“He already did,” she said. “They’re on standby, but they can’t actually do anything unless she does something. Right now, she’s just another customer, there hasn’t been a crime.”
“She’s stalking a kid. He’s fucking eight,” I hissed.
“Not in the eyes of the law,” she said through clenched teeth.
“What’s the plan?” I asked.
“I—I don’t know. I need to be there in case something happens. It’s actually good you’re with me.” Delilah squeezed my hand, and my gaze jumped toward her before darting back to the road. “Can we say that you wanted to hang out with him? He won’t question that, but he will definitely question why I’m crashing his time with his uncle.”
I nodded. “Sure, Delilah. Anything you need.”
Chapter 13
Delilah
Gunner turned into the parking lot and slid my SUV into the first spot available. I untangled my fingers from his, launched myself out of the car, and started to run across the parking lot.
“Delilah!” Gunner called, catching up to me and gently pulling me to a walk. “You can’t run in there guns blazing if you don’t want Tuck to know anything is wrong. I was raised by a single mom, and I love her the way Tuck loves you. I noticed everything and always jumped to protect her if I thought something was amiss. Betting Tuck is the same.”
I sucked air into my lungs and released it. “He is.”
“Okay. Let’s find them. I’ll distract him, we can play a game or go to the batting cages. You can say you’re going to grab a pizza and look for her. Maybe you can talk to her and suss out the situation. Colt and I will keep anyone away from him. I promise.”
“Thanks, slugger,” I whispered.
Gunner opened the large black glass door for me. My gaze flew over the area until I spotted Tucker’s dark hair. Colt was almost plastered to his side and was turning his head from side to side like it was on a swivel.
“Tucker,” Gunner called with a grin on his face as we got closer to them. Tucker looked over his shoulder and dropped the Skee-Ball in his hand before running up to us.
“What are you doing here?”
“Your mom told me that y’all were at an arcade. That sounded like fun, so I convinced your mom to play hooky from our cooking class to come hang with you.”
Tucker smiled and I stepped around him, ruffling his hair. I wanted to bring him into my arms and squeeze him as tightly as I could, never letting him go, but Gunner was right. He would know something was wrong and would be on high alert. I never wanted him to have the burden of these secrets on his little shoulders. It was my job to protect him from that.
I sidled up to Colt and whispered, “Do you know where she is?”
He inclined his head to the side and indicated the far corner of the arcade. Eight years. It’d been eight full years. I didn’t know what to expect. Would I see an older version of the eleven-year-old I remembered? The one from before the drugs? Or would I see an unrecognizable version of that girl? I pictured every drug-addicted person I’d ever seen on a movie or TV and multiplied it by twenty. That’s what I was scared of. In the few seconds it took me to find her, I ran through every scenario of how she might look, but I was still shocked when I saw her for the first time in eight years.
Beneath the bags under her eyes and hollow cheekbones, there were still glimmers of the girl I’d known. Her hair had lost all the life and body it had once had. Her limp ponytail lay over one of her thin shoulders.
Her fingers fidgeted with one of the fraying cuffs of the blue-jean jacket she wore. I took another step closer to her, and she took a step back. I stilled and we stared at each other for another moment. I tilted my head, begging her to let me come closer. There was a war waging within me. She was my cousin, had once been my best friend. I wanted to wrap her in a hug and promise everything would be okay. I wanted to promise that I wouldn’t walk away and I would be there every step of the way. Whatever she needed.
But it wasn’t just her anymore.
There was Tuck.
He was my world and my heart. He was the one I would never walk away from or betray. He was the one I would do anything for, including walking away from my cousin if it was in his best interests. Including going to court and fighting until I had nothing left.
Part of me wanted to console Shayla, and the other part saw her for what she was—a threat. A threat to my son’s life.
Shayla nodded slightly and I closed the gap between us. She smiled a little and I frowned. There were so many differences between how I remembered her and the woman standing in front of me.
“He looks like you.” There was pain laced through every word.
I nodded. It was true. He looked more like me than her. She resembled her father, and I looked like my mom and her mom, who were sisters.
“Where have you been?” I stared directly into her eyes. They were bloodshot and slightly yellow. Were they bloodshot because of drugs or because she was tired? I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t sure if I should trust anything she said. I didn’t know how to handle this situation.
She shrugged and the jean jacket fell from her shoulder. I held in my gasp when I truly saw how thin she’d become. Tears swam in my eyes as I brought my gaze back to hers. She sneered and brought her jacket back up to cover her shoulder.
“Doesn’t matter. I’m here now. Thanks for taking care of him, but I got it from here.”
She moved to step around me, and I stepped in front of her, holding up a hand, shaking my head. “That is not the way it works. I have guardianship. I don’t know where you’ve been. I know nothing of your life for the past eight years. I don’t know if you’re clean. I won’t let you around my son if you aren’t.”
“He’s my son,” she hissed, bringing her face an inch from mine.
“He’s mine too.” My hands balled into fists.
We stayed in a standoff, neither of us budging. Her eyes kept flicking over my shoulder, and I prayed Colt and Gunner were keeping Tuck occupied. I didn’t want him to look over here and ask me who I was speaking to. How could I make a decision when I could see no clear and easy path?
“Are you sober?” I asked in a hushed whisper.
Her eyes shot to mine. “Yes,” she mumbled and gnawed on the edge of her lip. My heart splintered. Gnawing on the edge of her lip had always been her tell. It was what our parents had looked for when they asked us if we were the culprits.
“Shayla.”
Tears swam in her eyes and she scratched the inside of her elbow before tugging on the cuff of her jacket. “I’m trying. I am. I really am. I was clean for a week before I saw y’all at the ice cream place.”
“Did you go to rehab?”
“No.” She shook her head vehemently. “I’ll do it on my own.”
I took a huge breath, readying myself for her reaction to what I had to say next. “You can’t see him unless you are sober. And not sober for a day.”
“He’s my son. I will see him. You can’t tell me otherwise.” Before I could respond, she spun on her heel and ran through the back exit.