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“What the actual hell,” I whispered.
Liam
It was good that I’d hardly seen Zoe the rest of the day, because I wanted to take back everything I’d said to her.
Who wanted to go out? Not me.
Who was I to judge her lack of a social life? No one.
I’d rather have had my balls chopped off with a rusty blade than have been forced to go clubbing, and I’d sent her out with a group of the team wives, knowing they’d be taking her someplace fancy and fucking loud.
By the time I got back from the facilities, she was on the phone in her bedroom, and after we danced politely through the postnap transfer, she disappeared back to her own house to get ready for the night.
The long dark car with tinted windows picked her up at her own front door, and I tried to swallow my disappointment that I hadn’tgotten to see her ready for a night out. Hadn’t quite managed it, unfortunately.
Thankfully, I had a very effective built-in distraction in the form of one very bossy almost three-year-old.
“I can’t read it again, Mira. I swear, I’ll lose it.”
She shoved the book at my chest. “One more time.” Then she opened it and pressed it by my face. “Please,” she begged.
“For fuck’s sake,” I mouthed, quiet enough that she couldn’t hear me. I gently lowered the book, and the sight of her big, pleading eyes was like a blade straight into my fucking chest.
I growled under my breath, and she bounced a little on the couch, like she could taste the victory already.
“One more time,” I bit out. “And then I’m done.”
Mira nodded dutifully, plopping herself forward so she could see the book.
“Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?” I said by rote. Immediately, she joined in on reading the pages.
When we got to the bloody duck, she showed just as much excitement as she had the first hundred times. But if I tried to let her read it by herself? No bloody way did she let me get away with that.
I tried skipping a page, and she shook her head vehemently. “No, no, you missed it.” Her little hands, surprisingly strong, flipped back to the correct page.
We ended up reading it four more times.
“We go outside?” she asked, tugging my arm to the slider.
“It’s hot, duck. We could swim. You gotta start practicing.”
“No swimming. I don’t like it.” Her face scrunched up with a forehead-creasing frown, and she crossed her arms over her chest. Fucking hell, she looked like me.
“Swim lessons start tomorrow, kid. We gotta be safe, all right?”
Mira got that look in her eyes; a tantrum had begun brewing in that brain of hers.
“Zoe wants you to swim too,” I said. “I’ll be right out there with you.”
The mention of Zoe wasn’t wise, though, because Mira immediately ran to the front door, slapped her hands onto the window overlooking the street, and pressed her nose to the glass. “Where’d Zoe go?”
“She went out with some friends, duck. Remember? She’ll be back when you’re asleep.”
For a few more minutes, she stared. “Zoe come home?”
Her voice was quieter, and something horrible and cold bloomed in my stomach. “Yeah, she’s coming home. I promise.”
Mira’s tiny frame expanded on a deep breath, her eyes never wavering from where she watched the silent street. “I hold Zoe?”
