“Hannah!” I hissed. “Leave her alone!”
My daughter turned to look at me, her face filled with awe as she stood over Charlotte. “She’s still asleep.”
“I know!” I hissed, waving an urgent hand to make her come back into the bedroom.
We’d been tiptoeing around her apartment all morning, trying to let her sleep. This included eating three bowls of cereal in her bed at six thirty in the morning, after Travis had woken up for a breathing treatment. Charlotte hadn’t even budged as I’d crawled out from under her on the couch and headed down the hall to help my son. The hum of the nebulizer was loud, but we did our best to keep it quiet by going into the bathroom in Charlotte’s bedroom and shutting both of the doors. I supposed she hadn’t been sleeping any better than I had over the last week, and pair that with a night of awkward yet completely incredible sex in a cramped bathroom and I figured she was down for the count.
It made me an epic weirdo, but I could have watched her peacefully sleeping for hours.
And it seemed my daughter shared the infatuation.
“Get over here!” I whisper-yelled, silently snapping my finger and pointing to the floor beside me.
Smiling, she skipped over and took my hand.
Shaking my head, I guided her back into the bedroom and quietly closed the door behind us.
“Travis, your new mommy sleeps a lot,” she said, heading straight for the bed, where she climbed up to sit with her brother.
He didn’t even look up from his iPad as he replied, “She’s not my new mommy.”
“Yeah. She is, Trav,” I corrected.
His head never moved, but his eyes lifted to mine. “I already had a mom. She died. I don’t need two.”
Hannah’s eyes lit. “I’ll take her! I never had a mommy.”
My gut twisted. “Hannie, you did have a mom. She’s in heaven now.” Or more likely hell, but my lies knew no bounds when it came to my children.
I walked over to the bed and sat on the side. Hannah crawled into my lap, while Travis watched me out of the corner of his eye, pretending he wasn’t. I had to smile. Maybe he was more like Charlotte than I’d thought.
“Put that down for a second,” I told him, shifting Hannah to one of my legs.
“Fine,” he huffed and begrudgingly obeyed.
“She is your mom. And she loves you very much. When I first met Charlotte, she missed you so much that she was still struggling, even ten years later. I know this is weird and it’s hard to understand, but she loves you more than you can ever imagine.”
“She won’t even let me see you though.”
“That’s going to change, okay? It might take a little while before we get everything set up. But I promise you we’re all working to make that change.”
“Not that Brady guy!” he exclaimed. “He’s an asshole.”
Hannah gasped so loudly I had to bite back a laugh.
“Hey!” I snapped my fingers. “Watch your mouth.”
I set Hannah on her feet, and she wandered away, flashing Travis a pair of wide you-are-in-so-much-trouble eyes.
He sheepishly looked away. “Brady’s always saying that it’s best that I don’t talk to you anymore. And he’s mean to Charlotte too. He told his wife the other day that Charlotte was too weak to be a mom.”
My jaw turned to granite. Yeah, I’d hated Brady before. But my son was right: He was an asshole. But, now, he was talking shit about my woman…in front of my kid? Fuck that.
“Don’t worry about Brady,” I clipped before getting my anger in check. “Charlotte and I are going to work together to make sure you’re taken care of. But I need you to drop the attitude, okay? She thinks you hate her.”
His sad eyes lifted to mine. “I do hate her.”
I shook my head. “No, buddy. You just don’t love her yet. There’s a big difference.”
He stared up at me with haunted eyes and asked, “Do you love her?”
“Yes,” I answered curtly. “But, before you read into that, I don’t know what’s going to happen between the two of us. There’s still a long road to the future.”
“Does she love you?”
I grinned. “Well, Charlotte is currently pretending she doesn’t love me.” I shot him a pointed wink. “But come on. We both know she does. I mean…look at me. How could she not?”
He giggled, and it eased the ache in my chest.
“She showed me a picture of you kissing her while we were at the police station.”
“Oh yeah?” I drawled, shock and pride settling inside me.
“She said that you would trust her to do what was right for me.”
I hooked my arm around his shoulders and pulled him into my side. “I do. And proof that I was right is that, last night, when you truly needed me, she called and told me to come over.” I kissed the top of his head. “Give her a chance, Travis. I promise you won’t regret it. She’s pretty amazing.”
He nodded, but he didn’t quite seem convinced. Instead of harping on him about it, though, I decided to change the subject.
“Okay…now, let’s—”
“Daddy!” Hannah shrieked, terror sharp in her tone.
I lurched off the bed and rushed toward her voice. She came sprinting out of Charlotte’s closet until her body got tangled in some of the hanging clothes, and before I could reach her, the whole rod came down on top of her.
She cried, kicking and screaming under the mess.
After digging her out of what had to be Charlotte’s entire winter wardrobe, I scooped her up to sit on my hip. “Hey. It’s okay. Everything’s fine.”
Suddenly, the bedroom door flung open and an honest-to-God zombie came stumbling in.
