Chapter 17—Willow
I glance at my phone when the notification comes in and smile.
“Girls—delivery,” I sing and don’t hold back a laugh when I hear them scramble out of their room.
They’re obsessed with deliveries after getting so many.
Now that I get notifications from the lobby alerting me when one is sent up the elevator, I let the girls go wild.
It helps that now that all the big pieces are already here and it’s just small deliveries like food, one of the staff from the lobby brings it up.
And, like my girls do with just about everyone, they have the entire place smitten with them.
“What is it, Mommy?” they ask at the same time.
Not that they wait for me to answer before they’re opening the front door and waiting to see what comes off the elevator.
“Oh, I don’t know.” I come up behind them, also watching for the elevator.
Only those with access can use it, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let the girls go without keeping an eye on them.
I might not be a full helicopter mom, but I hover a bit.
This is New York, after all. And anything can happen.
Something almost did.
I shudder at the reminder of everything I learned last night.
I was so wrapped up in the kiss that it took me too long to realize the girls were out of school early.
And then when I did, I saw Lily shut down, and that told me something was very wrong.
We made it to the car before she told me everything.
I kept it together. I didn’t cry or throw anything, even though I wanted to.
I only let the tears fall once the girls were asleep in the living room.
We did our traditional Friday spa night, and I went overboard ordering the food.
We had so many sweets that my girls passed out way earlier than usual.
Which sucked, because when they were awake, I could push away the worry and just focus on them.
But when they were asleep, my mind was left to wander.
To replay it all. I was scared. So scared.
And the only thing that kept me from spiraling was Bobby.
Remembering it was him who brought me the girls.
His team that noticed things were off, according to Ivy, and that’s why they got out of school early.
That man embedded himself into our lives, and I knew so little about him.
In my need to find control in something, I decided to get him a gift.
Something to say thank you for everything.
But not a thing came to mind, so I took to Google.
It took some deep rabbit-hole digging to find anything about him and his family.
Nothing about his hobbies or what he likes, but there were some random words associated with his family.
Small write-ups that alluded to who he and his brothers are.
Things I had heard at the office in passing but never thought much of.
It wasn’t something I thought would ever affect me and mine.
Until last night, when I noticed I was more tangled up with him than I ought to be.
But worry and fear weren’t what I felt when I came to realize who he is. Who his family are. Who is looking after us.
It was thanks. It was appreciation. It was safety.
Since gifts for Bobby and his team weren’t something I could do at the moment, I sent text messages instead. First to Mary, thanking her. Then to Marco. I know he was involved, even if I never saw him once the girls were delivered to me.
Let me know if you need anything. Boss and I just got back in, and we’ll be here all night should you need us.
His response had my heart beating even faster than when Bobby had his mouth on me.
In that second, I had to see him. It was a need so profound that I couldn’t deny it.
All I asked of Marco was that he keep an eye on the girls.
Usually, I would be comfortable leaving them for a moment if they were awake, but they were asleep.
I didn’t want them to wake up, especially Lily, and worry about me.
As soon as Marco exited the elevator on my floor, I switched places with him and went straight to see Bobby.
When I wrapped my arms around him, I didn’t know who was comforting whom in that moment.
I meant to just say thank you. Instead, I asked him to make sure it never happened again.
And when he said he’d already made sure it wouldn’t, I couldn’t hold back anymore.
I needed his comfort—his arms around me, keeping me together as I let it sink in that my girls are going to be okay.
“Mommy, what is it?” Ivy whines as Lily hops from foot to foot.
“Donuts.” Yeah, I’m still totally trying to bribe them with special foods to keep their focus on anything other than what Lily went through.
Their shouts of glee escalate as the elevator door opens, and a man from the lobby carries out a giant box of donuts. But both girls quickly ignore their sweet morning breakfast to look at the other people in the elevator.
“Payton!” they shout in unison.
“Lily? Ivy? What?” She steps out of the elevator, and my girls wrap their arms around their favorite former neighbor and babysitter. “Willow? What are you doing here?”
