He couldn’t imagine how difficult it was for her to raise Evie on her own, with no one but a teenager for help.
“Well, if you hadn’t got yourself arrested,” William muttered as he spotted Evie reaching for a ball. He picked it up for her and set them both on the ground. He rolled the ball to her, causing another peal of laughter.
There. He could do this.
Twenty minutes turned into forty, and Evie and William moved onto rolling fat toy cars around. Evie lay on her stomach, wiggling her little legs in the air. William found himself looking around at the pictures scattered around the living room. Anne, Michelle, Evie. Some pictures still with Anne, Michelle, and their mom. But no man featured in any of these family pictures. He looked at Evie’s blonde curls and started to wonder.
Where had this sweet girl come from?
As Evie played, she babbled a long stream of amiable vocalizations that could more or less be called words, but apart from some very direct sentences, William could only understand about every tenth “word.” He found himself replying with non-committal, but positive-sounding, “Yes” or “Is that right?” and smiling at her encouragingly.
Then, he lost her. He’d been scouring the room for signs of some paternal presence, and when he looked back, no Evie. A stab of panic paralyzed him for a moment. He pushed it away, got up, and gently began calling, “Where’s Evie?”
Giggles. William smiled, warmth spreading out from his chest through his entire body, and he followed the sound. Every so often, he’d call, “Where’s Evie?” and her giggles would guide him.
He drew the game out as long as he could. She obviously enjoyed tricking adults into looking for her. She probably enjoyed other tricks, too. He was glad that they’d stayed in the house.
“Where’s Evie?” William called into the bedroom. The bed giggled, and he grinned at the lump under the covers. Instead of grabbing her right away, he looked in the closet, and under the dresser, and in some of Anne’s books. Of course, as he did so, he looked to see if there were leavings of any boyfriend type in here, as well. There weren’t.
When he finally grabbed the girl, he cried, “There she is!” and Evie practically exploded with delighted squeals as he hugged her and tickled her sides.
***
The twenty minutes had turned into two hours when the door burst open, and Michelle appeared. William looked up at her from where Evie was creating abstract art with crayons and some blank paper.
“Well, look who showed up,” William said.
“Tantie Mishul!” Evie said.
“What the he-uh, heck, are you doing here?” Michelle demanded. She dropped her bags and hurried over to Evie, who didn’t move but just stared at her aunt curiously.
“I came with a delivery for your sis and got recruited to cover for your extreme lateness.” William touched Evie’s back. “Kristie had to go pick up her boy.”
“Oh, sh-crap, I forgot this was her day to do that.” Michelle reached for Evie’s hand. “I had to talk to my professor after class, and he talked forever, and then there was a car wreck on the highway. It was a whole thing.”
“Good thing I was here then, eh?” William smirked.
“Anne doesn’t want you around. She told me not to let you in,” Michelle said bluntly.
“Ouch. Well, your conscience is clear. You didn’t let me in. And you’ve been properly rude when all I’ve done is keep an eye on Anne’s little girl all afternoon, so if you don’t mind, peanut, I think you’ve done your due diligence concerning Anne’s wishes.”
Michelle pinched her mouth to the side and leaned back against the couch. “You have a good afternoon with William?”
“We payed balls and tucks and coloring,” Evie said with near perfect unintelligibility.
Michelle smiled. “Good. I’m glad you got to ‘pay.’ ”
“Got her own language, doesn’t she? And she said I talked funny.”
Michelle shook her head. “That’s just a toddler thing. She knows more words than she can say properly right now. She absorbs everything like a sponge, so you gotta be careful.”
Michelle petted Evie’s hair. “Okay, seriously. Why did you really come? A man like you can’t send somebody with a package? Even the scrubs I go to school with can order something on Amazon.”
“Your sis told you that we’re working together now?”
“No. But I had to pull it out of her that you were under investigation to begin with. She’s not too chatty with the investigation details on a good day.” Michelle ran her eyes over William. “You’re really gonna work with her? You’re not going to hurt her this time?”