Page 131 of Mommy

A little bit of guilt slips down my throat with the next piece of pancake, landing heavy in my stomach.

While we are sharing…

This is the moment I should tell Derek about the risk he took with me the night before I left.

But if I tell him now, what if he pushes me away again?

Fear clenches my heart at the thought. I have just been back one night. I don’t want to break the spell again. I don’t want to ruin our little game again, and drag us out into the real world where things are difficult and I’m not sure where I stand with this man.

Heavy thuds on the stairs have my mind abandoning the thought and I sit upright in bed. I’m about to panic, when Derek chuckles.

“I think someone has finished breakfast.”

What?

Golden morning sun catching in her short champagne fur, Posie glances around the corner carefully. I’ve never seen her upstairs before, but she trots over to the bed as if she’s already done it a thousand times.

Her front paws land on the empty space where Derek usually lays first, followed by a somewhat inelegant, wiggling pull of her hind legs. And⁠—

She’s on the bed.

And Derek is not freaking out about it.

My head snaps to him beside me. He looks… relaxed. As if this is all totally normal.

“What… happened when I wasn’t here?” I can’t help but ask, mouth hanging open.

Derek shrugs.

“I guess she won me over.” He says, smiling. “When you were gone she was what kept me going. I allowed her on the couch a few days after you … left. And ever since that day she must have decided that all the furniture now belongs to her. Including the bed. It was either accepting defeat, or locking every door all the time for the rest of her life.”

The rest of her life.

I envy Posie as she curls up in a tight ball next to my thighs, her head resting half on Derek’s pillow, half on my leg. She will be at home here, forever. No matter what happens. And no matter how happy I am for her, I wish the same would go for me.

Chapter sixty six

Derek

Ivory agreed to the plan. Her only condition was that she was allowed to come along. Not something I have a problem with, because technically there won’t be a lot happening.

Technically all we’re going to do is wait in Ezekiel’s van for someone to come and pick up Posie. And once someone approaches her, it’s Ezekiel who’ll go out and smack a bitch.

He called dibs, and who am I to fight him? He’s enough of a loose screw to turn this into a full blown argument, and I’ve had too many of those lately.

So, Ivory and me? We will be sitting ducks, back up just in case Ez needs it.

Right now, she’s in the passenger seat, cooing at Posie who’s seated in the foot compartment.

Her blocky head rests on Ivy’s thigh, a content little smile lifting her chaps as she gets scratched behind her ears.

Ivory is doing her best to make this as comfortable as it can possibly be, but who are we kidding? This will be trauma, nothing less. No amount of ear scratches will change that.

Letting my gaze stray from the road, I watch them for a moment.

The blaring voice in the back of my head tries to make an appearance again, but I block it out.

It has nothing to say I didn’t already hear a hundred times today.