She held Alex’s hand tightly.
“I’ll help,” Roman said, coming to Dana.
Much to Alex’s surprise, he lifted her up onto his hip and carried her upstairs to bed. Dana wrapped her arms around Roman’s neck, holding him tightly.
“Are you my new daddy?” Dana asked.
Roman stopped, and Alex saw him tense.
“It’s getting late,” Alex said.
“Are you going to be my new mommy?” Dana asked.
“We’ll talk about this later.” She forced a smile to her lips, even though her heart was breaking inside.
They made it to Dana’s room, and saw Evie, the other girl, was fast asleep.
Pulling the blankets back, Roman eased the little girl down onto the bed, and Alex tucked her in.
“I want you as my mommy and you as my daddy. Everyone says we’re going to be a big family.” Dana wriggled in the bed, and Alex watched her, worried that her staying here was giving the kids the wrong impression. She would love nothing more than taking care of the kids, but her life and future were out of her control.
Leaning forward, she kissed Dana on the head, and then stood, leaving the room.
Roman was close behind her. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” She was the furthest thing from fine.
“Everything is going to be okay. We’ll find the person responsible for hurting you. The one who gave the order.”
“I don’t care about that. I love these kids, Roman, and you saw that. You heard her. I don’t want to be the one responsible for breaking their hearts, and I know deep down, I am going to be.” She shook her head. “I need to go to bed.”
She had to sleep, to be alone to think.
“You know, there’s nothing to say we can’t … be here for them,” Roman said.
Alex had already started to walk away, but at his words, she turned toward him. “What?”
He shrugged. “I like being here. They’re good kids.”
She shook her head. “Don’t do that. Don’t give me hope like that and certainly don’t give it to these kids. They trust us, and I’m not ever going to let them down.” She tucked some hair behind her ears, needing to do something with her hands because, for the first time since her father had told her no, she felt hopeful. “You need to think about it, to be sure that you know and understand what you’re offering.”
She looked at him one more time, and then she turned on her heel, escaping back to her bedroom to try to calm herself. Between the kiss and Roman’s potential promise, her mind was a riot of emotions. None of which she could make a whole lot of sense of. There was so much happening, and she was terrified she wasn’t going to be able to catch up.