Dream Keeper (Dream Team 4)

Oh man.

I looked to Corbin.

His expression was ravaged, and his voice was raw when he said, “Of course I do, Button.”

“Then stop being mean to Momma!” she demanded, stomped to me, took my hand then dragged me toward Auggie’s car.

That was when I really took in Auggie, and when I did, it was a shot to the heart, because I could actually feel the hum of fury mixed with frustration liberally dosed with anxiety that was vibrating from his place at the curb.

This was because his place was at the curb.

He crouched the instant we got close, though, and Juno broke from me and ran to him.

She stood in his arms between his splayed thighs, held him around the neck, and I hustled to them in time to hear her say, “Let’s go home, Auggie. Can you drive fast?”

She wanted to set his special table.

She wanted to give him a good day.

Ugh.

But yeah.

Her father had deserved what he just got, even though I hated Juno had to give it to him.

“Yeah, sweetheart, I’ll go fast, but safe,” Auggie replied.

Okay.

Time to get this situation in hand.

I lifted my gaze to the heavens and gave myself just enough time to see a cloud drift.

I had missed all this in my girl, or at least how deeply it ran.

As sure as Corbin had, even if I’d tried to tell him about the women.

But we needed to set about making it right.

I drew in breath, tipped my chin, and caught Auggie in the throes of preparing to pick her up.

His eyes were on me.

I shook my head, glanced over my shoulder to see Corbin still standing there, staring at us, immobile, face pale, and then I squatted too.

“Dollface, look at me,” I urged.

She did and I could see she was still fighting tears.

“Can we go home, Momma?” she requested.

“Yeah, baby, but first, I need to ask you to do something that’s gonna seem really hard on you right now. You’ll look back on it later, though, and you’ll be really, really glad you did it. I promise.”

“What?”

“Go give your dad a hug good-bye.”

She visibly balked.

“Trust me,” I said hurriedly. “Go give him a hug. It can be fast. You don’t have to say anything. Just a quick hug and we’ll go.”

She didn’t move a muscle.

“Sweetheart,” Auggie called.

Juno looked to him.

“Always trust your mother,” he whispered.

She was undecided. She hesitated.

Then she broke free from Auggie and ran to her dad.

Both Aug and I stood up and I moved to him, watching Corbin instantly bend toward her, opening his arms.

Juno ran into them.

Corbin wrapped them around her and lifted her up.

My throat closed.

She might have wanted a quick hug, but Corbin was holding on tight.

“What happened?” Auggie said under his breath.

I didn’t know if it was good or bad that he couldn’t hear.

But I was leaning toward good.

“Juno made some things plain. I’ll tell you about it later.”

He didn’t respond, except to take my hand.

And yeah.

There it was.

I was grounded, standing by Auggie’s side, with Auggie holding my hand.

I heard his phone bing with a text that he unsurprisingly ignored, and we watched Juno and Corbin hug while Corbin was saying some things in Juno’s ear. He ended this shoving his face in her neck.

Then he kissed her cheek and set her on her feet.

She looked up at him and shared her own words. They were short and I hoped it was something like I love you anyway. Then she came running back to us.

Auggie had her door open by the time she arrived.

He helped her up while I moved to my door.

I glanced back at Corbin to see him still there, watching us.

When he caught my glance, he lifted his hand—and as pissed as I’d been at him for the last hour, not to mention all the things he’d done in the past—my heart broke for him as he gave me an awkward wave.

His daughter had just spoken to him like that.

And his actions were the sole reason we were driving away from him on Thanksgiving.

I returned his wave and pulled myself into Auggie’s car.

I heard Auggie’s phone ringing as he pulled himself in beside me.

He tugged it out of his back pocket, glanced at it, then hit the side button to stop the ringing.

While he put on his seatbelt (mine was on already), I looked behind me at Juno.

“You belted in, baby?” I asked.

She was staring at her lap. “Yeah.”

“You going to be okay?”

A pause and then, “Yeah.”

“You need some space?”

A big breath that seemed to expand her whole body and a repeat of, “Yeah.”

“Okay, Dollface,” I murmured.

By this time, we were on the road.

I needed to give her that. Then we needed to explore some of the things she said.

In that mix was also finding out what she was doing with those twenties Smithie gave her as well as who the heck “Mr. Cisco” was.