Perfectly Toxic (Sterling Shore 9)

“Tacos?”

“I burn those too.”

“Can you cook?” she asks skeptically, her expression of disbelief comical.

“Not even a little bit.”

She blows out an exaggerated breath. “Jelly sandwich will do.”

Smiling, I stand and head to the kitchen. By the time I finish the sandwich for her, she’s at the table. She eats, and I offer several suggestions—stickers, markers, chalk… Everything I think a kid can be bribed with.

Angel is so damn spoiled that she has everything a kid could want, except a damn waterpark. Fucking Wren.

After forty minutes, I realize I’m running low on time, and I’ve already had a tea party with imaginary tea. I even stuck my damn pinky up when Angel berated me on proper etiquette. The stupid bear sitting with us didn’t get lectured about his pinky. Not that he has one, but still.

There’s was a damn tiara on my head, for fuck’s sake—not anymore. I’ve endured hell, trying to get one snippet of a hint about Bella’s secret.

“I have a puppy. Uncle Rye gave it to us. Now I want a kitty so they can be friends.”

Ah shit. Wren is going to fucking kill me.

“That’s what you want in exchange for Aunt Bella’s secret?

“Yes,” she says matter-of-factly.

“Mommy can’t have a baby if she has a kitty,” I say, hoping she comes up with something else that I can just run down the road and grab.

Her little brow wrinkles in frustration. “Why?”

“I don’t know. Something about the ki

tty litter. I read it one time in one of your mom’s magazines when I was waiting on Wren one day. He takes a while to get ready sometimes.”

“Is that why Aunt Bella got rid of Bananas? Is she having a baby?”

My stomach twists in a ridiculous knot. That cat was a devil, but I had no idea she got rid of it.

“She got rid of Bananas?” I ask, confused.

She nods. “She gave her back to Maverick. And he said it was something about her doctor told her she couldn’t have it. Does that mean she’s pregnant?”

Maverick never fucking told me that.

“Am I going to be an aunt too?”

“Cousin,” I say distractedly, so fucking out of sorts that I don’t really know what to say. “You’d be the baby’s cousin.”

“I’m going to have a cousin!” Angel shouts, jumping up. “Make it a girl and I’ll tell you her secret!”

I don’t know if I’m lightheaded, dizzy, nauseated, or all three combined. Standing doesn’t work out, so I stay seated.

Surely she’s not pregnant. She’d have told me that.

I’m an asshole, but not even I’m that big of an asshole.

“Yeah,” I say to Angel, agreeing to who the hell knows what when she starts tugging at my hand.

“Yay! Her secret is that she’s got a boyfriend named Bob.”