Chapter 22
Twenty-Two
Laila perched on the aged timber back step of Aggie’s guest cabin, her focus trained on Whitney, as she skipped down the sandy path leading to the large, tree-lined field ahead. The setting sun glinted through the Jack pines to her right and birds chirped within the safety of this makeshift oasis, Whitney blissful and oblivious to the violence and hatred that had landed them here.To her, this was just a holiday.
Behind Laila, the savory scent of Adrian’s cooking wafted through the screen door, the man himself occasionally coming out to ferry plates to the outdoor table where they planned to have a little ‘‘family’’ picnic.
Unlike her, Whitney and Ramos reveled in this experience, while she stayed rooted to her spot, nursing her three-day old sling and not at all sure this was what she wanted. She’d known Ramos just a couple of weeks, and here she was trusting him around her child and with her life. Her only certainty was that, if anything bad happened with the syndicate or the agitated townsfolk out there, she wanted to know she’d taken every opportunity to keep her child safe.
“It’s okay.” Adrian’s voice preceded the light creak of wood boards behind her, before he sat at her side, Whitney still bouncing by the long grass ahead. “It’s just us here.”
He put his arm around her waist and pulled her in, prompting her to look at him. “Maybe that’s my problem. It’s just us here and no one besides Aggie for miles and miles.”
Despite her protest over being an outcast, she offered a weak smile and leaned into him some more, his presence, in truth, helping to ease some of her tension.
He took a slow moment to eye her, then turned away to watch Whitney, the low sun illuminating his dark eyes to a glowing treacle color. “If it helps, you can think of me as your private bodyguard.”
“I don’t have to imagine. You are my private bodyguard.” A genuine smile took her over. “My BWB.”
He switched his attention back to her, brows slammed together in clear confusion. “BWB?”
“Bodyguard with benefits.” She shrugged and looked ahead, trying not to cringe or laugh at her attempt at humor. Probably an early sign her brain wasn’t coping with so much peace and quiet.
But Ramos gave her the grace of a chuckle. “Who in this town would ever guess that Miss Laila Egan could be so wicked?”
Though her cheeks burned at the truth in his question, she opted not to rush in with a quick reply. With all the new risks and this man taking up so much space in her life, she had this one guilty pleasure with him and didn’t much want to run from her ‘wickedness’ just yet.
“You have more time to hit the books.” His voice returned to a neutral tone, as though he sought to spare her. “Now that you have a live-in babysitter and no work to distract you.”
“Babysitter, bodyguard… while my life’s getting simpler, yours only gets busier.” No longer liking her sense of habitual doubt, she reached out and pressed her fingertips to the prickly stubble over his chin, turning his face to her and offering genuine warmth in her smile. “You can stop trying to convince me now. I’m here, aren’t I?”
She leaned and pressed her forehead to his, his expression easing, as his stare held her. “You better call the Little Poppet over for dinner before we make it really obvious I’m more than just mommy’s friend helping out.”
She chuckled and resisted an urge to lean in farther to kiss him, forcing herself to pull away, while adjusting the red summer dress she’d worn for his benefit and calling for Whitney.
The smell of roasted vegetables and grilled beef wafted from the table as they took a seat, Whitney quick to dig into the food.
“Adrian is a good cook.” Whit spoke with her mouth full of roast potato and smiled at him through her words.
“I had a little brother to cook for and a really busy mom, so I learned young.” He sawed into his steak but kept his attention on Whitney. “If you like, you can help me next time and I’ll teach you a few things.”
She gave an enthusiastic nod. “My mom is always busy too.”
Quick to bite into a green bean from her plate, Whitney was unaware of the insult in her comment and a dull ache took up space in Laila’s chest.
Adrian’s stare fell on her, like he knew about her guilt, only for Whitney to pipe up again.
“Mommy?” Whit’s innocent eyes glittered up at Laila, and Laila braced for whatever she might say next. “I don’t like brothers, but I want someone little I can cook for, just like Adrian. Can we get a little sister?”
Laila’s lips parted but no words came out, and her face turned cold, while she fought every urge to look to Adrian, afraid of what she’d see if she did. Whitney didn’t know how little brothers and sisters were made, so the question suggested there might be some kind of ‘sibling shop’ Laila could just stop by and pick up a new family member.
Still refusing to make eye contact with Ramos, the chill over her face changed to a slow and stinging burn.
“Oh, Whit”—she reached out and gave Whitney’s chin a tender pinch, embracing the sweet distraction of averting her child’s thoughts elsewhere—“Mommy is always busy, and a little sister would make her even busier. You’d have to share me with the baby.”
There! Conflict resolved! And she’d managed to reuse Whitney’s comment about her busyness to her advantage.
“Ramos can take care of the baby and you take care of me.” Whitney shrugged and popped more food in her mouth before she did the unthinkable and turned to Ramos. “We still have some of my baby clothes. I’ll share those. We can all play with the baby and put her in pretty dresses.”
Caught in a state of shock, Laila’s attention veered over to Ramos, his fingers clasping his fork with a piece of speared meat on the end and his face muscles slack. His sudden stillness lingered, even as his blank gaze shifted to Laila and he mumbled, “She has our lives all planned out for us.”
Laila dipped her chin and mouthed the word no , pleading with him to do nothing to encourage any new ideas from her child.
She forced a slow and cautious smile and dropped her gaze back to her daughter. “Whit, you’re starting kindergarten next year, which is about as long as it would take to get a sibling. By that point, you’ll have so many friends to play with, and some might even be happy to play dress ups with you. You won’t miss having a little sister. Trust me.”