I grab the donuts from the lobby assistant and lean in for a side hug from her.
She’s a little taller than me but petite, like the ballerina she was trained to be. She looks amazing. No longer skin and bones like when I saw her last, but with some true muscles on her. And her face isn’t black and blue anymore either.
“Same question. I never heard from you after you asked to stay with us a while back. I was worried about you when you didn’t return my calls.”
I eye the other man in the elevator, the one I recognize as the man Payton was with when she gave us her extra ramen not so long ago. I pull her closer, turning just a little to get her behind me.
He notices—of course he does, as his eyes are glued to Payton—but he just smiles, not at all bothered that I’m attempting to shield her from him. The man I suspect she was talking about the last time we spoke when she claimed she needed a place to stay until she decided not to and hung up.
“Who’s that, Payton?” my sweet Lily asks, not at all worried about danger.
Which I suppose I should be happy about after yesterday’s events.
But I also think I should start warning her about other things.
The man might seem to only have eyes for Payton, but who knows why he’s here.
I know it’s not to see me, and to my knowledge, only those who know Bobby come to this building.
After finding things out about him last night, I can only imagine what this man does.
He also has so many similar features to Bobby that I have half a mind to think they’re related in some way.
“That’s my boyfriend, Tommy,” Payton replies.
“Boyfriend?” I look at Payton, a bit shocked, then look at Tommy, as he’d parroted what I said.
“I think I’m a little more than that, babe.” He winks at her as he finally steps out of the elevator. The door shuts, and the lobby attendant leaves just as Tommy squats down in front of my girls.
“I remember you,” Ivy says with a stern nod.
Tommy only smiles, and I let some of the pressure ease off my chest. If Payton trusts him around my girls, so do I. She’s always been protective of them since we met in our old apartment and looked after them whenever she could.
“And I remember you.”
“It’s so weird that we ran into each other. I didn’t know you moved.” Payton chuckles with a smile as she brushes her hand over the girls’ heads.
“Well, after the fire, we didn’t have much of a choice.”
“Fire?” She looks at me, then her boyfriend. “What fire?”
I look them over as he stands slowly. They hold a silent conversation with their eyes, but I answer for them. “It was last weekend. Arson, I think. They’re still investigating.”
“Oh God, are you guys okay?”
“We were at the park.” Lily smiles up at her, bouncing on her toes. “I got a new coloring book, and we had a picnic.”
Payton looks slightly overwhelmed but still smiles. “Oh, that’s nice. But how did you end up here?”
“Um….” How do I say this without it sounding like I’m sleeping with my boss?
“Mr. Bobby said we could stay here,” Ivy says with a nod.
“He did?” This is from Tommy, with a raised eyebrow at me.
“Yup. He’s Mommy’s boss, and he likes to have dinner with us. He also has—”
Ivy covers Lily’s mouth with her hand and hushes her.
Payton and Tommy look at me, and I just shrug. I might be their mama, but even I don’t understand them all the time.
“How do you know my brother?” Tommy asks with a tilt of his head, and I totally see it now.
“I work at Leone Holdings as a financial analyst. Mr. Leone has been working on a project recently that’s requiring a lot of our time. Because of that, he found out about the fire and offered us a place to stay until we get settled.”
There. That sounded almost diplomatic. No way they can tell that Bobby came to my rescue after learning about the fire. Or that he gave us this place to stay, along with buying everything in it, and said it was ours for the foreseeable future.
But the twitch in Tommy’s lip makes me think he knows all that and more.
“So, you’re the numbers girl, huh?”
My eyes widen. Was Bobby talking about me? Or did his other brother, who I saw in the elevator that one day, say something?
And why do I like knowing that his family knows about me?
“Babe, why don’t you stay with Willow and the girls? You guys can catch up while Bobby and I talk business.” Tommy leans in and kisses Payton’s forehead before pushing the elevator button.
“Sounds good.”