The mattress sinks down and my eyes flutter open. I’m too tired to realize the body next to me is too large to be Jackson, and I lazily push myself up to tell him I’ll be right up.
But then I see Wes, and my heart flutters.
“Morning, sunshine.” He smiles down at me. He’s in his uniform and holy hell that man is fine. I sit up only to pull him down on me.
“What time is it?”
“Seven AM. I came here instead of going home. I don’t think Quinn was too happy about having to let me in.” He kisses me, brushes my hair from my face, and sits up. He’s wearing a utility belt around his waist which isn’t comfortable to lay down on.
“We were up pretty late talking.” I sit up again, resting my head on Wes’s shoulder. “I told her everything.”
“Everything-everything, or the version of everything I told my parents.”
“I was going to tell that version, then I drank half a bottle of wine.”
Wes smiles. “And?”
“She didn’t kick me out.”
“That’s a start.”
I nod, not wanting to get up but I have to pee and I’m pretty close to keeling over and dying of thirst. “Right. She might need some time to process, but I feel better. I want to start fresh.”
“You are.” He goes in to kiss me again but Jackson comes in, excited to see his dad. I use the bathroom and we all go downstairs. Quinn is in the kitchen, and all the cats are following her around meowing.
“You really are a crazy cat lady, sis,” Wes chuckles.
“Thank you.” Quinn looks up with a smile. Her eyes meet mine and the smile wavers. Shit.
“Once you’re done feeding the beasts, can I talk with you?” Weston asks.
“Yeah, of course.”
She gives Emma a few more Puffs and then feeds the cats. I pour Jackson a cup of milk and we both get excited when we realize Wes brought us all donuts.
“What’s Daddy talking to Aunt Winny about?” Jackson asks.
“I’m not sure,” I tell him, though I have an idea. I set his milk on the table and see the paper under the donut box. My fingers shake as I reach for it.
My picture isn’t on the front page. Or the second. Or third. Jackson laughs watching me thumb through the paper as fast as I can.
“We’re good,” Wes says, coming back into the room. He knows what I’m looking for.
“We are?”
Quinn takes Emma out of her highchair and sits at the table. “Yes.” She meets my eye. “We are good.”* * *
“You’ve already looked through it,” Wes says, coming up behind me. It’s Monday morning, and I keep going through the paper just to be sure I didn’t miss anything. “There’s nothing incriminating in there.”
“Thank God.” I exhale. “One more day.”
“Yes, and I’m telling you, most people have already made up their minds when they wake up tomorrow morning.”
“You’re going to win.”
“I might. Or I might not.”
I pour myself a cup of coffee and join Wes at the table. Jackson is still sleeping, and Wes’s alarm went off on accident this morning. He doesn’t have to work today but he forgot to turn off the alarm. Once he was awake, he came downstairs for breakfast. I was going to go back to sleep but got too anxious to see the paper.
“I’m going to talk to Daisy today,” Weston says. “I’m assuming she’s at her parents’. I’ll call over there and see.”
“What are you going to talk about?”
“How we’ll proceed with things. Actually,” he says and stands up, “I’ll call them now. Who cares if it’s early.”
“So Jackson’s other set of grandparents aren’t involved at all?”
“They send him presents for his birthday and Christmas, but that’s it.”
“That’s so weird.”
Wes nods. “They feel like they have to side with Daisy on it. I think it’s easier if they pretend like he’s not here.”
“Their loss.”
“Yes, and a big one.” He gets his phone and calls Daisy’s parents. “Well, that’s shocking,” he says sarcastically when he hangs up.
“What?”
“She skipped town already and is back in Chicago.”
I shake my head in disbelief. “Wow, though it is refreshing to hear about someone who makes worse choices than I do.”
Wes sighs. “I don’t know if this is good or bad. But I think I should call Mr. Williams and let him know what happened.”
“Good idea. Get everything on record.”
“Yeah, it’ll come up again, I’m sure.” He comes back to the table. “In the meantime, I got us tickets to go to the planetarium today.”
“No way.”
“Yes. And I thought maybe when we’re done, we could visit your dad.”
“You want to take Jackson there? My dad can be a little unfiltered.”
Wes cocks an eyebrow. “You’ve met my nana, right?”
I laugh and reach for Wes. He takes my hands and pulls me to my feet. “I love you, Weston.”