Denise heard the rustle of sheets and tensed. Cracking open an eyelid, she peered at Kimber crawling off the bed and kneeling down next to her on the floor.

Relief made her muscles loose. Extra bodies was yet another thing she was going to have to get used to. She shifted onto her back and stretched her arm out, inviting Kimber to snuggle close. The little girl rested her head in the pocket of Denise’s shoulder and threw her arm across her stomach.

“Do we have to go to school today?” she whispered.

Denise kissed the top of her head and sniffed the subtle watermelon scent of the kids shampoo they used. She’d had the same thought last night after moving them to her bed. She was still undecided.

“Why don’t you want to go to school?’

“It’s boring,” Kimber said. “I finish all my work really fast and then there’s nothing to do until the next lesson.”

Truthfully, she’d rather have them with her all day even if it meant taking them to the rescue. “How about this? I’ll call the principal and ask for your and Kaden’s assignments for the rest of the week and you guys can hang out at the rescue with me during the day. After you finish your schoolwork, you can help me with the dogs.”

“Really?” Kaden hung his head over the side of the bed, staring down at them with a huge grin.

She smiled back and shook her head at him. “Really. It’s only two more days and next week you should be at your new school.” Note to self: call Bree this morning. She needed to make sure Bree was good with them moving this weekend. At the very least, she could use the address and drive the kids to school if she had to.

“Yay!” Kaden scrambled up and jumped up and down on the bed.

Kimber squeezed her tight and let out a small squeak.

Denise smiled at how easy it was to make them happy. Her joy was marred by the twinge in her back that reminded her she was sleeping on the floor and why. She rubbed her eyes. She should talk to them this morning before they went to the rescue.

Patting Kimber’s shoulder, she rolled up. “All right. Quit jumping before you break the bed. Go put clothes on while I start breakfast.”

Kaden jumped one more time, landing on his butt, and launching himself off the bed. She winced when he missed the corner of the wall by inches. Note to self: research health insurance for the kids. She was running out of mental sticky notes. Note to self: write all this shit down.

“Aunt Denny! Mr. Chris is asleep on the couch again,” Kaden yelled.

“Not anymore he’s not,” Denise mumbled. “I know, honey. He stayed to make sure we were safe after what happened yesterday.”

Standing up, she braced a hand on the back of her hip and twisted, cracking her lower back. Shooing Kimber in front of her and out of the bedroom, she pulled her hair up into a messy bun and secured it with the hair tie from around her wrist.

“Why did he have to make sure we’re safe?” Kimber asked.

Denise stared down her. Should she tell them now or wait until later? She looked up and found Chris watching her from the couch.

God, he was sexy in the morning. His early scruff had a slight tinge of red and framed his lips perfectly. It’d taken all her energy last night not to kiss him goodnight. It wouldn’t have been a simple kiss and after yesterday morning, she didn’t think she had the willpower to stop it from going further. She couldn’t afford to be that distracted with the kids so close in the next room.

“Why don’t I make breakfast?” He stood and shuffled into the kitchen.

Distracted like that. “Okay, new plan. We’re going to talk first and then we’ll get dressed and have breakfast.”

She herded them onto the couch, pulled the coffee table close, and sat facing them. Her parents were supposed to be here to help her get through this. She couldn’t keep relying on other people as the first line of defense. They needed to be backup, not the primary response. How was she supposed to start this conversation?

“Is this a grown-up talk?” Kaden asked.

“What’s a grown-up talk?”

“You know, when you tell us serious stuff like we’re grown-ups,” Kimber said.

“Did your mom have grown-up talks with you?”

“Yeah. But only when it was something really important,” Kaden said.

“Like what?” She was woefully unprepared for the responsibility Sarah had left her.

It was her own fault. She’d assumed her parents would get guardianship and they’d already done it twice. They were pros. She’d just had to figure things out until they took over. Sarah had been too weak to give her all the sage parenting advice she needed by the time she dropped that bombshell on Denise. All her will had stated was Denise got custody and her dad was the executor of her estate.

Note to self: Google “how not to fuck up parenting.” That should cover everything.

“Private parts are private and only pacific people should see them,” Kimber said.

“Specific people.”

“Right, pacific people.”

Denise pressed her lips together. Did laughing at your kids fall under being a shit parent? “What else?”

“Don’t talk to shifty people,” Kaden said.

She frowned. Was that another misspeak? “Who are shifty people?”

“Grown-ups who ask kids for help,” Kaden said.

“And kids who ask you to go with them to help them. They should ask a grown-up for help.” Kimber said.

“And not to trust grown-ups who say Mom sent them to pick us up,” Kimber said.

“They’re supposed to know our code word,” Kaden said.

Denise blinked at them. “How come I don’t know your code word?”

“‘Cause you’re family, silly,” Kimber said. “Family doesn’t need to know the code word.”

