“No. That’s not why I’m crying.”
“Tell me,” I beg. I brush my thumb up and down her face, staring into her eyes, desperate to understand what happened. What I did wrong.
“I’m okay. I just… I didn’t expect it to be like that.” My eyebrows knit together, hoping she’ll explain further. “I’m fine. But I need some space tonight.” With that, she pulls away from me completely and gets out of the truck. The harsh inner light of the cab flicks on when she opens the door momentarily blinding me, but I don’t move. I don’t chase after her.
I sit here thinking. Wrecked with anxiety and guilt.
Even after the door shuts and the light is out and she’s gone inside.
I’m struck sideways with a bold and unsettling realization. I think I’m starting to fall for Maia Alice Angelo.
17
Keith
* * *
“Did you forget something?” an exasperated Jasper asks as he opens the door, a tired and fussing Adalyn in his arms.
“Why is she still awake?” I ask instead of answering him.
“That’s a seriously good question. One you should likely ask her since I can’t seem to figure it out. The girl won’t go down. Vi is nursing Cora and trying to get her to bed. But this one is being a little monster for her daddy.” Jasper tickles Adalyn’s belly and she peels out a delighted squeal. “I have no idea how Vi is going to manage both when we go on tour.”
I smirk. Watching daddy Jasper wasn’t as fun when he was a single dad with an infant or when he was dealing with a toddler newly diagnosed with ASD. It was new and strange and a little scary for all of us since we didn’t know what to expect or how to help.
But now that Jasper is an old pro and has Vi and baby Cora, watching him with five-year-old Adalyn who likes to put her father through his paces is amusing as hell.
“Um. Probably like the kick-butt mommy she is.” I look to Adalyn, bending so we’re eye level and keeping some distance so she doesn’t get upset. “Ady, what’s up my girl? Aren’t you tired?”
“No. Not tired. No sleep.” she says, stubbornly shaking her head. She’s wearing purple Little Mermaid jammies. Her long reddish-brown hair is a mess and her green eyes are already drooping. But this girl is fighting it. That’s for sure.
“Can I put you down?”
She blinks at me as if she has no idea what to do with that question, only to launch her little body away from Jasper and straight into my arms in the next breath. I catch her instinctively, tucking her into my chest and giving her a squeeze because that’s what we all do when we hug Adalyn Diamond.
“Keith, I no wanna go to bed. I not tired.”
I smile indulgently down at the sweet baby in my arms. “I know it, doll. I know it. How about you show me your room though? I’d love to see the new mermaids Mommy put on your walls. Are Mickey and Minnie in there? I want to say hi.”
She wiggles out of my grasp and takes my hand, leading me toward the stairs. I catch the sound of Jasper’s relieved sigh as he walks behind me. “Mickey and Minnie are sleeping. Minnie wears a pink dress and Mickey has two buttons.”
“Right you are, girl. Show me.”
“Mickey and Minnie love Adalyn soooo much,” she chimes, her voice high and sweet and practiced as this is her common phrase when it comes to Mickey and Minnie and their undying affection for her.
“Yes, they do. Who else loves you soooo much?” She doesn’t answer my question. “Does Keith love you so much?”
“Yes,” she says softly, turning over her shoulder to smile at me. “Keith loves Adalyn soooo much.”
I blow her a kiss and then lower my voice. “She’s still talking about herself in the third person?”
Jasper nods. “Yes. But no longer in the plural and she no longer starts her sentences with say. So I’ll take what I can get.”
“I need to spend more time with her. I don’t see her enough. I’m missing stuff.”
“Do I want to know why you’re here?” Jasper murmurs, cutting to the chase.
I grimace, throwing him a sideways glance. In truth, I’m not sure why I drove all the way back here. I don’t even know what to say. I was just sitting in my truck and I knew Maia was inside and all I wanted to do was go upstairs and crawl in her bed and hold her. Well, I wanted to do more than hold her. But she was upset when she got out of my car and I didn’t know why or what to do with that.
Plus, she made it clear she wanted to be alone and not talk about it.
So I left and just drove and found myself here.
“Oh, Ady. Look at the pretty nightlight. It looks like the ocean in here.”
“Yeah,” Jasper grumbles. “Don’t remind me.”
I chuckle under my breath and scoop the little miss up into my arms. Dropping her onto her bed, I tuck her in under her Minnie blanket and crawl on beside her. “Silly daddy doesn’t like you swimming so much.”
“Can you blame me?” he grouses, and no, I can’t. Jasper’s and Gus’s mom drowned in the ocean when they were kids and Adalyn is obsessed with water. All she wants to do is swim, and though she’s gotten much better with that, it terrifies him to no end. Justifiably.
“Oh, look…” I point to the end of her large bed. “You’re right. Mickey and Minnie are sleeping. Shhh… we don’t want to wake them up. They’re so tired. Just like you.”
Ady curls up into my chest and I inhale the irresistible scent of her hair. I think I needed a little Adalyn time more than I need Jasper’s advice. “Mickey, Keith.”
“You want your Mickey?”
She doesn’t answer, but if she doesn’t say no, that’s usually a silent affirmative. I grab her huge stuffed Mickey that was chilling at the end of her bed and tuck him in between us. Then I shift a little toward the edge of the bed.
“‘Night, pretty doll. Love you.” I kiss the top of her head.
“‘Night,” she breathes, already half-asleep, and I creep out of her bed, slinking to the door where Jasper is lingering.
“How’d you do that?” Jasper asks as we shut the door to her room and head down the hall to his large media room. “I spent over an hour just trying to settle her down. Mickey didn’t do anything for me and he’s always my go-to guy.”
I hitch up a shoulder. “I have five younger sisters and parents who worked long hours. You learn shit. And I’m not you. That makes all the difference with her. She knows she can push you in a way she can’t push me.”
Jasper points to the large leather sectional and I dutifully take a seat. He grabs two beers out of the drink fridge, popping the top on the expensive import, and then handing one to me. “Talk. What happened in the hour since you left here?”
Everything, I want to say. Everything happened.
That woman flipped my world upside down without even batting an eye or an ounce of remorse. For someone so young and so inexperienced, she’s impossibly bold and brazen and I fucking worship that about her. I’d never steal an inch of it from her either, but it breaks my heart that the Amy’s of the world don’t have that same fire and tenacity.