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“What’s up?”
“I just wanted to tell you to watch your back. I’ve got a bad feeling about Cormac and the reelection.”
Boone’s face is devoid of emotion, but Dad taught us to trust our guts, and if Boone says there’s trouble on the horizon, I’m not going to discount his intuition.
“I will. Listen, I gotta get home. I work in the morning.”
“And you want to check on Maisie and Audra.” His gaze narrows on my face.
“No. I just want to get to bed.”
“Don’t bullshit me, Har. She’s got your interest piqued. From what Jem told me, she’s a nice girl. A bit jumpy, and very cautious. Don’t get tangled up in her problems on your way to playing knight in shining armor.”
He claps me on the shoulder and then disappears back into the house.
Boone’s words of caution stay with me on my drive home. As I pull into the driveway, my gaze automatically goes to the windows above the garage that are dark.
If there is someone from the town council watching my every move waiting for me to fuck up and remove me from my position, then I have to be careful. But I’ll be damned if I turn someone away because I’m worried about public perception of me and how I do my job. My personal life is none of the town’s business. Maisie’s life is none of their business. How she came to be here, in my apartment, is between her and I. Even though the naive part of me believes those words with my whole being, all it’ll take is one slip before she’s enmeshed in the town gossip which is likely the last thing that she wants.
What kind of man would it make me if I turned her away when she doesn’t have any other options?
Not a man I want to be, that’s for sure.
Chapter 10
Maisie
Audra’s shrill cry jolts me from my sleep. On autopilot, my feet hit the carpet on the side of the bed in our room and I shuffle over to her Pack ’n Play to pick her up.
The clock on the dresser flips over from 12:10 to 12:11 as I rub my hand down my daughter’s back, a twinge in my shoulder making me wince.
A crack sounds in the room as my jaw stretches to accommodate the massive yawn forcing its way out of me.
“What’s wrong, baby girl?” I softly coo to my daughter. The sheer amount of drool on the collar of her onesie gives me a good clue why she’s awake right now, since this is outside of her normal nighttime feeding routine. Carefully, I lean back against the headboard of the bed in the room and slip a finger into her mouth. With a light touch, I run my fingers around her gum. Right at the front of her mouth, I can feel her getting her first tooth. The raised and inflamed gum is firmer to the touch, and Audra lets out a pained whimper when I pass over the area.
All of the baby books that I read while pregnant said this day was coming but it doesn’t stop the pang in my chest.
My baby girl just keeps growing. Every time I have to buy her new clothes or I have to adjust the straps on her car seat, I get hit with the feeling. It’s happy and sad all at the same time.
Audra softly starts to chew on my finger. “I know. I bet that feels a little better, huh?” I didn’t pack all of her supplies. Just the most necessary ones, which means that I don’t have the teething gel here that I bought in preparation for this.
“You’re growing chompers. It’s painful, but I bet you’ll like them more when you realize you don’t have to only eat that mushy baby food anymore.” I keep my tone excited and playful to hopefully distract her.
The air in the bedroom is a little stuffy, and she’s a little warm. I lay Audra down in her Pack ’n Play, and she starts to cry again.
“One second, baby. Mommy’s just opening the window.” I coo at her over the sound of her escalating sobs. I muscle the window open, and even though it’s the middle of the night, the moon gives off just enough light for me to make out the trees that surround Harlan’s house.
It’s so pretty here, even in the dead of night.
A whisper of a breeze comes in from the few inches I managed to crack the window, and with it comes a fresh scent on the air. Tension drains from my shoulders, and I suck in a gulp of the cool air.
“There we go. That’s a little better, isn’t it?” I say, though I doubt she can hear me over her own whines.
Audra’s bag on the dresser is my next destination. I pull out the baby Tylenol and measure out a dose. This won’t give her any immediate relief, but hopefully, it will take enough of the pain out of her mouth that she can sleep a bit more. Lord knows I could use the sleep too.
Once I manage to trick my daughter into taking her medicine, her not-so-quiet crying starts up again and I hate it. I hate that she’s in pain and there’s nothing that I can do to fix it for her.
A knock at the front door startles me and sends my heart into my throat.
