Chapter 22
Being lied to really triggers the Michael Myers in me.
— Pepper’s secret thoughts
PEPPER
I peeled my eyes open and found a cute little face hovering over mine.
“ Good morning,” I said to the little boy.
He grinned wide. “ Hi .”
“ You want to go wake up Daddy ?” I asked.
“ Peas offer?” he asked.
“ Yes ,” I grinned. “ That’s your daddy.”
“ Daddy .” He looked confused, as if he didn’t even know what that word meant.
It hurt my heart.
I picked him up, ignoring my screaming bladder, and tiptoed down the hall toward Atlas’s room.
Once I was in the door, I whispered, “ Daddy .”
Forest , showing he was a smart cookie, wiggled to be let down.
I let him down, and the two of us slowly walked into the room, being about as quiet as two elephants in a room full of stacked blocks.
He kicked the lamp, which went flying, when he tried and failed to scramble up.
I caught it and recentered it as I gave him a little heft with a hand under his bottom.
He crawled over the length of the bed to the man who was still, apparently, sleeping.
I crawled onto the bed, too, my heart doing this weird skipping, racing thing, at the sight in front of me.
Forest held out his hand, and I caught it with mine.
He tugged on my hand, indicating he wanted me to come farther, and I crawled forward on my knees until I was where he wanted me.
“ Shhh ,” he whispered overly loud.
There was no way that Atlas wasn’t aware we in his room, let alone on the bed.
Was that a twitch of his mouth?
It was there and gone so fast that I couldn’t be sure but…
“ Daddy ,” I whispered, pointing at Atlas .
Forest turned from me to the man on the bed, his arm curled around a pillow. He was still in his underwear, and those impressive, muscular thighs, so thick and strong, drew my eyes.
I was watching those thighs when the big man moved, catching both of us up in his arms and twisting.
One second, I was on my knees beside Forest , and the next Atlas was over the both of us, tickling.
“ Nooo !” I laughed with a screech, trying hard not to overreact like I wanted to and throw elbows.
Forest’s childish squeals of delight, paired with my screeching, had Atlas laughing his ass off.
“ Can’t sneak up on me, buddy.” Atlas turned his attention to Forest , taking both hands and tickling him mercilessly.
“ Nooo !” he laughed, kicking his little feet. “ Ahhh !”
“ I’ll save you, Forest ,” I teased as I launched myself at the father.
Atlas let out a woosh of air as we both went down onto the bed,
I giggled myself when I held onto his arms and said, “ Get him, Forest !”
Forest moved, body slamming himself onto Atlas’s face.
The move caused Atlas to laugh even harder, and I used his distraction to tickle him.
And let’s just say, the man was ticklish.
Very ticklish.
Like a little spider monkey, Forest wrapped himself around Atlas’s head, and Atlas couldn’t stop me without forcibly removing Forest .
It was the greatest two minutes of my life, experiencing this moment.
By the time I could keep him at bay no more, I threw myself off the bed and said, “ I have got to go to potty. I can’t stand it anymore.”
“ Peppa ?” Forest called, but I was already running out of the room to my own bathroom.
As I got ready for the day—thank God it was Saturday , and I didn’t have anywhere to be— I thought about what we could do that day.
I knew that we needed to go to the store for food.
After cooking myself dinner for the past two nights, I realized that Atlas was seriously lacking in the food department, and not just for a child. For an adult as well.
I’d also needed to get four wigs out to ship, as well as run by the post office and get some more boxes.
By the time I made it out to the main living area, both Carter men were waiting for me, fully dressed. Atlas even had keys in his hand.
“ Let’s go get breakfast,” he ordered.
My brows rose. “ How do you know that I want to spend the day with you?”
His lips quirked up at the corner as he tossed his keys up, then dropped them.
“ Oh ,” he paused as he looked at those keys. “ I need to go put my glasses on.”
Then he was disappearing out of the room.
I looked at Forest as he walked to the dropped keys.
“ Do you have trouble seeing like your daddy?” I asked him.
Forest gave me a very contemplative look, as if he fully understood what I was asking. “ No ?”
I grinned and held out my hand for the keys. “ Let me have those. Then I need to find my purse.”
He went running into the other room without giving me the keys, but he did come back with both.
My wallet and tampons fell out on his way, and he stopped and turned to stuff them all back in, keys included.
He kept the Tic - Tacs , though.
“ Only one,” I said as I held my hand out for the purse.
Instead of handing me either one he walked right up to Atlas , who had reappeared sometime while the second tampon was stuffed back in my purse, and said, “ Daddy !”
I watched Atlas’s entire demeanor lock.
He dropped down to his haunches and said, “ Hey , buddy. Yes , Daddy .”
He held out the Tic - Tacs and Atlas took them and handed him twelve.
“ Hey !” I giggled at the two. “ Those were mine.”
Atlas’s eyes met mine. “ Listen , this is a momentous occasion. The kid deserves a hundred of those things.”
