Calmly, Carefully, Completely (The Reed Brothers 3)

I nod and smile.

“Can I go?” the little one chirps.

“Not right now,” Seth says. He sits down and heaves a sigh. He sounds much older than he looks.

I watch as Matt walks into a nearby room. He stops in the doorway, startled, and I see his head fall. He walks to the bedside, and as he walks over, the door shuts slowly behind him, leaving a view of him walking to the bedside, where he drops and lays his forehead against the woman’s knee. The door snicks shut on its own, and I can’t see anymore.

“How are things going?” I ask Seth.

“They’re going,” he says. He nods toward the little ones, and I see that they’re watching us closely. I get it. He doesn’t want to talk about his mom right now.

Suddenly, there’s a flurry of activity at the door, and a woman walks in. She’s wearing a pencil-thin skirt and a jacket, and she’s carrying a purse that probably cost more than these kids eat in a year. She runs to the desk on her four-inch Louboutin heels, and they clack against the floor. She stops, shoves her rhinestone-encrusted sunglasses to the top of her head, pushing her blond hair back, and asks for Kendra’s room. She runs inside, and the door closes behind her, too.

“Who was that?” I ask.

“Probably our aunt,” Seth says with a shrug.

“You don’t know?”

He shakes his head. “Never met her.”

She doesn’t look anything like them. These kids have dark skin and are obviously biracial. She is as white bred as they come with flaxen hair that falls down over her shoulders. The woman I saw in the bed is biracial as well.

“I know,” he chuckles. “I don’t get it either.”

After about a half hour, Matt comes out with the woman. He looks at me. “Reagan,” he starts. He brushes a hand down his face and scrubs the back of his head. “I need a favor.”

I get up and walk down the hallway with him. “Kendra wants the kids to go home. Or at least the little ones. She wants Seth to stay, if he wants to. But their aunt is going to take the little ones back to their apartment. Do you think you could ride back with her and let me keep your car so I can come home after?”

“You’re not coming with us?”

“I’m going to stay,” he says. “Until the end. I promised,” he whispers. “I need to.”

He still has my keys from earlier. I nod. “Should I stay with the kids?”

The lady is down on her knees in front of the two girls, and she’s talking softly with them. They all stand up, and she takes them by the hands. “Ready?” she asks.

“I can stay?” Seth asks. He looks from Matt to his aunt and back. His voice is suddenly deep, and I see him clear his throat, coughing into his fist. He wants to stay. He wants to be there for his mom.

“Of course you can stay,” his aunt says. She looks at Matt. “You’ll bring him home? After?”

Matt nods. He claps a hand on Seth’s shoulder, and Seth looks at him, blinking hard.

I walk out with the aunt and the little girls. “My name is Skylar,” she says. “People call me Sky.”

“Reagan,” I say.

She opens the doors with her key fob and says, “I bought a car seat on the way here, but I’m not sure how to use it.”

I help her install it, and we settle the kids in the tiny backseat of her sports car. She sighs heavily and starts the car. “If you want to stay, I can take the kids back with me and watch them,” I offer.

“I don’t want to stay,” she says crisply.

“Kendra is your sister?” I ask.

“Half sister,” she says, and she makes a noise at the back of her throat. “We’ve never met until today.”

Then what on earth is she doing with the kids?

“Kendra doesn’t have anybody else,” she explains. “So they called me.” She snorts. “I’ve been taught to hate her my whole life,” she says so quietly that the kids can’t hear her, but I can. “And now they want me to raise her kids.” Her jerks a thumb toward the small one. “I’ve never changed a diaper in my life.”

“I can go with you.”

She shakes her head. “I suppose I need to learn.”

“You’re going to their house?” I ask.

She looks at me. “I think they’ll be more comfortable there, don’t you? Their own beds. Their toys.”

“I can help.”

She shakes her head again. “They said it won’t be but a few more hours. Then Matt will bring Seth home, and he can help me.”

I nod.

“I can make do until then.” She looks at the girls in the rearview mirror. “Who wants ice cream?” she cries.

“Me!” both girls squeal.

After ice cream and a quick stop at the store for diapers and kid food, she stops at a stoplight. “Are you sure you don’t want me to go with you?” I really wouldn’t mind.

She shakes her head and pulls her expensive sunglasses down to hide her eyes. “Thanks, Reagan,” she says. “I think I got this.”

I don’t believe her. Not at all.

Pete

I’m worried about Reagan, so I call her from Reed’s, the tattoo shop where I work with my brothers. Since no one was at home, I went to work with the guys. I hang up the phone and take a deep breath. Someone is dropping her off in five minutes at the shop. I have no idea what happened with Matt, but he has Reagan’s car and she rode home with a stranger. I don’t particularly like that, but Matt wouldn’t do anything to hurt her. At least not on purpose.