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“I don’t know, I mean…” She paused, and I could see her trying to form the right words. I knew her. She didn’t want to butt in. She had no idea there was no way she could overstep. She was ours, and we were hers. Even if Mal hadn’t agreed yet. “From what you guys have said, he seems pretty grown up,” she observed, and I frowned. That wasn’t what I had expected her to say. Not even close.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean… he lost his parents and then had to live at boarding schools.”
“They were the best schools money could pay.” I winced inwardly. I couldn’t believe I was defending Malcom’s decisions when it came to his nephew, not that we hadn’t grown up very much the same way. It was at boarding school where we had met.
“Maybe, but living through a loss like that isn’t easy.” She shrugged. “When my mom… then my dad…” She cleared her throat. “All I had was my sister. It’s kind of jarring, you know?”
“I do.” And I did. I was alone in the world without the parents who had made me.
My biological father, Trapper Lane, living rock and roll legend, might have still been breathing, but the man was a stranger to me. One who had hooked up with one too many groupies and didn’t feel the need to glove up. My mother had been an old money socialite who had decided to keep me when she’d turned up knocked up, much to my socialite grandparents’ dismay.
Unfortunately, a car accident had claimed her life when I’d turned seven. Much like Cooper, I’d been put in a boarding house and had been the dirty little secret my grandparents tried tirelessly to keep under wraps until they passed away.
Thankfully for me, I had met Casey and Mal, and we had become one another’s family.
“I don’t know. I’m probably speaking out of turn. Not that I don’t agree he should have asked for permission first, but maybe he thought he would have been able to clean up before you guys returned?”
“Maybe. Either way, you’re too sweet, Rosie.”
“Haha,” she chuckled. “I don’t think my niece and nephew would agree with you after this weekend.” She bit back a clear yawn.
“Oh?” It piqued my interest, but then again, what about Rosie didn’t?
“Betsy and Mike were sick all weekend. They picked up some kind of bug at the daycare center. Anyhow, my sister had to work, and I watched them, right?” I nodded, completely engrossed and leaning in closer, captivated by her story. “These kids are a handful normally, but sick, they like to push their limits. Get their way with everything.”
“What kid doesn’t?”
“Right!” Her pretty lips pulled upward, and my eyes dropped to her beauty mark. One I wanted to kiss and lick and bite. “Anyhow, they are obsessed with this new Disney movie, and it was great, don’t get me wrong, but about after the four hundredth time, Tia Rosie had to watch something else.”
“Uh oh. I bet they didn’t like that.” My lips twitched. I could see her sitting on a couch with two maybe three kids sprawled out on her with a sleepy, content look on their faces, because no matter what, they’d know they were loved and safe. Rosie would be that kind of mom. But the kids I was imagining looked a lot like the four of us. All of them would have her beautiful brown eyes and some other features of each of us.
We’d give her that. A family. No. She would gift us with that.
“Oh no, they didn’t.” She chuckled, “You would think I was a real-life ogre,” she teased and looked away.
“How are they feeling now?” I didn’t know shit about kids, but I’d learn. For her, I would do anything.
“Fever broke,” she shared softly. “And my sister has the next three days off, so by the time she has to go back to work, they should be okay and allowed back at the daycare.”
“Kids are a handful, aren’t they?” I said like I had a clue.
I didn’t.
I just knew how I used to be when I was younger. Always getting into trouble and making one mess after another. Probably because I had been starving for any kind of affection. I’d never thought about kids until she walked into our lives. The image of her round and glowing with my child, no, our child, was so clear it felt like a punch to the gut in a really good way.
“They are.” She nodded. I couldn’t help but study her a little closer. She was tired. I could tell by the circle under her eyes and the way she held her body, like all she really wanted was a nap. And thanks to Mal’s nephew, a nap was the last thing she had been able to have. She'd walked into a house that had been hit by some kind of fraternity tornado. I had never been happier about staying up and cleaning the messes I’d found last night.
“Do you want kids?” I found myself stupidly asking. The question slipped past my lips before I could stop it. Her eyes rose, and she bit her bottom lip before smiling tightly.
“I don’t know.” Why would she? Rosie was still really fucking young. At twenty-eight, she was eleven years younger than the three of us. Probably too young for us, but fuck if we would give her up. Even if Mal didn’t agree to our idea, I knew Casey and I couldn’t give her up.
No, Rosa Flores was ours.
She just didn’t know it yet.
Malcom would get on board. I’d make sure of it.
