17. Nora
NORA
Istand in the kitchen packing Paxton’s lunch while mentally replaying the last three days for the hundredth time.
The peanut butter sandwich I’m cutting ends up crooked because my brain immediately loops back to the look on Viper’s face after I practically forced him to flee the room Wednesday night.
God.
I still want to crawl into a hole every time I think about it.
At the time, panic had made perfect sense. He’d said something vulnerable and real and suddenly everything between us stopped feeling playful and temporary. Instead of handling that like a functional adult, I’d practically wrapped myself in emotional barbed wire and shoved him out the door.
Now I haven’t seen or heard from him since which probably means I made things weird. Actually, no. Definitely means I made things weird.
I sigh quietly and shove apple slices into a container harder than necessary.
Behind me, Paxton sits cross-legged on the living room floor wearing dinosaur pajama pants and one sock, while carefully arranging crayons by color on the coffee table.
He’s supposed to be getting dressed for school.
Instead he’s apparently preparing for a tiny rainbow-based corporate merger.
I glance over at him. Buddy, you need pants.
Without looking up, he signs back, I have pants.
Pajama pants are not school pants.
That finally gets his attention. He twists around dramatically and signs, But they are comfortable.
I know. My fingers move quickly and I try to contain my frustration because I know it really has nothing to do with him. But you still need real pants. There’s a uniform kiddo.
He huffs silently in exaggerated offense before finally climbing off the couch and racing toward the hallway to get dressed. I watch him disappear around the corner before turning back toward the kitchen with a small smile tugging at my mouth despite everything.
I’m dressed and wiping the sleep from his eyes with a wet washcloth about twenty minutes later, when the doorbell rings, and immediately my shoulders tense. Paxton perks up at my reaction fingers rapidly asking what’s wrong.
Someone rang the doorbell. I sign back and he immediately moves to make for the door in excitement but I catch his wrist gently. Stop.
He looks up at me. I crouch slightly so he can see me clearly before signing carefully, What is the rule about opening doors?
His expression shifts into immediate guilt. No opening doors without you.
Why?
He sighs dramatically like I’m personally victimizing him with safety precautions. Because bad people exist.
Correct.
But sometimes good people come too.
My chest squeezes unexpectedly at that.
I brush his hair back gently before signing, That is true. But we still answer together.
He nods seriously this time.
Together we walk toward the front door, and I don’t know why my stomach suddenly flips, until I pull it open and see exactly who’s standing there.
Blade, carrying a paper bag. Stryker with a tray of drinks. A little girl with dark curls holding both of their empty hands while staring at me with open curiosity.
No Viper.
The realization lands instantly and annoyingly hard. I barely have time to process that before Paxton notices the little girl and freezes cowering in to me.
Then the little girl suddenly lifts both hands nervously and signs slowly, carefully, clearly practiced:
Hi. I’m Lena. I’m really happy to meet you.
For half a second nobody moves.
Then Paxton absolutely explodes with excitement. His mouth opens in a huge silent gasp while his entire body practically vibrates. He signs back so quickly his fingers almost tangle together.
You know sign language?
Lena grins immediately, clearly relieved he understood her. I am learning with my dad and uncles.
You are good already!
Her smile grows huge at that. Then both children immediately abandon all social structure whatsoever and race past me into the house together, like they’ve known each other for months, instead of twelve seconds.
I blink after them while hearing the rapid thud of little feet disappearing toward the living room.
“Well,” Blade says calmly beside me. “That went better than expected.”
I look back toward the men slowly. “She signs.”
Stryker’s expression softens slightly in that controlled way he does when emotion catches him off guard. “Been practicing for days. Videos mostly.”
Blade nods once. “She’s made Viper and Stryker practice with her every night after you told us Paxton was starting school. I’m only allowed to talk to her in sign right now while she learns. She’s been very serious about it.”
Something warm and painful twists unexpectedly in my chest.
I look toward the living room where Lena and Paxton are now sitting cross-legged on the rug, signing at each other in fast, excited bursts that neither of them fully understands yet. Half the signs are sloppy. Some are wrong. Paxton clearly notices but doesn’t care in the slightest.
He looks thrilled, completely thrilled. God.
I swallow hard before stepping aside automatically. “You should probably come in before they dismantle my entire house.”
Stryker smirks faintly as he walks past me carrying two paper bags from the diner in town. “Too late.”
Blade pauses beside me briefly while watching the kids too. “She was nervous.”
“Lena?”
He nods. “Really wanted him to like her.”
Something about that nearly undoes me again.
I shut the front door behind them before following everyone toward the kitchen. Lena and Paxton have already migrated from the living room to the hallway somehow, both kneeling on the floor while examining the dinosaur stickers Paxton put on his bedroom door yesterday.
This one is my favorite, Paxton signs proudly.
Lena studies the sticker seriously before signing slowly, He looks mean.
He is.
Cool.
Stryker watches his daughter, and what could be his son, with an expression that looks dangerously close to peace. It changes his whole face somehow. Softens some of the constant sharpness he usually carries around his shoulders and mouth.
But despite how happy I am for both for them to be here, the same way it felt when Stryker was absent there’s a whole. No Viper. The disappointment hits before I can stop it.