Whitney’s mouth formed a small frown and her eyes darted toward Adrian, as though he might help her. He thankfully did no such thing, and she soon nodded and returned to eating.
In a clear quest to cheer her up, Adrian directed a comically wide expression of interest at Whitney. “Watch any good Power Cats lately?”
Thankfully his attempt worked, and Whit lowered her fork, her entire face lighting up as she bounced in her chair. “Yes! Yes! Yes! There’s a new season. It’s so cool! Have you seen it?”
Laila pressed a knuckle to her lips, trying to stifle a laugh at the mental image of Adrian sitting alone at home willingly watching Power Cats.
He caught her amusement, his eyes crinkled in the corners, while he switched focus away from her and back to Whit, shaking his head. “No, but I wish I had. Want to tell me about it?”
Whit pushed loose brown curls from her face and straightened, as if making certain nothing could distract from the story she had to tell. “In the last show, they fought a giant robot, but they lost and got swallowed . So, then they had to answer a question to get out of its belly, but I already knew the answer because momma read it to me in a book.”
“What was the question?”
“If I tell you, you have to think of the answer for yourself. Mommy and I won’t help you.”
Adrian gave a quick nod, his gaze flicking momentarily back to Laila, who didn’t even try to hide her smile at his efforts to talk to Whit about something she very much enjoyed. Or that he’d succeeded in putting an end to the awkward conversation about siblings and babies. “Sure thing.”
Whitney’s grin grew impossibly wide, and she switched focus between the two adults. “Okay, here goes. What does a caterpillar hide in before it turns into a butterfly?”
He shrugged, like the answer would be easy. “A cocoon.”
“ Wrong! ” Whitney squealed and bounced up and down again, almost toppling backward. Laila thrust a hand out and caught the back of her chair.
“It’s a chrysalis, you silly!” Whitney stabbed a finger at Adrian, completely oblivious to the fact she’d almost cracked her head on the porch.
“Really?” He lifted his tone and jerked his head back in an act of surprise.
“Yep.” Whitney giggled and nodded. “Moths make cocoons from mixing twigs and leaves around together.” She leaned across the table and wrinkled her nose at Adrian in a lighthearted ‘you should already know this’ sort of expression. “A chrysalis is like a shell and it’s made from the caterpillar’s own body. It’s called an exoskeleton.”
Adrian dropped his jaw open and turned to Laila. “What?”
She raised both hands in a matter-of-fact shrug, not even trying to hide any signs of pride over Whitney absorbing that little factoid.
With the dinner plates near empty and Whitney releasing a yawn, she took that as her cue to stand and address the table at large. “I’ll go in and put together some fruit for dessert.” She paused and looked at Ramos, already knowing what he’d say. “And no, beside you maybe stacking the plates, I don’t need any help. I’ll be back soon.”
She gave Whitney a little wink and then walked inside.
As the kettle boiled and she washed strawberries using just one hand—admittedly not an easy task—she peered out to Whitney having swapped seats to be next to Ramos. Now, she cupped his face in her hands, the cupping turning to outright pinching his cheeks and pulling them into distorted angles.
Caught somewhere between intervening and letting him handle the situation, Laila laughed and ultimately decided to stay where she was. Maybe because he smiled through the ordeal, artfully keeping Whitney at bay with revenge neck tickles. And even as she laughed, something deep and aching shifted in her chest, and she had to pull her attention away from the giggling two outside.
The squeals of laughter hadn’t abated by the time Laila came out to the table with a tray of sliced fruit. Despite orders to stay put, Adrian ended the tickle battle with Whit to return the dinner plates inside, bringing the two coffees waiting on the kitchen counter back out with him. Almost as soon as he sat, Whitney leaned her head to his shoulder and began devouring strawberries, her eyes slowly but surely drooping shut.
Ramos sipped his coffee and peered at Laila from over the edge of his cup, his narrowed stare holding signs of pride mixed with something far more smoldering.
Temperature rising and heart beginning to pound, Laila’s body understood every word of what his eyes said, and she turned to Whit for distraction. “How about you change into your pajamas? You’re about to nod off into a bowl of strawberries.”
Whitney gasped and turned to Ramos as though she didn’t love the idea of having to leave him. This act alone set Laila’s nerves to a sharp prickle. This man and his patience had come to mean something to her and her daughter, and no matter how much Laila tried to slow things down, she simply couldn’t.
Whit twisted to wrap her arms around Ramos. He held still for beat, his stunned stare on Laila saying Whitney’s embrace was far from expected and that he didn’t dare hug Whitney back without Laila’s say so.
She nodded, and his shoulders eased downward before he patted the child on the back. For the longest time, the two just sat there in each other’s arms like nothing else mattered but this prolonged goodbye.
Laila could just imagine Whitney outright falling asleep in Adrian’s hold, but the child eventually climbed down from her seat and walked in shuffling steps inside, the unspoken assumption being that Laila would soon follow.
A hump formed in Laila’s throat at how much lighter her views on life had become since meeting Ramos. Despite all the chaos surrounding her, and the pressure cooker of trying to stay safe, perhaps all that pressure gave rise to the sense they’d known each other much longer. The necessity to place trust in each other.
And who exactly had she sought to protect most? Herself, her heart, or Whitney? What Laila did know, was that her feelings for Adrian were new. They were exciting and so different to the last few years of pushing through each day. Mostly alone. He’d given her something she didn’t want to run from.
So, even as she stood to get Whitney get ready for bed, her stare lingered on Ramos, his holding on her just the same. Soon, Whitney would be asleep, and Laila would have the rest of the night alone in this cabin with Ramos.
And maybe. Just maybe. She would allow herself to fall a little bit in love with him.