Her hair was in tangles and sticking out in all directions, and she fought a losing battle with her lids in an attempt to open her eyes in the bright light. “Travis!” she called, sleep muffling her voice.
“Right here.” He laughed, swinging a humor-filled smile my way.
She clutched her chest. “Are you okay?”
He laughed louder. “I’m good. You…uh…slept late.”
“Jesus, what time is it?” Her gaze slowly slid to me, and then her whole body jerked. “Shit. I forgot you were here.”
“And good morning to you too, beautiful.” Chuckling, I walked over and kissed her forehead. Using my free hand, I smoothed her hair down. “You look particularly stunning this morning. You sleep well?”
She curled into my side. “I don’t even know what day it is.”
“That’s a good sign.” I glanced up and found Travis watching us closely, his eyes aimed at her hand casually resting on my stomach.
And then, like a lightning bolt had struck her, she jerked again. “Oh my God. Did you go all night without a breathing treatment?”
“I took care of it,” I announced.
“Oh.” She peered up at me. “You should have woken me up. I tweaked his medication last—”
“I saw.”
“Yeah, but…”
I squeezed her hip. “Seriously, Charlotte. For as meticulously as you had everything laid out, Hannah could have administered it.”
Travis laughed. “She so could have.”
“Well, it’s always better to be prepared. Things can get confusing in the middle of the night.”
I smirked. “I know. I could barely concentrate over your snores from the couch.”
Travis cackled and folded over on the bed.
“I don’t snore!”
I gave her a teasing side-eye. “You sure about that?”
Swinging her head between Travis and me, she defended, “I don’t!”
Travis decided to get in on the joke. “I don’t know, Charlotte. That’s not the way it sounded in here.”
Her mouth fell open, but her smile showed around it. “Don’t you dare side with him.”
Travis kept the joke going for longer than it was funny, but judging by Charlotte’s grin and my boy’s howls of laughter, neither of them minded.
“Fine. I might have snored. But you keep rubbing it in and I won’t be making pancakes for breakfast.”
“Breakfast? It’s, like, lunch!” He laughed.
She planted her hands on her hips in the most dramatic, non-Charlotte way possible and shot back, “Fine. You keep it up and I won’t make pancakes for lunch.”
I couldn’t help but stare. She’d always been so dry and unreadable. But, right then, bantering with our son, she was downright playful. I guessed that was what she looked like when she was happy.
And Christ, she was beautiful.
I lifted a hand in Travis’s direction to silence him. “Whoa. Okay, chill. Let’s not get crazy. I’m going to need to eat more than a bowl of Cheerios today.”
“Oh, I didn’t say I was making any for you.” She smiled, and then her eyes flashed wide as she leaned to the side to see around me. “Wow! What happened there?” She pointed at the mess in her closet.
“Sorry about that. Hannah got tangled in your clothes. I’ll fix it…after pancakes.”
Hannah’s head snapped up off my shoulder, and she looked to Charlotte, whispering, “There’s a man in your closet.”
Charlotte waved her off. “Nah. That’s just Ian. He’s harmless.”
I closed one eye, cupped a hand to my ear, and leaned toward her. “I’m sorry. Did you say Ian?”
“Yeah. Ian Somerhalder,” she answered like it wasn’t the most ludicrous thing I’d ever heard come out of her mouth.
“You have some guy named Ian in your closet?” I clarified, because really, what the hell else was there to say?
Upon stepping over the mountain of clothes, she dug into the back of her closet and pulled out a life-size cutout of some dude with his arms crossed, his steely-blue, cardboard, smoldering gaze staring out into oblivion.
“What. Is. That?” Travis asked, rising from the bed to inspect the absurdity.
She shrugged. “Apparently, he plays a vampire on some TV show. The residents at the hospital gave this guy to me for my birthday. They used to call me a vampire because I worked such long hours at night.”
I stared in awe at a woman I was suddenly realizing I didn’t know at all. “And you kept him? In your closet, like a dirty little secret?”
She grinned up at him. “What can I say? He has pretty eyes.”
I barked a laugh and set my wiggling daughter on her feet so she, too, could check our newest guest out. “You know who else has pretty eyes?” I hooked my thumb at my chest. “Me. Your boyfriend, remember?”
She cocked her head to the side. “Aren’t you a little old to be using the term boyfriend?”
“Woman, you have a nearly six-foot cardboard cutout of a TV vampire in your closet. I’m not sure you are in any position to be discussing age-appropriate behavior right now.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, but not even her glare could hide her humor. “Did you seriously just call me woman?”
I mirrored her posture. “Did you seriously just produce a flat man out of your closet?”
“Oh my God.” She giggled. “Are you jealous? Of a piece of cardboard?”
“Pshh…no,” I replied, twisting my lips and looking to Travis for backup.
He gave me none.
“He’s totally jealous,” he said, tipping his head back to look at Charlotte.
Hannah patted her on the leg. “Are you really a vampire?”
