He grunted. “I’m still pissed about that.”
I was, too.
I was even more pissed that that little girl had suffered so needlessly.
It was so fucking easy for a young child to get lost in the confusion. They were so curious by nature, and their natural instinct was to push the limits—and by doing what she did best, being curious, it had almost cost her her life.
“That day, when that dad pushed you accusing you of losing his kid? I nearly lost my shit,” Wade rumbled. “Then the mother came, screeching in on her little mini-van tires trying to sling accusations at you while their daughter sat in her rear floorboards unconscious? I wanted nothing more than to beat the shit out of both of them.” He paused. “Never wanted to punch a woman before, but then and there? Yeah, I sure the fuck would have if I knew that I would get away with it.”
I snorted.
“But anyway, other than just small stuff—petty little things here and there—I haven’t actually heard from her in well over two months. Which is a record. When the kids need picked up or dropped off, grandma does it,” I explained.
His eyes went wide. “The kids still come here?”
I nodded. “I’m the only daycare in town. Plus, after that happened, both parents decided to get a divorce. I think right now dad is living at grandma’s house, and mom doesn’t have much to do with them except for on her scheduled days.”
“You mean to tell me that dad got custody because mom’s a nutjob.” He snorted. “Seems like the kids would be better off with grandma with both of those people as their parents.”
I smiled.
Just as I was about to reply, my first kiddo arrived.
“Hello there, Darrow!” I sang, holding my hands out.
Darrow’s mother stopped long enough to hand me Darrow’s diaper bag, a half-finished bottle, and a check for this week’s tuition which she was three days late with. “Sorry. Gotta go. Bye.”
With that, she left, and I sighed.
“She’s like twelve minutes early,” Wade pointed out as he watched Darrow’s mother speed away.
“I normally leave the lights off and keep the door locked until six o’clock exactly. With you here, I didn’t remember to do that,” I explained.
He grunted. “Tomorrow we’ll keep the door locked then. What time does Darrow’s mother get here in the afternoon?”
I sighed. “Six, if we’re lucky. Sometimes six-thirty.”
“Fuck,” he rumbled. “What a life to have. I’ll bet he has more of an attachment to you and his teachers than he does his own mother. How old is he?”
“Six months,” I murmured. “And there was this one time that I was holding Darrow and the mom came to pick him up early for some reason. When I went to hand him over, Darrow threw an unholy fit. The mom stormed out, leaving him here, and didn’t come back to pick him up until after closing time.”
He snorted. “What exactly did she expect would happen when she leaves him here for twelve hours a day?”
I shrugged. “Unfortunately, some parents don’t have that luxury. They have to work. I’m here to love them while they’re busy.”
I dropped a kiss on Darrow’s forehead, and then walked him into the main room and placed him on the floor next to some toys.
All the while, I felt Wade’s eyes on me like a hot brand.
When I stood up once more, I turned to find him still staring, totally transfixed.
“What?” I whispered.
His eyes slipped from my ass to my face, and he smiled sadly. “I was just thinking that our babies would’ve been beautiful.”
My heart lurched into my throat. “Yeah.” I looked down at my hands. “They would have.”
***
Twelve hours later I was climbing into Wade’s truck this time after he had switched vehicles after letting Capo out. My heart lurched into my throat when I saw Capo in the back seat, unrestrained, staring at me like I was an interloper that he wanted to deal with.
Capo had come a long way from the first day that I’d met him. He was now able to come out of the cage for extended periods of time as long as Wade was around. Capo was also able to go outside for short walks with a muzzle.
I wasn’t aware that we were quite that far along, though.
I swallowed hard. “Uhhhh, Wade?”
Wade’s smile was quick and only half-hearted.
I sighed and settled into my seat, buckling my seatbelt while I kept my mouth shut.
He’d gotten call after call, text after text, and generally got into a progressively worse mood as the day had gone by.
Needless to say, I wasn’t very happy with the way this day had gone, and Wade wasn’t even apologizing for keeping something from me.
I was so frustrated, in fact, that I didn’t even realize that we weren’t headed home until we pulled up outside Bayou’s house.