Nice Buns (Cheap Thrills 7)

Throwing my head back, I started laughing. “DB did the same thing. His was ‘fuh it’ when he dropped his ice cream at Dairy Queen, though. Lisa, threatened to shave my hair and eyebrows off if it happened again.”

Holding her fist out to me, she waited for me to give her a fist bump. “We’re such great parents.”

“The best.”

Chapter Fourteen

Alex

After the night we’d had, where I’d not only gotten her to smile and enjoy herself, but I’d also relaxed and laughed my ass off harder than I had in years, waking up the following day on the couch with Evie tucked into my front was far from a bad thing. I didn’t even care that her hair was tickling my nose or that I couldn’t feel my arm.

All I could think was that I could easily get used to waking up like that.

But I also couldn’t wait for Cody to come back. I missed the kid big time, and the place didn’t feel right without him here.

He’d helped me train Bernice, and I liked spending time with him doing it. I also enjoyed gaming with him or just talking about whatever topic was on his mind. DB thought he was the shit, and I had no doubts he’d be missing his little buddy, too.

There’d been quite a few occasions when he’d ducked out to go and pick him up from school to come back to the station for a while, or they’d gone out on a ‘foodies adventure’ after he was done for the day. Tabby thought it was awesome and said it made her want to pop out a hundred more of his babies. Heck, even Sheena loved Cody and demanded his attention whenever they were around each other.

In a way, it made me sad for DB because it showed what a good big brother he would have been if he’d had a sibling. Had I robbed him of that by not get married again or having another relationship?

I mean, I knew I’d stolen six years of our lives by taking on the case with Luli, but if I’d found someone else and settled down a second time and had another kid, would it have made his life better?

Then again, if I’d settled down, would DB have met Tabby? Would we still have Sheena? I couldn’t imagine a world without both of them in it, so I can’t say I truly regretted the path I’d taken. I also might never have gotten the chance to part of Evie and Cody’s lives, and that didn’t feel appealing either.

So, because I couldn’t do a damn thing to change what’d happened, I decided I needed just to enjoy what was happening. Enjoy being able to sleep on the couch with Evie and making plans for things to do with Cody when he got back, while also feeling relieved for the millionth time that I was out from under the Luli fuckery. I didn’t let myself think about it often, and today wasn’t going to be any different, so I needed to shake her existence out of my head.

We all got into situations we wished we’d never gone into, but they’re what end up leading us down the path set for us, so all we could do was accept it and put it behind us.

“Stop thinking,” Evie rasped, linking her fingers through the hand resting on her stomach. “The chickens haven’t roosted yet.”

“They crow and squawk, baby, not roost. Go back to sleep,” I said, grinning into her hair.

“Wiseass.”

I would have replied, but her breathing evened out almost immediately, and I closed my eyes and allowed myself to fall back to sleep.

For the first time in years, though, I did it smiling.

Two hours later…

“I get off work at six,” I told her as I picked up my phone and keys off the coffee table.

Fidgeting, she glanced around the room, like she was looking for something, but I knew that wasn’t it. We hadn’t intended to fall asleep together last night, and she’d been acting weird since she’d woken up with her face on my chest thirty minutes ago.

That might have been a good reason for why she was so off-center, but a better explanation might have been because she’d automatically lifted her head, kissed me softly, and then nuzzled her nose against my neck when she’d woken up. The stubble on it had woken her up fully, and she’d tipped off the couch, landing on her ass while she apologized profusely.

“I’ll— Have a good day at work.”

I felt my lips twitch, but I didn’t let the smile out in case it made her feel more self-conscious.

Closing the distance between us, I used the tip of my finger to raise her chin, so her eyes were on mine.

“Evie, don’t overthink things. I get you’ve had a bad experience in life, we all have, but if you overthink it, you’ll drive yourself insane.”