“Ah. That makes sense.”

“Mom told me our dad was a shifty person,” Kaden said. “She said he died, too, but that man who called said he was our dad. Was that a lie?”

There was the segue she needed. Taking a deep breath, she tried to explain. “Sometimes, grown-ups tell people lies because the truth is really bad or it might really hurt the other person’s feelings.”

“Mommy lied to us?” Kimber asked.

She moved closer so her knees were touching theirs and took their hands. “To answer your first question, yes, this is going to be a grown-up talk. Your mommy lied to you a little bit, but it was to protect you from a really bad truth.”

Trying to frame the words as gently as possible, she gave their hands a squeeze. “Your dad —” God, she hated using that word “—was a bad man. He did some illegal things and hurt some people, including your mom. One day he hurt her really bad and another man tried to help, but your dad hurt him, too. The police sent your dad to prison for a very long time. We think the men yesterday were some of your dad’s friends.”

She glanced toward the kitchen. Chris leaned against the low counter, arms crossed. His emotions played across his face from anger to worry to I’m here if you need me. He gave her an unexpected sense of comfort.

“But those men tried to hurt us,” Kimber said.

Denise could see the confusion and hurt on her face. “I think they meant to scare us, sweetie, not hurt us.”

Them, maybe. Anything that happened to her was probably considered collateral damage.

“Why would he do that?” Kaden asked. “Why would he hurt mommy and why would he let his friends scare us?

She rubbed the back of his small hand. “I don’t know, sweetheart.”

“Is he going to hurt us?” Kimber asked.

“I will not let that happen,” she said. “I promise.” She prayed it was a promise she’d be able to keep.

* * *

The kids were subdued while they did their schoolwork. The principal had been more than willing to send the week’s remaining assignments to her along with the paperwork to disenroll them and transfer their records to their new school. She tried working up some annoyance at the principal so willing to not deal with an issue, but it made her life easier so in the end she decided to let it go. The kids were happy and excited about their new school so she’d take the good where she could get it.

She sent a quick text to Bree. Got time to talk?

Bree: About 5 mins between patients. What’s up?

Will need more time than that.

Bree: Everything ok?

Wasn’t that the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question?

Need more than 5 mins. Call me at lunch?

Bree: Will do

She saved the financial spreadsheet she’d been working on and locked the computer screen. Tucking her phone into her pocket, she left her small office to check on the kids working at the small break table.

“How’s it going?”

“How much longer do we have to do this?” Kaden asked with a groan.

She chuckled at his ire. They’d been at it for less than two hours. “That depends. How much do you have done?”

“All the reading and most of the math,” he said.

“I have all the math and social studies done,” Kimber said. “I finished the reading last week.”

“Nerd.”

“Geek.” Kimber stuck her tongue out at Kaden.

“No fighting,” she said automatically. She scanned the syllabus for their classes and compared it to what they had done. “How about a break? Do you guys want to take some of the rescues out into the field while I clean out their kennels?”

“Yes!” They both jumped up and down in their seats.

“First, I want to introduce you to one of the dogs.”

They followed her to Sweetpea’s pen. The tan and white dog immediately stood and did her butt wiggle when she realized they were coming to her.

Denise unlatched the chain link door and knelt down. “I’ve been calling her Sweetpea because she’s so sweet.”

She pulled her chin back out of licking distance as the dog tried to crawl in her lap. Kimber and Kaden crouched next to her and petted the dog.

“Whose dog is she?” Kimber asked.

“Well, I was thinking when we move we could take her with us and she could be your dog,” she said.

Both kids froze and stared at her wide-eyed. “Really?” Kaden asked.

“Really.”

They lunged at her and threw their arms around her neck. Off balance from their combined weight and momentum, she fell backward and was quickly overtaken by kids and dog.

She pulled her knees up to protect her stomach from Sweetpea’s pointy paws. “I take it that’s a yes.”

“Yes! Yes! Yes!”

Kimber peppered her cheek with kisses while Kaden untangled himself from Denise and hugged Sweetpea instead. At least she knew her place in his priorities.

She leveraged up and stood once Kimber had turned her attention to Sweetpea.

“Can we take her out now?” Kaden asked.

“Yes. She’s good with the group we’re starting with. Grab her lead from the hook while I get the other dogs.”

She let Emily know she was taking the kids across to the barn. Kaden and Kimber followed her out the side door and across the yard, Sprocket lumbering along beside them. They played with the foster dogs in groups until the alarm on her phone beeped, reminding her it was almost lunchtime.

“Let’s get your books from the office and we’ll go up to my apartment for lunch.”

“Can we bring Sweetpea up with us or does she have to go back into her kennel, too?” Kaden asked.

She closed the final dog’s stall door. “She can come.”

“Yay.”

Sprocket rolled up from her spot in the shade and followed them to the office, then upstairs to Denise’s apartment.

