The evening before hadn’t exactly gone as planned. Evan’s innocent comment about violence had thrown me. For a brief moment, I could feel the crunch of my captor’s nose against my forehead as I’d fought like hell to get away. I remembered swinging the pipe down and the sickening thud that had followed. I couldn’t get my mood right after that.

I knew that Evan wanted to know what was up, but I still wasn’t quite ready to tell him. Not to mention, there was something he was not telling me either. Something that had to do with the kids and his brother. Maybe we weren’t meant to be more. Maybe we were just supposed to be a distraction to help one another deal with life’s heartaches.

No, that couldn’t be it. We were both just damaged and needed to figure out how to be whole.

I pulled up to the cabin and saw smoke billowing from the chimney. I parked my car and went inside to see the kids already sitting at the breakfast table. Evan looked exhausted as he stood at the stove, and I quickly went over to take his place before he sighed.

“We’re almost out of diapers, so I’ll need to run into town to get some,” he said.

“If you have car seats, I could go and take the kids with me,” I said.

“No, no. I’ll make the run. There are a few other things we need anyway. Some things I need for my shop and all,” he said.

The yawn that escaped was big, and I could tell by the bags under his eyes that he hadn’t slept well.

“Rough night with the kids?” I asked.

He just shrugged.

“Your brother didn’t give you enough diapers to hold you over?” I asked.

“He didn’t, no,” he said.

“That’s odd. How long are they supposed to be gone?”

“It’s fine. I’ve got it,” he said.

His statements were clipped as I watched him pour a cup of coffee for himself. He chugged it down before quickly getting another, and that was when I saw how haggard he really looked. He was in his clothes from yesterday and his eyes were bloodshot red. His movements were slower than usual like his exhaustion was weighing down his ability to move fluidly.

But where he looked tired and ragged, the kids looked well-rested and happy. It was as if he was the only one who hadn’t slept. I wanted to know more about it, but he wouldn’t let me in. I knew the reason why he wasn’t opening up to me. It was because I wasn’t opening up to him. He had gently prodded me yesterday, but I had shut down. I knew he was curious and I knew he was trying to put pieces together. He was trying to get to know me with the little bit I was showing him. And if I didn’t open up to him, he had no reason to open up to me. I couldn’t expect someone to tell me all their secrets while holding mine close to my chest, but I wasn’t ready to talk to him about this.

I decided to throw him a bone. “If you want to talk about anything, I’m willing to listen,” I said.

His eyes slowly panned over toward mine and they robbed me of my breath. I could tell he was debating something. I knew how he felt. That feeling where you bounce between pouring your life story into someone’s lap and burying it deeper into your chest. The mere fact that he was struggling with this meant he wanted to confide in me. He wanted to sit down and talk to me about these things. He wanted me to know what was going on with him, just so he’d have another person to help shoulder whatever it was and walk alongside him, instead of him dealing with it all alone.

Just like I had wanted to tell him a couple of times before.

“I know,” he said. “I’m gonna make the run to the store before I get working. You need anything?”

“No,” I said, sighing. “I’m okay.”

“Be back soon.”

The kids were still eating as the door shut behind him. I heard him start up his truck before the crunching of ice could be heard as he backed out of the driveway. I stood at the sink and listened to him drive away, secretly wishing he would’ve opened up to me.

I had no idea how the fuck I was going to repay him the favor, but I knew I was willing to try.

Just then, something started ringing down the hallway. I didn’t recognize the sound and it wasn’t stopping. I figured it was an alarm or something and it would die down with time, but after three minutes of listening to it ring on and off, I decided to go and find the source of the noise.

And what I found was Evan’s phone sitting on his nightstand.

“Shit,” I said. “He forgot his phone.”

“Mew?” Liam called out.

“I’ll be there in a second, sweetheart. Just hang tight.”

I turned my back to head for the kitchen but the phone went off again. The ringer was long and loud, and it vibrated against the wooden bedside table. I didn’t want to listen to the incessant noise the entire time he was gone, so I picked it up and toggled with the side buttons. I knew one of them had to be the volume button, but I turned on the phone screen before I could find it.

There was a text message from someone named ‘Mike’ scrolling across the screen.

“Come by later, forgot to give you Hadley’s present I made. Hope it’ll take the edge off being a new dad.”

A new dad? Now I was thoroughly confused.

“Mew!”

“Coming, sweetheart!”

Finding the volume button, I toggled it all the way down to silent. I set the phone back on his bedside table, then left in a hurry. I shut his door so I wouldn’t be tempted to scroll through any more of his phone, then I made my way back to the kids.

But my mind was still swirling with that text message.

Did it have something to do with why Evan never talked about his brother? Was there really no brother? Suddenly, I had the sick and horrifying thought that he had been lying to me all along. What better place to take a couple of kids you were trying to hide, than the mountains of Montana? It wouldn’t be the first time I’d met a man willing to take something – someone—that wasn’t his. I shivered at the thought as Liam came up beside me.

“You guys wanna watch a movie after we get cleaned up?” I asked, trying to keep my voice even.

“Aladdin?” Liam asked.

“We can watch whatever you want to,” I said, smiling.

A movie would keep them occupied for a couple more hours, and that was what I needed. I needed these kids to stay occupied until I could wrap my head around what the fuck was going on.

But the dreaded question crashed to the forefront of my mind, and I felt the breath in my lungs flee in a resounding reaction to the fear that was now coursing through my veins.

Was I still safe here?