my mother was hardly ever around because she worked too hard to bring in the money. We kids had run wild and rarely went anywhere with clean, neatly kept clothes. But we’d had each other, and that counted for something. Pick Ryan hadn’t even had that.
Yet, here I was sitting in the passenger seat of his c
lassic monster car, relying on him for my next meal and room and board.
Because now I was the one who had nothing.
It felt strange to think those words. Nothing. No mother. No father. No sisters or brothers. My entire family... Gone.
Chest heaving, I clenched my suddenly trembling hands into fists in my lap and tried not to think about my mother or sister, or baby Bentley trapped inside our house, burning to death. But maybe the flames hadn’t taken them. Yeah, the smoke had probably killed them first, cutting off their air supply and slowly suffocating—
Okay, that didn’t help. Sweat slipped down my temple and I had to shift in my seat of Pick’s suddenly cramped car.
I wondered if they’d died in their sleep without realizing what was happening, or if they’d been awake, screaming, begging for someone to save them.
“So, you got a kid?” I blurted, glancing toward Pick.
I’d seen the child’s car seat in the back when I’d first climbed in. I hadn’t planned on mentioning anything because I hadn’t felt all that chatty. But now, anything to divert my thoughts was welcome.
“Two, actually,” Pick answered.
As I nodded, not sure what to say next, he continued. “You remember Tristy I used to hang out with?”
“Yeah.” I’d never been fond of her. She’d been too bitter, too susceptible, too hardened. And she’d always managed to suck Pick into some form of trouble that he had to save her from. Learning he’d had a kid with her depressed me. I’d kind of hoped he’d broken free of her.
But, wait. Hadn’t he said he’d fallen for a rich man’s daughter? Tristy had been in the same boat as him—floating from one foster care family to the next.
“She’s dead,” Pick stated mildly enough to make me startle.
“Tristy?”
He nodded, sucking his bottom lip into his mouth so he could clank his teeth against his two lip rings. “When she died, I adopted her son. And Tink has a girl of her own, which makes two little rug rats toddling around our place.”
“Tink?” I asked
Pick’s entire face lit up. “My woman,” he explained. “I call her Tinker Bell, but her real name’s Eva. You’ll meet her soon enough.”
I didn’t realize just how soon until he parked in front of an apartment complex and then led me up to a third-floor entrance.
“Hey, Tink,” he called as soon as he opened the door and stepped inside, leaving me to follow. “I’m home.”
I had no idea he was going to bring me to his place, so I stopped uncertainly in the doorway.
“What? Already?” a female voice answered before a stunning blonde appeared in the hallway with a toddler on one hip and another trailing along behind her. “What about Zoey and the—”
Her words died on her tongue the moment she saw me. “Oh! Hi...” she said hesitantly, transferring a confused glance to Pick and then back to me.
“Baby, this is an old school friend of mine...Knox Parker.”
“O...kay.” She furrowed her brow before sending me a hesitant smile. “Hey, Knox. It’s nice to—” But her eyes flashed wide before she jerked her attention to Pick. “Wait. Is he the one who—”
“Yes,” Pick cut in, answering immediately and loudly. When the kid on the floor hobbled to him and lifted his arms, Pick bent to retrieve the child and set him on his hip. “That’s exactly who Knox is. And I will explain everything to you....” His eyebrows lifted meaningfully. “Later.”
His Tinker Bell only blinked. “Okay, but what about—”
When Pick widened his eyes tellingly, she quieted and glanced at me. I tried to squeeze inside my huge frame as much as possible so I didn’t look as large and murderous as I couldn’t help but appear. Then I took a step out of the apartment and back into the hallway.
But what the hell?
Pick had brought me to his home...to his wife and children, without even clearing it with her first? Was he insane?
His woman was going to toss me out on my ass, and then where would I be?
“I was hoping he could stay here a few days,” Pick started. “Just until he found a place of his own.”
Yeah, I was screwed. Eva looked startled to find a large, intimidating ex-con in her living room. “I can go,” I offered, hooking my thumb over my shoulder to motion toward the exit of the building.
But Eva lifted her hand to stop me. “Don’t be ridiculous. Of course you can stay. We’re happy to have you.” Then she waved me forward. “Come in and shut the door already.”
“Thank you, baby.” Pick kissed her on the mouth, and then kissed the girl in her arms on top of the head. “I swear, we’ll get him back on his feet in no time. But right now, I really need to make a phone call.”
“Are you going to call—” Eva started, but Pick answered, “Yeah,” before she could finish the question. Then he kissed her again and strode from the room with a baby still on his hip.
Left alone with Pick’s wife...girlfriend...whatever she was...didn’t sit well with me. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other and tried not to look her straight in the eye.
