Page 99 of Out Of A Fix

“Maybe the woman would like to sleep with your father,” I said, fishing.

Her stare turned from a scowl to a glower. “Why would he want that? From what he told me in the car, he knew her when he was growing up, but he was surprised to see her with Nana and Grampy when we picked them all up outside on the curb.”

“If you picked them up, why did they rent a car?”

“For some reason Grampy doesn’t like the Jeep, even though it’s awesome, especially in the summer when we take the doors off.”

“Okay.”

We were both quiet for a moment, listening to the rain, and when I lay back down, she did the same, lying shoulder-to-shoulder with me, and yawned loudly.

“What’s the lady’s name?”

“Quinn.”

“That’s a cool name.”

She had no comment.

“You should go back downstairs.”

“I will in just a minute.”

It was the rain’s fault that we dozed off, and I was vaguely aware that Darwin was there, talking, trying to get me to move, but I ordered him to beat it, rolled over so I was comfortable, moving Tatum with me, and when she resettled, she was facing me with her head on my bicep.

“Aren’t you guys hungry?” Darwin whined.

Tatum shushed him.

“You should go back downstairs,” I suggested.

Apparently, he didn’t want to do that either, bumping me when he lay down on my other side, yawning big. I was a goner after that.

Fingers threaded gently through my hair, and it was so nice, I made a rumbling sound of appreciation before slowly opening my eyes. Luke was standing over me, shaking his head.

I tried to speak, couldn’t, cleared my throat, and that time there were words. “What’re you doing up here? You have company.”

“Which I should have warned you about.”

I squinted at him. “I had plans to murder you.”

“I really am sorry I didn’t tell you. It’s interesting that I wasn’t the only one, though,” he pointed out. “None of the kids said anything either.”

“Because you’re all cowards.”

“We just didn’t want you to go anywhere.”

“Speak for yourself.”

He stared down into my eyes. “I didn’t want you to go.”

All I could do was gaze into all that blue.

“And I’m up here,” he began with a smile, “because my whole family seemed to have disappeared, so I had to find where you all were. Since looking for you is always the easiest thing, that’s where I started.”

“What?”

“My kids love you, Nash. Where you are, they are. Easy.”