Laura grabbed Lacey’s favorite unicorn toy before it could hit the ground, knowing that if it got dirty her young daughter would be inconsolable. “Just in time, sweetie,” she said, giving her a knowing look. “Or Mr. Fluffy would have been going through the laundry.”
“Uh-oh,” Lacey said, blinking her huge blue eyes. Laura smiled and tucked her daughter’s blonde hair behind her ears. She’d insisted on having her hair done up in bunny ears above her head—apparently, that was the style that everyone at her school loved. She’d only been attending for a few months, but already her social life sounded more exciting than Laura’s own.
There was one standing date Laura had in her calendar, though—every time she had Lacey for the weekend, the two of them came here. To see Chris and Amy Fallow.
“Come on, then,” Laura laughed, grabbing her daughter out of her car seat and putting her down on the sidewalk. As soon as her tiny legs had enough ground between them, she was off, toddling as fast as she could toward the door.
She’d barely managed to get one of her hands to slap the outside of the door, Laura still gathering toys from the back seat of the car and trying to catch up with her, when it opened. Behind it, Amy—about six months older than Lacey, but just as blonde and just as cute—waved enthusiastically and launched into a clumsy if affectionate hug. As the two little girls chattered excitedly about the day they were going to have and which toys they would play with, Laura noticed with a chuckle that Amy’s hair was also in bunny ears.
“Hey,” Chris said, standing back to let the girls pass by him, revealing himself as the taller and stronger figure who had opened the door for Amy to burst out. “You solved your case.”
“I did,” Laura said, stepping inside with her arms fully laden with unicorns, dolls and fluffy kittens and puppies. “Lacey insisted on bringing everything. She said they were having a toy reunion. She only knows the word because she heard me talking about the case on the phone yesterday and asked me what it meant.”
Chris chuckled and took a few of the toys from her load. “No injuries this time?”
“No,” Laura said, carrying everything over to the open-plan kitchen and family room space. The girls had already run over to Amy’s toy box and were enthusiastically setting everything up in a circle, which they were clearly meant to join once it was completed. They were distracted, not listening. Laura took a risk, shooting Chris a glance. “Do you want to examine me to check, Doctor?”
Amusingly, Chris went a funny shade of pink that covered his ears and disappeared into his hairline, and he had to clear his throat. “I will trust your word for now,” he said, though Laura thought he was quite pleased with the idea.
She was quite pleased with it herself.
They dropped the toys off with the girls, Lacey turning around bossily to move every toy Laura put down into a placement that was apparently more suitable for her. “Mommy,” she tutted. “Unicorns have to go next to dragons, not opposite them.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize,” Laura said, placing a hand over her chest in mock surprise. “How silly of me!”
“That’s right,” Amy confirmed. “And ponies go next to them on the other side. And we don’t need any gross, kissy grown-ups!” She made a face like she’d just smelled something awful.
Laura looked at Chris. This time, he was going distinctly red instead of pink. “Um,” he said. “Amy might have heard me talking on the phone to one of my friends about the other night.”
Laura straightened up, away from the girls, and tilted her head at him. “You talk to your friends about me?”
Chris cleared his throat again, moving to the kitchen counter—probably as an excuse to cover up the awkwardness. From their usual seat at the island, they could watch the girls play without it feeling like they were cramping their style. A freshly made coffee was waiting for Laura—Chris was starting to know what she liked. It felt comfortable. Warm. Like home.
“Yes, well,” he said, and shrugged. “Wouldn’t you brag about the gorgeous Special Agent who manages to find the time in her extremely busy schedule of catching serial killers and jumping in the way of bullets to go on a date with you?”
Laura laughed, shaking her head at his flattery. “I’ll let you know if it ever happens. But to be fair, I’m quite likely to brag about the handsome cardiologist known for his charitable work and new single dad who makes time for me. And by the way, I don’t jump in front of bullets. It was blunt object trauma that gave me the concussion.”
“Noted,” Chris said. A shadow passed over his face for a moment when he glanced at Amy, and he sipped at his coffee. The usual smile he wore had slipped, but when he put the coffee back down, it was in place once again.
Laura frowned.
Was that a red flag she was seeing?
“Where did you just go?” she asked, bluntly. She’d known from the very start of her budding relationship with Chris that she had to be blunt with him. She’d only gotten to know him in the first place to protect Amy, after all.
Chris grimaced. “Sorry. It’s hard sometimes. I guess I’m still not over it.” He sighed. “I just… I knew my brother could be a piece of work. I just didn’t think…”
“That it would go that far?” Laura supplied.
“Yeah.” Chris sighed again, and shrugged. “I don’t know whether that makes me a lousy judge of character, or just an optimist.”
“Maybe both,” Laura said. He looked at her with an injured expression and then laughed and shook his head when he realized she was teasing him.
“Look,” he said. “I don’t know if I’m a good judge of character. But I do know I want to see you again next week. I mean, you know. Without the girls.”
Laura glanced over at the two of them, playing. It was like some kind of dream, something so distant from the alcoholic mess of her life only a year ago that it seemed impossible. One day, maybe, those two girls could be raised as sisters. Her daughter and his adopted one. She could live in this beautiful house, with a doctor husband and two beautiful daughters, watching them grow up, giving them everything they needed to thrive and overcome the difficulties of their early childhoods.
Something inside her rebelled at the thought, rejecting it firsthand without thought. But she knew what that thing inside of her was. It was the destructive, broken part of her. The part that wanted to drink until everything was gone. The part that still believed a girl like her, with the horrible ability that she had, should be quiet and hide away and never let herself go near another person in case she ruined their happiness.
It was her mother’s voice, not her own. She was beginning to recognize that. She didn’t have to keep all of herself hidden—even if, for now, she still wasn’t at a place with Chris where she could show him that secret ability.
It was a beautiful dream. But maybe, if she wasn’t getting too far ahead of herself, it didn’t have to stay just a dream.
“I’d like that too,” she said, smiling into her cup of coffee.
Her phone buzzed at her side, and Laura picked it up to read the message she’d been sent. It was simple, to the point. I’ll meet you at your place tonight.
She hid it quickly before Chris could see, feeling her stomach drop at the thought of what was waiting later—trying to put it out of her mind so the anxiety wouldn’t ruin the whole day.