Chapter Twenty-One #2
Harrison stopped before me, giving me the head-to-toe glance I’d expected from Griffin. But when his eyes fell on Kaddie clinging to my leg, his expression softened. He bent, giving her a warm smile. “Hi, Kadence. I’m Papa Harrison.”
“Hi,” she murmured.
Harrison stood tall, locked his eyes with mine and, after three pounding heartbeats, held out his hand. “Glad you could join us tonight.”
“Thank you for having us.” I returned his shake.
Talia walked over with Hudson on her hip. She came right to my side and, like Kadence, leaned in close until I put an arm around her shoulders.
I kissed her hair, then smiled at Hudson, who had a thumb in his mouth. His eyes were full of tears as he dropped his cheek to Talia’s shoulder.
No surprise the kid loved her.
“Foster, I hope you like boring seasonings on your steak,” Lyla said from across the kitchen before she gulped from the wineglass in her hand.
“Not boring, Lyla,” Knox scolded, pinching salt between his fingers over the cutting board teeming with rib eyes. “Simple.”
“You guys missed my date.” Eloise slumped in the stool Harrison had vacated. “He was a real winner. Is there such thing as a cucumber fetish?”
“Daddy?” Kadence tugged on my jeans. “What’s a fetish?”
Harrison coughed into his fist to hide a laugh.
I pulled in my lips to do the same. When I met Harrison’s gaze, there was something in his blue eyes. Acceptance maybe? I hoped so.
“Mateo.” Anne barked into the phone. “Mateo.”
No response but the sounds of a bar—clinking glasses, a dull murmur shrouded by music from a jukebox.
“He’s asleep. On. A. Bar.” She huffed and ended the call.
“Oh, Mom.” Griffin chuckled and pulled her into his side. “It’s not that bad. We’ve all done it before. Hell, on my twenty-first birthday, I passed out on a bar. My friends put popcorn in my ears.”
“You’re not helping.” She swatted his chest but hugged him before coming over to introduce herself to Kadence. “Hi, Kadence. I’m Anne. And aren’t you just gorgeous. I guess you win.”
“Win what?” Kaddie asked.
“You’re the prettiest girl here tonight. Which means you get the biggest piece of chocolate cake for dessert.”
Kaddie’s eyes widened as a megawatt smile lit up her face.
“The other kids are in the living room, playing. We’ve got toys and coloring books. Want to check them out?” Anne asked her, holding out a hand.
“Sure.” With that, Kadence was swept out of the room.
“Anne went and bought ‘big kid’ toys this week,” Harrison said. “We can either send them home with you guys tonight or we can leave them here for Kadence to play with when she visits.”
My throat tightened. Yeah, we’d be fine. We’d get there. “We can leave them here. That would be great.”
“Beer?” he asked.
“Foster isn’t drinking before his fight,” Talia said. “We brought some sparkling waters for us and juice boxes for the kids.”
“I’ll get you one.” Harrison kissed her cheek, then whispered something in her ear that made her smile.
The remainder of the evening was just as loud as the start. Except instead of shouting, there was laughter. It filled every corner of the house.
Never in my life had I been a part of something like this. A lively family with endless stories. With inside jokes that would stretch for miles if written on paper.
Like me, Kaddie watched with wonder as the night progressed. I hadn’t realized it until that moment, but our life had been quiet. Too quiet. Maybe that was my doing, Vivienne’s too, as two parents who’d grown up as only children.
I didn’t want quiet for Kaddie. She needed cousins. And siblings. Brothers and sisters who’d tease her mercilessly like they did Talia. Who’d rile her up and make her laugh until she clutched her sides.
Yeah, Kadence needed siblings.
Given how Talia fawned over her nephews and niece, maybe we’d get there sooner rather than later. Retirement was beginning to sound like a damn good idea.
After the meal, no one rushed to end the conversation. We sat at the Edens’ dinner table, surrounded by empty plates. Kadence had chocolate frosting on her chin from Anne’s cake. I was just dabbing it with my napkin when a phone rang.
“Sorry.” Winn dug it from her pocket, then stood, pressing it to her ear. “This is Chief Eden.”
Griffin watched her hurry down the hallway with worry in his gaze. “That’s probably the station.”
