Nice Buns (Cheap Thrills 7)

My heart broke for two little kids who should never have felt that way. I’d done everything I could to shield DB, and when we’d lost Lisa and I couldn’t fix it, I’d felt that pain. He’d still had his dad, though, to lean on and protect him.

Unfortunately, those two kids didn’t have that security, at least not in the same way. Naomi had her brother, and Carter had his grandmother and aunt, but they’d still been lost.

“Fuck me, Carter. I’m so sorry you went through that. I’m sorry Naomi did, too.”

“She saved my life, Alex. Without her, I’d have gone through with my plan, and I know that for a fact.”

“So what’s tearing you up inside now? Are you starting to feel the same way that you did back then?”

He snorted. “No, far from it. The anniversary of her brother and sister-in-law, Shanti’s parents, deaths are coming up, so I decided to do something for her. I just don’t know if it’s the right thing to do.”

Pulling up in front of the station, I cut the engine and turned to look at him. I’d initially done it to tell him not to get out, but once I saw his face, I knew he had no intentions of doing it anyway.

“You knew her brother?”

Nodding slowly, he sucked in a breath. “Yeah. I’m two years older than Naomi, and I was two years younger than her brother, but we played on the same basketball team in high school. I knew the guy well because he tutored me in math to earn money to feed his sister. Callum was fucking awesome.”

I remembered something that’d happened at Garrett and Tamsin’s house a while back. “Wait, how does Shanti know you knew her dad?”

Staring blindly out of the windshield now, he croaked, “Naomi has photos of Callum and Chastity—Shanti’s mom—on her bedroom walls. A lot of them are ones from high school that she’s cropped, so it’s just Callum in them. Well, he’s the main focus. But I’m in quite a lot of them because they’re team photos of us, so she recognizes me from them.”

Rubbing my hand down my jaw, I put the pieces of it together. “Holy shit, what a small world.”

“Right?”

Tilting my head, I asked a question I was dying to know the answer to. The irony was, it was highly unlikely I’d have asked it before yesterday. Something had clicked inside me after helping Evie through it all, seeing Cody so vulnerable, and having to help guide her through it.

“What’s your intentions when it comes to Naomi? You know she comes with a child, and that her and Shanti are a package deal—”

“Oh, I know that, and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he snapped, glaring at me.

I wasn’t going to beat around the bush and ask him if he had feelings for the woman—it was obvious. Instead, I went straight to the crux of the situation.

“I didn’t mean anything by it, I’m just speaking as someone who was and still is a single parent. DB might be all grown up, but he’s still part of the package that I bring to the table.

“Some people think they can handle it, but raising a kid that’s not your own isn’t a small task to undertake, Carter. Naomi’s her aunt, but she’s the only living thing she has left of her brother, so it’s a no-brainer for her to raise Shanti.

“But, it’s far different for someone to want Naomi in their life and to join in on raising a kid that’s not theirs. Do you see what I mean?”

Copying how I was sitting, Carter faced me.

“Let me ask you this, then. Do you understand the same when it comes to Evita Edwards and Cody Walters? I saw you with the boy yesterday and how you were with her when she got to the ER.

“There’s something there you’re not sure of, and as a single parent yourself, do you understand the impact even the slightest bit of attention from you has on both of them? I don’t know the history with the kid’s dad, but he soaks up everything you give him. Do you see what I mean?”

I had to give him credit—the guy didn’t miss a thing.

“I do. I’ve no intentions of making promises I can’t keep and fucking with their hearts and minds.”

Seeing how serious I was, Carter nodded. “Then you’ll understand when I say—same here. Naomi and Shanti are very serious topics for me.”

There was a moment’s silence while we both stewed over our situations, but then I asked, “So, what have you done for Naomi to help her through the anniversary?”

Carter blinked, the question visibly confusing him, but then he must have remembered telling me that at the beginning of the conversation.

“I never ate the Blow Pop. I put it in a box with my parents’ wedding rings and some other stuff in it, and I’ve kept it safe ever since. Last week I took it to the framing store in Palmerstown, and the guy’s mounting it and putting it one of those box frames.”