She hadn’t been there in almost a week and the air was stale and musty. No telling what the inside of her fridge would look like.

“Have you guys done your science homework yet? ‘Cause I think I have some experiments you can use in here.”

Kimber giggled from her seat at the table.

Denise closed the refrigerator door and opened the freezer. “Mac and cheese or pizza?”

“Pizza,” they both said.

Thank goodness they were easy. She pulled the frozen pizza out and set the oven to preheat. “Work on your schoolwork while the oven heats.”

“Awww. Can’t we watch TV for a while?” Kaden asked.

She cocked a hip against the counter and folded her arms. “I’ll make a deal with you. You work until two o’clock and I’ll let you watch TV.”

He squinted his eyes at her and mirrored her crossed arms. “Does that include taking a break to eat pizza?”

“That includes eating pizza between answering social studies questions.”

He dropped his arms and sagged his shoulders. “Ugh.”

Kimber had already pulled her books out of her book bag and set them on the small table.

“Think of it as practice for college,” Denise said.

“I’m not going to college. I’m going to join the Army like you and Grandpa.”

A montage of her years in the Army flashed through her mind. She was in no way prepared to overlay her nine-year-old nephew into any of those scenes. “We’ll talk about that when you’re eighteen. And either way, you’re still going to have to learn to study while eating pizza. It’s a life skill. Right up there with learning how to drive a stick shift.”

“What’s a stick shift?” he asked.

“Oh, young Padawan, you have much to learn.”

“What’s a Padawan?”

She dropped her arms in shock. “What’s a—Well, I know what you’re going to be watching on TV for the next week.” Her phone vibrated in her back pocket before she could delve further into the severe lack of their cultural education.

Bree’s grinning face stared at her from the screen and she slid her thumb across it. “Hey. Hang on a sec.” She lowered the phone. “Can you put the pizza in the oven when it beeps?” she asked Kaden.

“Sure.”

She had a feeling she was going to come back to a partially frozen pizza still sitting on top the stove, but she moved to the small landing outside the front door of her apartment for some privacy. “Hey.”

Sprocket curled up behind her when she sat on the top step.

“Hey,” Bree said. “What’s going on?”

“I have a list,” Denise said.

“You have a list? Is there any particular order to your list?” Something crunched over the line.

“Are you eating carrot sticks?” Denise asked.

“Yes. I have exactly twenty-four minutes for lunch today, so you’re going to have to deal with me crunching on carrot sticks in your ear while you talk. I’ll try to move the microphone away from my mouth while I chew.”

“Thanks,” she said sarcastically. “No real order, so let me get the big thing out of the way first.” She gave Bree an abbreviated version of the previous day, including picking up Kimber and Kaden from school.

“Shit,” Bree said.

“Yeah.”

“What do you need?”

“Any way we’d be able to move into your house this weekend?”

Crunch. “I haven’t officially moved out yet. I mean, most of my personal stuff is at Jase’s, but I wasn’t sure what you wanted me to leave at my house so I haven’t moved any of the big stuff. Jase doesn’t have a trip this weekend so he may be able to get some of the guys to help shuffle everything around.”

She went over the furniture and rooms she wanted to move and they made plans to meet Saturday morning.

“How’s everything else? You sound tired.” Bree asked.

Denise sighed. “I’m feeling a little overwhelmed by things. They seem to be piling up at the moment.”

“We’ll figure it out. What’s next? You’ve got five and a half minutes.”

“I think we should get an office manager for the rescue. The paperwork is eating into a lot of my time and I’d rather be working with the dogs than sitting in the office. We can probably get away with someone part-time. Maybe a business major from the college.”

“Okay.”

“And at least one more full-time person.”

“Okay.”

“That’s it? Okay?”

“With…four minutes left? Yes, that’s it. I trust you, Denise. If you’re telling me you need more help, I know you need more help. If you need to talk it over more, bring the kids over to Jase’s place tonight for dinner. We’ll work out a plan of attack and figure out where to advertise for the help.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Especially if she wouldn’t have to figure out what to cook for dinner.

“Anything else?” Bree asked.

“I kind of had sex with Chris again.” Why did she throw that in there?

“Oh—Wait. What?”

“I kind of had sex with Chris again?” She cringed this time, waiting for the explosion.

“How do you kind of have sex with someone? You know what? No. That is the first thing we’re talking about tonight. How are you going to drop that on me with less than a minute before I have to get my next patient? You should have started with that.”

“We wouldn’t have gotten to the rest of what I needed to talk about.”

“Beside the point. You getting nookie is the most important topic of discussion.”

Denise smiled. “No one calls it nookie anymore, Bree.”

“Not the point! Damn it. I have to go. Six o’clock! Heifer.”

Bree hung up and Denise grinned at the phone, imagining Bree’s frustration at not being able to slam a handset receiver down. There were some advantages to modern technology.