A Very Cerberus Christmas (Cerberus MC)

Fully dressed, she pauses at the door. I don’t know if she’s giving me the opportunity to try and stop her again or what, but I don’t open my mouth.

She shocks me when she turns back around to face me with a gentle smile.

I smile back, my heart in pieces.

“It’s going to be okay, sweetheart,” I tell her, and as I say the words, I know it to be true with every part of me. “Tell Harley I said hello.”

She nods, the tears falling more heavily now. She clears her throat, her head shaking like she wants to speak but she doesn’t know if she’ll be able to. “I can’t stay, but I already don’t want to leave.”

I know she’s talking about right now, but it feels like she means New Mexico, and I wish that made me feel just a little better.

It doesn’t.

“I understand, sweetheart.” It’s the first and only time I’ll lie to her.

She dips her head as a small sob escapes her lips, and then Lucy walks away from me.

Chapter 21

Lucy

Bad days happen.

For me, they happen often.

I don’t really count them or consider them bad omens.

But when bad days happen on the day I’m starting a new life, it doesn’t really lend me much faith that the move to Texas is the right choice.

Harley’s first plane ride is also my first plane ride, and right now we’re having to circle the airport in Houston because of some issue on the ground. I’m nervous, and he’s irritable. We had to get up early and drive to Albuquerque to catch our flight, and we somehow still managed to nearly miss it because of airport security being slow.

Robbie is flying back to New Mexico in a couple weeks to sell my car, and he didn’t give me a straight answer about how we’re supposed to get around in the time being in Texas. It feels like my early twenties all over again, and we’re flying by the seat of our pants. Only now, we have a kid we’re responsible for.

I never thought I had a problem with other people’s children, but it only took about thirty minutes into a two-hour flight with a crying toddler before I swore off ever having another child.

“How much longer?” Harley whines, his nose resting on the windowsill.

“I don’t know, buddy. Hopefully not long.”

As if someone is answering menial prayers today, the captain comes on the loudspeaker and tells us that we just got clearance to land. A cheer goes up through the plane, and it makes me feel a little better that I wasn’t the only one annoyed with the delay. Honestly, I was more worried about running out of gas and falling from the sky.

Landing is just as uneventful as taking off, and I follow everyone else’s lead on how we’re supposed to file off the airplane. Harley and I follow the people through the airport, doing our best to watch for the signs directing us to where our luggage can be picked up at.

“Potty?” I ask Harley when he does that little dance.

He nods, heading for the restroom with the image of the guy.

“Fat chance,” I say, holding his head and turning him toward the women’s restroom.

He huffs, but there’s not a chance I’m letting my six-year-old go into a men’s restroom alone. I don’t care how many looks I get from women who have an opinion on the matter. The child needs to pee. He’s not going to be crawling on the nasty floor looking under the damn doors, and if women are in any form of undress in a public bathroom and don’t mind being seen by other women, they sure as hell shouldn’t worry about a child neither.

I feel mad and indignant as we enter the restroom, and that’s just another hint that I’ve already had a full day and it’s barely noon. No one gives us a second look other than a kind-looking grandmotherly person who grins at Harley as he rushes into a stall, a chuckle escaping her lips when he makes a noise of pure relief as he makes it in time.

“He’s a little dramatic,” I tell her.

“I must be too, because I did the exact same thing,” she says as she dries her hands on a paper towel. “Have a good day, dear.”

While I wait for Harley to finish and wash his hands, I turn my cell phone off of airplane mode, and it chimes immediately with texts messages.

Robbie: Don’t freak out.

Robbie: My new boss just told me the duplex was accidentally given to someone else.

Robbie: But they found something else.

Robbie: This is the new address. 5609 Crescent Square.

Robbie: Don’t get a cab. There will be a car waiting for you.

Robbie: Please message me back and tell me you aren’t freaking out.

Robbie: You were supposed to land forty minutes ago.