“Pretty sure, white boy. You’re as thin as a whisper. I don’t think you can handle me.”
I grinned at her. “We could always find out.” I held out my arms.
“Another time.” She leaned in and kissed me on the corner of my mouth. “Welcome back, Carter.” She stepped back, Jessie taking her by the hand as she wiped her eyes.
Robbie nearly tripped down the steps. The haunted look that had been a permanent fixture since he’d returned to Green Creek was gone. The recovery of his memories had taken a toll on him, but he’d had the pack to hold him up as he found his place again. He was shaking his head, and before he came to me, he touched Kelly’s face, fingers trailing along his jaw. “You did it,” he said quietly.
Kelly nodded. “Told you I would.”
Robbie turned to me. He puffed out his chest, hands on his hips. “I’m going to kick your ass.”
I blinked. “Uh. Okay? Well. You can try, but unless you learne
d some new shit while I was gone, you’re going down, Fontaine.”
And then he was in my arms. “You don’t know what it was like,” he whispered. “You can’t do that again. Not to Kelly. Not to Joe. They need you, Carter. And we do too, almost as much as they do. Promise me. We can’t go through this again.”
And even though I couldn’t make such a promise, I did anyway.
Bambi was last. She moved slowly down the steps with her precious cargo. Rico was at her side, and it was as if he was glowing from the inside. He was strutting, continually glancing between Bambi and the baby in her arms.
They stopped before me.
Bambi said, “Would you like to meet your nephew?”
“But we’re not—”
“Carter.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
And then I had an armful of blanket and child, Rico telling me I needed to prop up his head, adjusting my elbow until I had it right. “I read a lot of books,” Rico told me. “I take this shit very seriously.”
I looked down.
Joshua Thomas Espinoza stared up at me, blinking slowly. His eyes were dark, like his father’s. Rico pulled the blanket back slightly, and a little hand reached up to touch my nose and chin. I pressed my lips against his forehead, breathing him in. “Hello,” I whispered to him. “It’s so nice to meet you. I’m Carter. Apparently I’m your uncle, even though that’s not quite how genetics—”
“Carter.”
I shook my head. “Yeah, yeah.” I looked up at Bambi and Rico. “You did good.”
“Right?” Rico said. “He’s pretty much the most beautiful baby ever born. And I can say that with absolute certainty. I’ve seen baby pictures for most of the people here. You were all ugly compared to him. Especially Tanner.”
“Hey!” Tanner glared at him. “You know I was dropped a few times. It’s not my fault I had a weird-shaped head. Not cool, man.”
And then my mother said, “Who do we have here?”
I turned to look at who she was talking to, Bambi taking Joshua back.
I had a moment of panic, fierce and terrible, when I saw the truck was empty, the passenger door hanging open. He was gone, he was gone, he was—
“Hello,” my mother said.
A timber wolf stood at the back of the truck, peering around the side. He saw us looking at him and ducked back like he was trying to hide, but he was too big. I could see the tops of his ears over the truck, the curve of his back. He leaned his head forward again just barely, nose and whiskers twitching. He whined quietly and pulled his head back again.
I started to step forward, but Ox grabbed me by the arm, shaking his head. Just wait, he mouthed.
I did.