“So.” She put an overwhelming oomph of cheer in her voice. “Welcome to Casa de Ryan. I’m Eva, by the way. This little sleepyhead is Skylar. Pick just took off with Julian, and this is our humble abode. We’ll bunk the kids together so you can have Julian’s bedroom since his bed is bigger than—”
“I can sleep on the couch,” I offered, not planning to kick anyone out of his bed, especially a little boy.
“Oh, no. It’s fine.” She waved my offer aside. “Those two prefer to sleep together anyway. One usually gets up in the middle of the night to find his or her way into the other’s bedroom. I’m not sure why we bother to even try to separate them.”
As she spoke, the girl in her arms wiggled free to get down.
Eva let the child slide to the floor. “So, we’ll just set you up in Julian’s room, like I said,” she went on as if she didn’t even notice her child was tottering straight for me. “Because it’ll be easier for me not to have to dress up the couch every night.”
The kid stopped in front of me and lifted her arms, clearly wanting me to hold her.
I darted my gaze to her mother, but Eva just smiled at me and lifted her eyebrows as if to say, Well, what’re you waiting for?
I hadn’t held a baby since the morning of the day I was arrested, when my sister Mercy had needed me to rock Bentley to sleep for her nap.
A needle of agony burrowed into my chest.
Bentley probably hadn’t even made it to this age.
I knelt in front of Skylar, trying not to let my grief get the best of me, but then she smiled, and I wanted to bawl even more.
“Maw-maw-da-da-gah-gah-bah,” she said, waving her hands with each word.
I glanced at Eva to see if I was supposed to understand something in all that mess, but she only shook her head and shrugged.
“Skylar’s our little jabber box. Julian’s usually the one who doesn’t say anything unless he has something serious and understandable to say.”
Skylar stepped closer to me, and whacked me in the eye. “Maw-maw-da-da-gah-gah-baw.”
Eva gasped and stepped forward. “Skylar! No hitting.”
“No, it’s okay,” I assured her, holding up a hand to let her know I wasn’t hurt...right before Skylar grabbed me by both ears and stared me straight in the eyes. “Maw-maw-dadddddaaaa,” she hollered.
I had no idea what she was trying to tell me, so I picked her up. Her diaper-clad tush mashed against my forearm, sending up a sharp reminder of the times I’d held Bentley, and how Mercedes had screeched at me that she was too young to be held upright that way, except I’d always held the kid’s head securely and she’d seemed to enjoy being able to gaze around a room, so I’d kept doing it.
“Gah-gah-baw,” Skylar murmured as if appeased before she rested her head on my shoulder and went limp and satisfied against me.
“Well...” Eva lifted her eyebrows as if impr
essed by my skill. “I guess she got what she wanted.”
I tried to relax, but the tension made that impossible. I should not be holding such innocence, standing in such a nice, family-oriented home, sleeping in some cute little boy’s bed. I didn’t belong here, and I kept waiting for the moment when someone finally fucking realized that.
To make matters worse, my stomach growled. I’d been released midmorning, and it was long past time when our noon meal would’ve been served.
Eva sent me a sly smile. “Can I fix you some food?”
I shook my head, not wanting to be beholden. “No, thank you, ma’am. I’m fine.”
Except my stomach growled again, belying my words.
“You sure about that?” Eva lifted her eyebrows. “If you’re going to be here for days, I’m afraid you’ll have to eat eventually. And I’m really not that bad of a cook.”
I clenched the back of my teeth before giving a brief nod. “All right, then. Thank you.”
She nodded as if pleased with my answer. “Oh, and if you don’t mind holding her while she sleeps, you can sit in the rocking chair with her.” She stepped toward me and held up her arms. “Or I’ll take her and put her in her room.”
I didn’t mean to set a possessive hand on the back of the kid’s head, but that’s exactly where my palm landed when Eva moved in. I hadn’t realized Skylar had fallen asleep on me; it made me even more attached to her. She reminded me so much of Bentley. I’d had no idea all kids smelled so much alike.
The powdery baby scent filled my nostrils with nostalgia and soothed something inside me.
“I don’t mind rocking her.”
Pick re-entered the living room just as I was easing down into the chair, trying to be careful not to wake his daughter.
He jerked to a stop and lifted his eyebrows. Then he grinned wide. “I see Miss Never-Met-a-Stranger-She-Didn’t-Like has discovered you.”
“I guess,” I mumbled, trying to seem as if I wasn’t delighted to be holding the kid.
Across the room, Julian noticed his mom’s arms were empty and he tried to dive at her for his turn to be held. As Pick and Eva transferred him from one set of arms to the other, Eva sent Pick an earnest glance. “Did you reach her?”