I shook my head and caught my purse up as Forest was busy eating all of my mints.
Looping the purse around my shoulder, I readjusted everything in my purse, taking the keys out, and handing them to Atlas .
He caught them in his hand, then pulled the glasses out of his pocket and slipped them on.
“ Forgot about them,” he murmured quietly, sounding… at peace.
As if all he’d needed was to hear Forest acknowledging who he was to him.
“ Ready ?” I asked. “ Because now that you mentioned breakfast, all of a sudden I really need it.”
His lips twitched, but he got up, bringing Forest with him, and said, “ Let’s go.”
We wound up at a mom and pop diner that happened to be only minutes from his place.
“ Have you been here before?” I wondered as we walked in.
“ Three ?” the woman behind the counter asked on the heels of my question.
“ Yes , ma’am.” Atlas nodded.
“ Yes , ma’am!” Forest crowed.
I had a permanent smile around this kid, I swear.
“ There should be a booth back by the window that’ll fit your party.” The woman waved toward the left side.
Atlas threaded his big body through the tightly packed, occupied tables.
Atlas said a few hellos as he passed, and I smiled but didn’t open my mouth.
Every table was occupied by an old man. Sometimes in groups of two and three, and sometimes on their own.
Was it normal for old men to meet at diners for breakfast?
Atlas put Forest down into the booth and sat beside him. Meanwhile , I took the seat across from the pair and reached for the menus that were held vertical by a bottle of syrup, ketchup, and sugar.
“ Coffee ?” The same woman showed with a coffee mug in her hand.
“ No ,” Forest answered.
The woman’s lips twitched. “ And what would you like, little man?”
Forest looked up at Atlas , as if he didn’t have a single clue.
“ Milk ?” Atlas asked. “ Chocolate milk? Orange juice?”
“ Choca milk!” he yelled.
Yelling seems to be his normal pitch , I thought with a grin.
“ And you two?” The woman wiggled her coffee pot.
“ I’ll have chocolate milk as well,” Atlas said.
“ I’ll have coffee,” I said. “ And a water, please.”
I didn’t necessarily need caffeine to function, but I did enjoy the odd cup or two when it was available.
“ Make sure you bring her a gallon of creamer,” Atlas murmured. “ She can’t have dark coffee.”
The waitress gave a thumbs up and left, leaving me with the two Carter boys sitting across from me.
Forest was busy playing with sugar packets. The elder Carter was staring at me with a weird look in his eye.
“ What ?” I asked.
“ Nothing ,” he shrugged. “ I’m just glad you’re here.”
My cheeks pinked at his words, and to hide my embarrassment—and my elation— I said, “ With you and your brothers having eye issues, I was thinking you should get Forest checked. Unless the eye issues didn’t show up until you were older?”
“ Oh ,” he frowned. “ I actually have really bad eyesight, worse than everyone else’s.” He looked over at his son. “ I had coke bottle glasses until I got laser corrective surgery when I was younger. Even still, I need glasses because some of my issues were along the nerves in my eyes.”
“ Then I would highly suggest the appointment.” I paused. “ Probably you should also establish a pediatrician as well. That way you can get him in and find out what, exactly, he’s up to date on.”
He pulled out his phone and started making notes in his notes app.
Seconds later he was on Google and searching up pediatricians in the area.
“ I have a suggestion,” I said when he got hundreds of results and started to look overwhelmed. “ Your siblings take their children to a pediatrician in town that frequents Pie Hard . Her name is Cindy something. I’d text Hollis , Shayne or Ellodie .”
He switched from Google to his texts and texted all three.
“ What else?” he asked, switching back to the notes app.
I thought about it and came up empty.
“ I hate to tell you this, but even though I appear competent, I’m not too experienced. I was the fun aunt and spent time with my nieces and nephews on short, fun outings. Or watched them at home. I was never really around when they were all sick, or for all the parent stuff. I worked too much,” I admitted.
His lips curled at one side into the sexiest smirk I’d ever seen. “ Guess we’ll learn this together.”
A slew of texts came while the waitress was delivering our drinks and we were placing orders. All of the sisters-in-law telling Atlas —and apparently me since I was apparently in the group text—what we needed to do, who we needed to do it with, and why we needed to do it.
While we waited for our food, I made an appointment with the eye doctor, and Atlas made one with a pediatrician.
Both for that afternoon.
Four hours later, we were at the pediatrician, Forest was wearing the cutest pair of glasses on his face, and the doctor was shaking her head.
“ Sorry ,” she winced. “ But yeah, there is no evidence from the state that she’s been taking Forest to the pediatrician. Unless she’s taking him out of state…”
Then she hadn’t been giving the kid basic medical care since he was born.
Forest left with a clean bill of health, and three suckers that he shared with us.
We hit up Target , Walmart , and Costco .
By the time we got back home, Forest was asleep in his car seat, the back of the truck was so full of shit that it would take no less than half an hour to get it all inside and unloaded, and I had a happiness in my heart that I’d never felt before.
It was… perfect.