Chapter 14
***Aggie***
Instead of swimming, Gracie retreated to her room.
I followed her and settled on the floor next to her bed.
She grabbed a book and held it in front of her face while little sniffles escaped her.
I grabbed a book and pretended to be engrossed in it, letting her decide to talk when, and if, she wanted to.
We sat there until my legs went to sleep and even after.
After what felt like hours of silence, her tiny voice finally came from behind the book. “My mommy is in heaven.”
I stared down at my book. “Mine, too. I was around your age when my mom died, Gracie. I’m sorry that it happened to you. I know how hard it is to be so sad when you’re too little to do anything about it.”
“My daddy went with my mommy.” Her voice was even quieter. “Did your daddy go to heaven?”
I gripped the book so hard that the pages came loose from the binding. “No. My dad is still here with me.”
She was quiet for a while longer and then she put her book down. “I miss my room.”
Turning to face her, I nodded. “Tell me about it?”
She did. She described her house with her parents and made it sound so magical and special that I had tears in my eyes when she finished. It sounded like she’d had amazing parents.
“When your mommy went to heaven, did you have to move?”
I cleared my throat and sat up straighter.
“I did. We all lived in this tiny apartment in the city before my mom died. She was sick and we had to stay close to the hospital. When she went to heaven, my dad took me to a little town where all my aunts and uncles lived. I had about a million cousins who were all loud and crazy. They always wrestled and broke things everywhere they went. They were a lot of fun, but I was too angry to have fun with them at first.”
“Why?”
I turned to face her and took her hand in mine.
“They all had their moms still. I was mad that I didn’t get to keep my mom when they all got to keep theirs.
It took me a long time to be happy for them instead of angry.
We’re in a special club, Gracie. Girls who lose their moms too young, we have to stick together.
We have big feelings and it’s easy to get lost in them. Together, we can always find our way.”
She stared at our hands linked together and nodded. “Okay.”
I smiled like I wasn’t panicking internally at the responsibility of the promise I’d just made her. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I was in no way the right person to take care of a sad little girl. I still felt like a sad little girl myself some days. Who was I to tell her anything?
“Can we swim now?” She scooted to the edge of the bed and swung her feet. “I like swimming the most.”
I nodded. “Sure. Let’s pick out your swimsuit and then we’ll find something for me, too.”
Gracie seemed to cheer up as we both readied ourselves for the pool.
She picked out a brand-new pink bathing suit to wear and I found my most decent bra and panties to wear under an oversized T-shirt.
I’d need to find a bathing suit soon, but not until the marks on my body faded.
They were covered, but I didn’t want to take any chances with the water wearing the coverage off.
Downstairs, we grabbed water bottles and stood at the edge of the patio to apply sunscreen. Gracie ran around the patio to dry hers faster and I chose to sit on the edge of the pool while I waited.
“You missed the entire back of your neck.” Knight squatted next to me with the sunscreen bottle in his hands, already squeezing a dollop into his hands. “Lift your hair.”
I looked up at him and sighed before doing as he said. “I’m sure I put enough on.”
He rubbed the lotion over my neck and under the collar of my shirt, digging his fingers into the tense muscles of my neck as he moved. “Thought you’d be gone today.”
I snorted but didn’t dare move. His hands were working magic on my neck. “Why? Because facing you three after last night would be too much for me? Hardly.”
He shifted closer, his inner knee brushing against my back. “So, you have no problem looking me in the eye after letting me come inside you last night? Unprotected, by the way.”
I glared at him. “I’m on the pill.”
“We didn’t know that last night and yet, we still didn’t think twice about feeding you our seed. What is it about you, Aggie, that got under our skin enough to have us losing our heads like that?”
I shrugged his hands off my neck and stood up.
I didn’t like the direction of the conversation or even having the conversation.
I put my hands on my hips and stared down at him.
It was a nice change, but even with him squatting, our height difference wasn’t drastic.
“I hardly believe that you three don’t regularly do that.
Which makes me think I should get tested. ”
He slowly stood up and ran his knuckles over my jaw. “Why do I feel like the truth scares you more than the idea of needing to be tested?”
I tilted my chin higher and narrowed my eyes. “Don’t you have something to do?”
Nodding back at a laptop on top of the closest patio table, he winked. “I’ll be working from home for the next few days.”
Feeling truly shaken, I backed away from him and would’ve tumbled into the pool if he hadn’t been there to grab me. “Shit!”
He tugged me against his chest and grunted. “Such a naughty mouth, Aggie.”
I twisted out of his arms and walked to the end of the pool, needing a moment to catch my breath.
I wanted to strangle and ride the man all at the same time.
It nagged at my brain that I couldn’t put him in a category for sure.
I liked solving problems and it felt like Knight wasn’t someone I’d be able to categorize easily.
Friend or foe, I wasn’t sure, and that ate at me.
“I got my vest on, Aggie!”
I turned to see Gracie hurrying towards me with her life vest on backwards. I could see by the grin on her face that she was being silly on purpose. “I guess we should toss you in and see if it works, huh?”
She laughed and ran from me as I chased after her, desperate to get my mind off Knight.
In the soft grass of the yard, I wasn’t worried about us falling and hurting ourselves, so I played with her for a while like that.
We ran back and forth in the yard until we were both breathing hard and laughing. Only then did she let me fix her vest.
“Let’s jump in together!” She grabbed my hand and tugged me towards the deep end. “Please!”
“Okay, okay!” I stood at the edge of the pool with her and grinned down at her. “Last one in is a rotten egg!”