I needed that change.
Emma slips as she’s crawling and hits the floor. Her two little bottom teeth puncture her lip, and blood starts spilling out of her mouth. Quinn has a moment of panic, picking up Emma and going back and forth between checking her mouth and wanting to comfort her baby. I run into the kitchen to get a towel, and Archer calmly sits on the floor and tells Quinn it’s okay.
“The blood is mixing with her saliva and it looks like she’s bleeding more than she really is,” he says.
Jackson gets freaked out, and I take him into the kitchen to avoid seeing the blood. Emma is screaming and crying, and he’s upset that his cousin is hurt and upset. It’s pure chaos for a good five minutes, but then we get everyone settled down and up to bed.
Half an hour later, I shut the door to the guest room, sneaking out. Jackson fell asleep fast tonight, and while I could lay there and snuggle with him, I know if I didn’t get up, I’d end up falling asleep too.
“Should we have cake with our tea?” Quinn asks. I wash out the pink skull tea set Weston and Jackson got for me as a surprise.
“Of course.”
“Good. Because I made one earlier today. I was craving Funfetti cake bad.”
“Craving?” I raise my eyebrows.
“I’m not pregnant. Or else I better not be. I really want to go on Tower of Terror on our honeymoon,” she laughs. “But I am dying to have another.”
“You’re a good mom. You should have at least one more.”
“We want three or four.” She opens the pantry and all the cats come running, circling her feet and meowing.
“I take that back. Maybe you shouldn’t have this many cats.”
“Their meowing is like singing.” She looks at Archer, who’s sitting at the large island counter eating. “Isn’t it, babe?”
He rolls his eyes. “It’s music to my ears.”
I laugh and reach down, picking up one of the kittens. “Are you Salsa?”
“That’s Binx,” Archer says. “I mean, not like I can tell them apart or care or anything.”
“He really likes Binx,” Quinn loudly whispers.
“I guess you’re staying then, huh, little guy?”
“He is.”
Quinn sets the cake down, shoos the cats off the counter at least a dozen times, and heats up water for our tea. Archer goes upstairs to bed, saying he has early surgery in the morning, leaving Quinn and me downstairs to eat and talk until we go to bed as well.
I cut into my cake and sip my tea. I look at Quinn, excited to have someone I can actually call a friend. And she’s my boyfriend’s sister, which makes things ten times better.
Well, almost.
“Quinn?”
“Yeah?”
“I need to tell you something.”
“Sure.” She adds more sugar to her tea. “What is it?”
“It’s more like a confession. Promise you won’t judge me?”
“I promise.”
And she doesn’t.
The mattress sinks down next to me, and my eyes flutter open. I’m too tired to realize the body next to me is too large to be Jackson, and I lazily push myself up to tell him I’ll be right up.
But then I see Wes, and my heart flutters.
“Morning, sunshine.” He smiles down at me. He’s in his uniform, and holy hell that man is fine. I sit up only to pull him down on me.
“What time is it?”
“Seven AM. I came here instead of going home. I don’t think Quinn was too happy about having to let me in.” He kisses me, brushes my hair from my face, and sits up. He’s wearing a utility belt around his waist, which isn’t comfortable to lay down on.
“We were up pretty late talking.” I sit up again, resting my head on Wes’s shoulder. “I told her everything.”
“Everything-everything, or the version of everything I told my parents?”
“I was going to tell that version, then I drank half a bottle of wine.”
Wes smiles. “And?”
“She didn’t kick me out.”
“That’s a start.”
I nod, not wanting to get up, but I have to pee and I’m pretty close to keeling over and dying of thirst. “Right. She might need some time to process, but I feel better. I want to start fresh.”
“You are.” He goes in to kiss me again, but Jackson comes in, excited to see his dad. I use the bathroom and we all go downstairs. Quinn is in the kitchen, and all the cats are following her around meowing.
“You really are a crazy cat lady, sis,” Wes chuckles.
“Thank you.” Quinn looks up with a smile. Her eyes meet mine, and the smile wavers. Shit.
“Once you’re done feeding the beasts, can I talk with you?” Weston asks.
“Yeah, of course.”
She gives Emma a few more Puffs and then feeds the cats. I pour Jackson a cup of milk, and we both get excited when we realize Wes brought us all donuts.
“What’s Daddy talking to Aunt Winny about?” Jackson asks.
“I’m not sure,” I tell him, though I have an idea. I set his milk on the table and see the paper under the donut box. My fingers shake as I reach for it.
My picture isn’t on the front page. Or the second. Or third. Jackson laughs watching me thumb through the paper as fast as I can.
“We’re good,” Wes says, coming back into the room. He knows what I’m looking for.
“We are?”
Quinn takes Emma out of her highchair and sits at the table. “Yes.” She meets my eye. “We are good.”
“You’ve already looked through it,” Wes says, coming up behind me.It’s Monday morning, and I keep going through the paper just to be sure I didn’t miss anything. “There’s nothing incriminating in there.”
“Thank God.” I exhale. “One more day.”
“Yes, and I’m telling you, most people have already made up their minds when they wake up Tuesday morning.”
“You’re going to win.”
“I might. Or I might not.”
I pour myself a cup of coffee and join Wes at the table. Jackson is still sleeping, and Wes’s alarm went off on accident this morning. He doesn’t have to work today, but he forgot to turn off the alarm. Once he was awake, he came downstairs for breakfast. I was going to go back to sleep but got too anxious to see the paper.
“I’m going to talk to her today,” Weston says. “I’m assuming she’s at her parents’. I’ll call over there and see.”
“What are you going to talk about?”
“How we’ll proceed with things. Actually,” he says and stands up, “I’ll call them now. Who cares if it’s early?”
“So Jackson’s other set of grandparents aren’t involved at all?”
“They send him presents for his birthday and Christmas, but that’s it.”
“That’s so weird.”
Wes nods. “They feel like they have to side with Daisy on it. I think it’s easier if they pretend like he’s not here.”
“Their loss.”
“Yes, and a big one.” He gets his phone and calls Daisy’s parents. “Well, that’s shocking,” he says sarcastically when he hangs up.