“No,” I answered. “She’s a poor woman with a very serious hoarding problem.” I plucked the stupid cutout from her hands. “And we are going to help her with this by tossing Ian here to the curb.”
“You are not!” Charlotte exclaimed, grabbing the man’s feet.
“Oh, but I am,” I whispered.
Tug-of-war ensued. And, while I wasn’t jealous in the least, I was having so much fun watching her interact with the kids that I would have kept the charade up for the rest of my life.
There was a woman I’d never thought I’d be able to get into the same room with my kids and she was joining forces with them against me. I fucking loved it.
“Porter, stop!” She laughed as I started toward the door, Ian firmly in my grasp, her dragging behind us.
“He’s going to the dumpster,” I declared.
Travis held her hips to try to help, and Hannah grabbed her brother’s hips to complete the chain of people I loved. (Well, minus Ian, of course.)
“I’m willing to negotiate for his safety!” Charlotte laughed.
I froze but kept my hold on Ian tight. Arching an eyebrow, I said, “I’m listening.”
Smiling, she bent and whispered something in Travis’s ear.
“I want to hear!” Hannah cried, bouncing on her toes.
Travis scrubbed his chin while staring off into space. “I like this plan,” he said.
Partitioning her mouth off, Charlotte whispered what I assumed was the same thing in Hannah’s ear.
Her whole face lit, her brown eyes dancing with what could only be described as pure joy.
“We are prepared to offer the addition of chocolate chips to the pancakes in exchange for Ian’s safe return,” Charlotte said.
I gave the cardboard cutout a sharp tug. “No deal.”
“Come on, Dad!” Travis whined.
Putting a hand up to quiet him, Charlotte sucked in a long breath through her nose. With the most beautiful blank face I’d ever seen, she asked, “What if we were willing to add sausage on the side?”
My children stared at me expectantly. Neither of them ate sausage, but they knew I did.
It was a completely ridiculous conversation, but it filled my hollow chest in unimaginable ways.
One week earlier, I’d had my son snatched away from me.
One week earlier, I’d lost all hope of ever having my family again.
One week earlier, I’d sat in a police station with my entire life unrecognizable
Yet one week later, I had everything I could ever want in one room, all staring at me, waiting for me to agree to chocolate chip pancakes and sausage.
My instincts told me to shut the door, lock it, and ride out the rest of my life in that room with them. The world outside was entirely too dark for lights that bright.
I stared at Charlotte, flanked by my kids—her son—her smile wide, her eyes full of love, and my heart became whole for what felt like the very first time.
“Make that bacon and you’ve got a deal.”
“Bacon!” Hannah squealed.
“What do you think?” she asked Travis out of the corner of her mouth while holding my gaze.
Travis chuckled and looked up at his mother. “I could eat some bacon.”
Her lips twitched. “You’ve got a deal. Now, return the hostage unharmed.”
I released Ian. “Kids, go see if Charlotte has any whipped cream in her fridge.”
“Yes!” Hannah yelled, sprinting from the room, Travis hot on her heels.
“If we use all the whipped cream for pancakes, we won’t have any for tonight,” she teased when we heard the kids celebrating their victory in the kitchen.
Hooking an arm around her shoulders, I pulled her against my chest and then planted a kiss on her mouth. “I’ll stock my fridge with whipped cream, you kinky minx.”
She grinned. “If it’s at your house, it won’t do us much good.”
“Come back to my place tonight,” I whispered.
Her eyes flared with alarm. “Porter—”
“Listen, it’s just for one night. Let the kids have a night of normalcy.”
“But that’s not normal anymore,” she argued. “It’s not ever going back to the way it was. You can’t get them attached to that.”
“The new normal is me and you together. Whether that be at my house or at your house. It doesn’t matter. This…right here”—I pointedly tightened my arm around her—“is what I want them to get used to.”
“But what about the protection order?”
“Exactly. We’ll be safer at my house. Here, anyone could stop by. At my place, worst case is my mom shows up and gets to see her grandson. She’s not going to rat us out. And I know for a fact that you can’t say that same thing about anyone in your family.”
She stared at her feet. “I don’t know, Porter. Going back to your place…”
“Back when the kids were a real issue for you, I used to dream about having you in my home. The kids fighting around us while you and I cook dinner in the kitchen.”
“You mean while I cook dinner in your kitchen,” she smarted. “You forget I’ve seen your culinary skills in action. I probably still have the burn marks to show for it.”
I smirked. “Yes, that’s exactly what I meant. But I’m more than willing to sit on the counter and cheer you on.” I dipped and kissed her. “I want you in my home, Charlotte. I want the kids to sleep in their own beds, even for just one night. And I want to sleep in a room with a door and a bed so, if the mood strikes you, we can seriously utilize one of the twenty-seven cans of whipped cream that are now on my grocery list.”
She giggled and stared up at me.
Oh, I was in love with Charlotte Mills. No falling about it.
But, with the sentence that followed, I started to question why.
“Can Ian come too?”
“Woman!” I growled at the same time she burst into laughter.