Reckless (Mason Family 3)

Shera stands. “You’ll be going home with your auntie Jaxi and Boone today, Rosie. Is that all right with you?”

Rosie looks over her shoulder and nods.

Shera smiles at her and then looks back at Jaxi. “I have a couple of boxes of her things that you can take with you. There isn’t much.” She lifts her chin. “Jeanette was living with a boyfriend—”

“Kurt,” Rosie chimes in. She takes my wrist in her hands and brings it to her face. She studies the watch as if it’s the most interesting thing in the world. It’s ridiculously adorable the way her nose curls up like a rabbit and her forehead wrinkles like an old scientist studying his data.

“That’s right. Kurt,” Shera says. “I can give you his information if you want to inquire about anything else that would’ve been Jeanette’s. From what I’m told, however, what we were given is all Mr. Oberrio says is hers.”

Jaxi stands. “It’s fine. Um, do we know the father—who’s the father …” She glances down at Rosie, who is twisting my hand back and forth, inspecting my watch.

Shera glances down too. “We do. I can give you his information. He’s incarcerated in New York State and has relinquished all rights. After reviewing his file, I think that might’ve been one of the only good things he’s ever done.”

“Great,” Jaxi mumbles. “Do I need to sign anything?”

“You do. We can do that on your way out.” Shera crouches again. “Do you have any questions for us, Rosie?”

The little girl looks up at Jaxi. “Can I still go to school next year? I’ll be five.”

“Of course you can.”

Rosie drops my wrist and turns to her aunt. She wiggles her finger as if beckoning Jaxi to come to her.

Jaxi squats down so they’re eye to eye.

Their similarities are obvious. They have the same color hair, although Rosie’s is a bit lighter. Their eyelashes are insanely dark and long, and Rosie has the same widow’s peak as her aunt. It’s wild.

Rosie grins. “I know my mommy had to go see Piper. Piper missed her a whole lot.”

Jaxi blinks quickly. “I’m sure she did, sweetheart.”

“Me too. I miss my mommy already.” She hugs her Glo Worm to her chest. “But I’m glad Mommy picked you for me to stay with.”

“Me too.”

Rosie steps closer to her. “Your eyes look just like hers.” She touches the side of Jaxi’s face. “Will you hold still for a minute?”

I look at Shera. She’s holding a hand to her chest, and I understand why. There’s a knot that’s formed right in the center of my pecs too.

I keep imagining this being Coy’s little boy someday. I’m not sure how that would feel, but I know I’d be fucked up.

Is it easier that she didn’t know Jeanette? Or harder? How is she keeping it all together like this?

Rosie’s hand drops. “We’re going to have fun, aren’t we?”

“We definitely are,” Jaxi tells her.

“Good.”

She lunges toward Jaxi and wraps her arms around her neck. The force knocks Jaxi off balance, and she nearly tumbles backward.

Jaxi’s eyes raise to mine over Rosie’s head. She squeezes her niece as tight as Rosie was holding the Glo Worm, and even though I’m not involved in the group hug, I feel like I am.

“Thank you,” Jaxi mouths to me.

I wink at her.

“I have another appointment I need to get to,” Shera says. “My office will be getting with you in the coming days about some procedural things. But if you could sign a few things for me, I would appreciate it. Then you can go.”

Jaxi pulls away from Rosie. “I have to sign some papers, okay?”

Rosie nods.

Jaxi stands and heads to the desk. Rosie, though, turns to me. While the two women go over the paperwork, Rosie sets her sights on my watch.

“Are you like Kurt?” she asks as she follows the secondhand with her finger.

“I don’t know. It’s hard to imagine him being as cool as me.”

She doesn’t get the joke. She’s four, Boone.

“Kurt yelled a lot,” she says slowly. “We weren’t friends.”

My jaw clenches as I imagine a grown man yelling at this sweet little girl. “Guess what? Kurt and me aren’t friends either.”

“Really?”

“Facts.”

“Oh.” She drags her finger down the watch and over the top of my hand. “Me and my mommy were going to have to move because Kurt was always mad at us. But I liked our house. But it wasn’t ours. It was Kurt’s. And Kurt got to tell us to leave.”

The knot in my chest cracks into two pieces as I watch Rosie try to understand the things she’s lived through. I wonder what all she’s seen and heard but don’t dare ask.

“I think you’ll like my house,” I tell her. “I have a pool with a slide.”

Her eyes light up. “You do?”

“I do.”

“Are you ready?” Jaxi asks from across the room.