“If she gets called in, do you want to stay here?” Anne asked.
“No, I’ll take the kids home. Give them baths and get them into bed.”
“I’ll come with you and help,” Eloise said. “It’s not like I have a date anymore.”
Quiet descended on the room, such a stark contrast to the boisterous energy from moments ago, as we waited for Winn to return. When she did, her face was set in a serious mask. A cop going to work.
“I need to go,” she told Griffin, walking to the back of his chair to kiss Emma on his lap. “I’ll be late.”
“Be safe,” he said.
“I will.” She kissed him too, then went to Harrison’s chair, where Hudson was asleep on his papa’s shoulder. Winn kissed her son, then her eyes shot to Talia’s.
Some unspoken conversation happened, but at the end of it, Talia stood too. “We’d better head out.”
“What’s—” Before I could finish my sentence, her phone rang, and I knew without asking that it was the hospital. She wasn’t on call. But in a town this size, that probably didn’t matter.
Something had happened tonight and it wasn’t good news.
Winn rushed out of the house first, her taillights gone by the time we’d loaded Kaddie into the truck. After rushed goodbyes, we made our way, slowly along the icy highway.
“What did the hospital say?” I asked, keeping my voice low because Kaddie was listening.
“An accident.”
No sooner than she spoke, we rounded a corner and the flash of red and blue lights filled the night sky in the distance.
My grip on the steering wheel tightened as we approached.
“Kadence, close your eyes.” Talia turned, making sure my daughter obeyed. “Keep them closed until I tell you to open them, okay?”
Kaddie whimpered. “I’m scared.”
“It’s okay, little bug.” It was a damn lie. As we approached the scene, nothing about this was okay. Two vehicles overturned in the ditch. Metal shards and glass strewn everywhere. “Where are the ambulances?”
Talia pointed down the road, where more lights flashed. “They dispatched just a minute before they called me.”
We’d beaten them to the scene. “Do you want me to stop?”
“Not with Kadence here. The EMTs know what they’re doing. It would be better for me to be at the hospital when the ambulances come in.”
A truck with the Eden brand on the side—Winn’s—was parked at the end of a line of police cruisers. Winn was on her knees beside the driver’s side door of an overturned SUV. Three other officers were crowded beside her.
On the snow, even in the dark, I could see the spray of blood.
“Squeeze them tight, Kadence,” Talia said.
She began to cry, but when I risked a look in the rearview, her eyes were closed as we crept along the road.
The other vehicle was a truck. It must have rolled multiple times because the exterior was decimated, the bed twisted, the front and sides smashed until it looked like a hunk of scrap metal. There were footprints in the snow around it, but no officers.
Because there was no life to save in that truck.
Blood was everywhere.
People didn’t walk away from crashes like that.
I stretched an arm across the cab, putting it on Talia’s shoulder.
Like Winn, her expression was serious, her chin held high. She’d march into that hospital and face whatever came her way.
What strength she had. I walked into a ring, knowing my opponent was going to try and take me down. Talia would fight just as hard, knowing that there were some battles she couldn’t win.
An ambulance whipped by, lights flashing and siren wailing. Less than a mile later, another followed. And shortly after, a fire engine.
“That’s the entire emergency response team,” Talia whispered.
I kept clutching the wheel and drove into town, breathing a bit easier when we reached Quincy and were off the highway. “Want me to drop you?”
“No, let’s go home. I need to change.” She began stripping out of her coat before we’d even parked. And once I was against the curb, she flew out of the truck, jogging inside.
“Daddy, is Talia okay?” Kadence asked as I unbuckled her seat belt. My girl’s pretty face was pale.
“Yes, she’s okay. But there might be some hurt people tonight, so she’s going to go to the hospital and make them better.
” Please, God, let whoever was in that SUV live.
All I could picture was Kaddie in her seat, trapped beneath the weight of a vehicle.
So I hugged her tight as I carried her inside.
We’d just taken off our coats when Talia came down the stairs dressed in her blue scrubs. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail. “I don’t know how long I’ll be.”
“Just go. We’ll be here.”
She forced a smile at Kadence, then vanished into the garage.
Leaving for whatever horrors awaited her at the hospital.