This whole thing is annoying. Deeply annoying.
I cross my arms lightly. “Where’s Viper?”
Immediately, both men glance at each other.
“He had work come up in Vegas,” Stryker says finally, while setting breakfast containers onto the counter. “Company issue.”
I frown slightly. “I didn’t realize there’d be so much traveling in shipping.”
“There usually isn’t,” Blade answers back smoothly. “Timing’s just bad lately.”
I lean against the counter while trying not to let my irritation show too clearly. Unfortunately, Blade notices basically everything.
“So he just left?” I ask. “He could have said something. Paxton was wanting him here today.”
Stryker’s mouth twitches slightly like he’s trying not to smile. Blade outright fails at hiding his amusement.
I narrow my eyes immediately. “You two are being weird.”
“We’re really not,” Blade says calmly.
“You absolutely are.”
Stryker opens a breakfast sandwich wrapper without looking remotely concerned. “You sound irritated.”
“I am not irritated.”
Blade tilts his head slightly. “You sure, there was a lot of accusation in your questioning about him.”
Heat crawls straight up my neck.
“That is not—” I stop myself immediately, because unfortunately, that is exactly what happened.
Stryker finally looks directly at me, visibly entertained now. “Relax, Nora. He’ll be back soon.”
I stare at him in betrayal. But before I can think of a response, Lena suddenly appears beside Stryker and tugs on his sleeve for attention. He immediately looks down at her.
She signs carefully, Can Paxton show me his room?
Stryker glances toward me first automatically.
I nod. “That’s fine.”
Paxton practically launches himself down the hallway at that permission while Lena races after him. Their footsteps thunder upstairs seconds later. Then silence settles briefly across the kitchen, quieter now without the kids filling every inch of space.
Blade slides a coffee toward me from one of the diner trays. “Eat before school.”
“I’m capable of feeding myself.”
“Debatable.”
I take the coffee anyway because caffeine currently feels medically necessary.
Stryker leans one hip against the counter while watching me over the rim of his cup. “You sleep at all this weekend?”
The question catches me off guard enough that I answer honestly before thinking. “Not great.”
I take a too-large sip of coffee just to avoid elaborating. Unfortunately, Blade is still watching me with that calm doctor focus that makes me feel weirdly transparent sometimes.
“You’re overthinking,” he says quietly.
I nearly choke on coffee. “Excuse me?”
“You’ve been overthinking since we walked in.”
I stare at him in horror. “Do all three of you do this psychoanalysis shit constantly?”
“Mostly Viper,” Stryker says. “Blade sometimes. I rarely bother.”
I rub my forehead slowly. “You are all deeply exhausting.”
“And yet,” Blade begins mildly.
I point at him immediately. “Do not finish that sentence.”
His mouth twitches slightly. Stryker outright smirks this time. Traitors.
Upstairs, a loud thump echoes through the ceiling followed immediately by quiet child laughter.
I close my eyes briefly. “They’re either bonding or destroying the house.”
“Could be both,” Stryker says.
“You’re probably right,” I respond with a short laugh.
The next twenty minutes disappear into complete chaos.
Lena and Paxton eventually come barreling downstairs together, fully energized and somehow already acting like lifelong co-conspirators.
Paxton has changed into real clothes finally, though one shoe is untied and his shirt is backwards.
Lena proudly informs Stryker, through slightly clumsy signing, that she fixed his backpack zipper because “boys are bad at noticing things.”
Paxton immediately signs back, Not true. I notice dinosaurs.
Blade translates automatically for Stryker while trying not to laugh. I watch the four of them together while packing the last of Paxton’s school things, and something complicated settles heavily in my chest again. This looks all looks and feels too easy.
Stryker helps Lena with her ponytail while simultaneously checking school paperwork.
Blade ties Paxton’s shoe after getting his attention with a gentle tap against his shoulder first. The entire kitchen somehow starts feeling painfully domestic in a way I absolutely did not prepare for when I moved back to Black Rock.
I should probably be more resistant to this. Instead I’m standing here wondering what Viper would be doing right now if he were here too. God.
I genuinely need psychiatric help. Eventually everyone gathers near the front door amid backpacks and jackets and half-finished breakfasts.
Lena stands beside Paxton already signing slowly to him about the library at school while he watches her with complete fascination.
She doesn’t know all of the words but has clearly mastered the finger alphabet and spells when she needs to.
So far she hasn’t encountered a spelled word Paxton doesn’t know.
I like to think that’s because I read Baby Einstein books to him from birth, but maybe I’m biased.
There are beanbag chairs, she signs proudly.
Paxton gasps silently. Real beanbag chairs?
Yes.
This school is amazing.
I laugh softly before I can stop myself. Blade glances toward me at the sound with an expression close enough to smug that I narrow my eyes at him.
“Don’t start.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were thinking it loudly.”
Stryker snorts into his coffee while opening the front door. “You fit in around here better every day.”
Instead of answering that, I just grab Paxton’s lunchbox and follow everyone outside while trying very hard not to think about how naturally the morning somehow fell together around all of us, and how badly Viper’s absence aches.