Chapter 3
Ronan
In Ronan’s mind Easter was right on par with Thanksgiving.
All he had to do was cook and eat and eat and eat some more.
At the moment he was full to the gills, but he’d stashed a bag of Reese’s peanut butter eggs in the locking bottom drawer of his nightstand, the one that held his flavored lube and various sex toys.
He’d had the lock fitted special so his daughter wouldn’t be traumatized.
There was no way in hell he wanted to explain dildoes to his seven-year-old daughter.
Ronan was content to let her learn about that kind of shit from the kids at school.
“Daddy, did I get it right?” Everly asked.
She sat in her bed wearing her new pair of grown up pajamas.
Gone were her Little Mermaid and Cinderella nightgowns.
They’d been replaced by pink satin capri pants and button up shirt.
Fitz had gotten Aurora and Everly each a pair and left them hidden in Jude’s house for the girls to find, courtesy of the Easter Bunny.
Ronan was supposed to have been quizzing her on her spelling words, but his mind had wandered away. “I’m not sure, honey. Let’s try it again. September.” He felt awful for not having heard Everly spell it the first time, but practice made perfect.
“Okay, here goes. Make sure you’re listening! s-e-p-t-e-m-b-e-r.” Everly crossed her fingers. “Is it right? I know it’s right.”
“You’re so close honey, but you spelled it wrong.” Ronan hated spelling lessons when he was Everly’s age.
“What!” Everly shouted, making the walls rattle. “Let me see.” She hopped off the bed and snatched the spelling list out of Ronan’s hand. “S e-p-t-e-m-b-e-r. That’s exactly how I spelled it.” She shot Ronan a dirty look.
“I hate to say this, little miss, but that’s still wrong.
You got the letters right, but you left off something very important.
” The same thing happened to Ronan when he was in the second grade.
He’d been poised to win the spelling bee and lost on the word “October.” Thirty years later, he was still bitter.
Everly watched Ronan, looking fairly certain he was about to let her in on the joke.
“The ‘S’ should be capitalized. So, capital S e-p-t-e-m-b-e-r.”
“Are you serious?” Everly threw her hands in the air, sending the word list floating back to the floor.
“I’m very serious. If you spelled the word without the capital, what do you think Miss Stanton would do?”
Everly sighed and threw herself down on her bed. “Mark it wrong and then show the whole class how stupid I am.”
Ronan saw red. “First of all, you’re not stupid, honey, you’re learning. Second of all, it sounds like that teacher needs a little visit from the Salem Police Department. A night in jail with only stale crackers for dinner might straighten her ass out.”
Everly giggled. “Maybe, Daddy, but you’re right. I need to study extra hard. Let me have the list and I’ll keep going over the words.”
“Don’t stay up too late.” Ronan kissed Everly’s head.
“Phones and computers have spellcheck, honey. The only time you’re going to have to write words out longhand is at school.
” Ronan had a feeling the program was designed by some poor guy who’d flunked tests in school and wanted revenge against his teachers. “I love you.”
Everly smiled. “I love you too, Daddy. Thanks for your help.”
“Sweet dreams, little miss.” Ronan shut the door behind him and peeked in on Ezra, who was sound asleep in his bed. The little boy had eaten so much chocolate that Ronan hadn’t been sure Ezzie would ever sleep again.
Walking into his room, Ronan heard Tennyson brushing his teeth in the bathroom. “Hey, babe!” He grabbed his own toothbrush.
“Hey,” Ten said, looking exhausted.
Ronan loved that Ten had put out Easter Eggs for him to collect, but that had meant Ten getting out of bed early to hide Ronan’s stash along with what they’d left out for the kids. “Are you okay?”
Grabbing a towel, Ten shook his head. “I’m worried about this something bad coming for me.” He left the bathroom; seconds later, Ronan heard him turning down the bed.
Ronan was worried too. “Any idea what this something is?” He dried his face and headed for bed.
“No clue,” Ten said, sounding upset. “I understand that bad things happen to good people and all that bullshit, but why me? Why us? We’re good people, raising good kids. We serve our community. What the fuck?”
It took all of Ronan’s self-control not to laugh.
It wasn’t often Ten used that word, but when he did, it was well placed.
“You’re right about all of those things.
The problem is that Everly didn’t have any idea on the severity of this bad thing.
Are we talking a stubbed toe? A parking ticket?
Some kind of illness? A bad haircut?” The possibilities were endless.
Of course there were the worst-case scenarios; a car accident, a terminal diagnosis, or some kind of legal issue that would put him behind bars for decades to come. Ronan shivered at the thought.
“I don’t need to read your mind to figure out what you’re thinking about,” Ten said.
“I’ve been down that road too. I wish Everly could have been more specific.
” Ten sighed. “I also hate that she’s involved in this at all.
What the hell kind of father am I to push my child to find out more information about something bad that’s in store for me?
She should be having fun with her friends not trying to solve adult problems.”
“You’re the best father I know, Ten.” Ronan leaned over to kiss his husband. “There’s no man alive who would have walked away from Everly, no questions asked, after she foretold their doom.”
“Maybe you’re right.” Ten shook his head.
“Everly said she saw you being far away from us, but what does that even mean? To a seven year old, far away is the next town over. Hell, that could mean anything. You could be at the grocery store, the doctor’s office, out to lunch.
” As a detective, Ronan hated not having answers to specific questions.
“I know,” Ten agreed. “It’s bad enough I can’t see what’s coming, but it doesn’t help that Cope had no idea what Everly was seeing either.”
Ronan nodded. He’d been thinking the same thing.
At the dinner table, he’d wanted to press Cope further, like he would have done with a murder suspect in an interrogation room, but knew that wouldn’t have gotten him anywhere.
“All we can do is be vigilant. Keep our eyes open for whatever this thing is that’s coming for you. ”
With a small nod, Ten turned off the light and slid under the covers. Ronan wrapped himself around his husband and prayed that whatever this bad thing was, he’d see it coming long before it could do any damage to their family.