Page 36 of Never Till Now

“He’s a good one, Ren.” Her voice is soft and understanding.

“Pardon?” I feel my face contort.

“I know you’re thinking about what this all means.” She turns to face me and grabs my hand. “Even if he only wants sex. He still cares about you. I saw the way he treated you yesterday and the way he looked at you.”

“Meaning?” I hate how she drags shit out when I have no idea how to read any type of relationship.

“He’s not a clingy psycho like the others, but he’s also not a complete dickwad who only calls you for a quickie.”

“I knew that, Rachel. He’s an amazing uncle too.” I smile, remembering how much his niece and nephew love him chasing them around. “What?” I ask as her grin grows along with the glow in her eyes.

“Nothing.” Her voice is nonchalant as she studies me.

“You can’t do that. Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I’m just happy you knew what I told you.” She turns back to looking out the window and I still feel like she’s not telling the full truth.

“Maybe I won’t miss you when you leave tonight,” I joke.

“Bitch, please. You’d be lost without me.”

When she’s right, she’s right.

“Dylan loved the zoo. He pretended to be a tiger the entire weekend which drove me up the wall but at least he’s using his imagination.” Tessa shows me the photo of her son standing against the tiger cage with his claws out. “Have you been to it yet?”

“Not yet. I’m not sure that’s my sort of thing.” I haven’t been to various places that most kids get to explore, but I wasn’t going to open that door.

“I mean yeah, it sucks that they’re stuck in the zoo instead of in the wild, but the kids love it.”

I smile and toss my third coffee cup into the garbage. My last day of work never seems to allow the caffeine to kick in. Tessa swipes a few more photos in front of me. I enjoy children but I enjoy helping them more. That’s one of the reasons I wanted this job. Social work was a close second. Doing my best to calm kids in trauma gives me firsthand signs a social worker could be missing.

It’s not that I’m sour toward caring about Tessa’s son or her life, but I’ve come across too many people already that I’ve connected with. I wasn’t expecting Adam’s entire family to warm my heart. Their welcoming arms and the fun characteristics of Kelsie’s children are too hard to ignore. I enjoy being around them. So, for the time being I let myself. They are aware of Adam’s lifestyle. If I want to walk out, it won’t be anything new.

I fight off a yawn and quickly acknowledge that in an hour, I’ll be on my way home and Adam has a movie night planned. It’s the history of San Francisco, but he said I’ll have a better appreciation of the city after I watch it. I look over a chart and my heart puzzles. I knock before peeking my head in and seeing the tiny girl holding her hands together.

“Ava Rose, we meet again.” I smile. “I hope if we meet a third time, it can be somewhere like an ice cream shop.”

Her smile doesn’t reach her eyes.

“She was climbing and the nail sticking out cut her.” The female guardian spoke instantly.

“Adventurous, are you?” I keep my eyes on Ava, waiting for confirmation.

She nods and glances at the woman.

“Where were you climbing, Ava?” I keep my voice light and casual.

“An old play structure in our yard.” The guardian speaks up. “We told her to keep off it many times.”

I turn over Ava’s hand and see a clean horizontal slice below her two fingers. Vertical would seem less suspicious, but I don’t want to make a scene. Ava winces as I gently touch her palm. I see fat coming out of the wound along with a good amount of blood. Assessing the sticky black Band-Aid residue around the area, I wonder when this happened.

“How long has this been bleeding, Ava?”

“Um.” She hesitates.

“You’re a smart girl,” I encourage her. “I know you can remember.”

“Yesterday.” Her voice is soft. “The Band-Aids won’t work.”