“Shh,” I slice out again.

She stops talking.

“Mommy can’t come back,” I explain. “Mommy didn’t want to go, but she didn’t have a choice.”

“Mommy will be back,” Mellie says quietly.

“Mommy loved you both so much,” I tell them.

“Both the girls need new clothes,” the teacher interjects.

I turn back to face her. “What?”

“Seth had been taking care of them for quite some time, so I didn’t say anything, but their clothes are getting too small. Mellie’s shoes are too tight, and Joey’s pants are about four inches too short. Children grow, Miss Morgan. A lot.”

I bite my tongue because I can’t think of anything nice to say, and I have been a lawyer long enough to know that no response is probably better than saying what’s on my mind. Because what’s on my mind is that I want her to take a long walk off a short pier.

When did I become such a barbarian?

“Thank you for letting me know. I’ll take care of them,” I say instead. “I appreciate it.” They do have to come back here tomorrow after all.

I look down at the girls. “Who wants to go shopping?” I ask.

Mellie looks up and smiles. “Me,” she says. And I hear a softly whispered, “Me,” from right beside my ear.

Matt

It’s around seven in the evening when my phone rings. I’m outlining a tattoo on a client at Reed’s so I can’t answer it. Friday walks over and motions toward my pocket. “Do you want me to get that?” she asks.

I lift my gun and stand up so she can get in my pocket. “Please,” I say.

“Better be careful or Paul’s going to get jealous,” she teases as she fishes around my pocket.

Paul makes a noise. He’s been trying to get her in his pockets for as long as I can remember. “I think he’s already green with envy,” I say loudly.

“If green is the new red,” she tosses back. She pulls my phone out and puts it to her ear. We didn’t carry phones for a long time because we simply couldn’t afford it. But last Christmas, Emily’s dad bought us all new phones, since he has more money than God and nothing better to do with it. He said we were too hard to keep up with without them. But I think it was more Emily’s doing than his.

“Matt’s phone,” she chirps. “Hey, Seth,” she says, her face scrunching up. “Yeah, he’s here, hang on.” She presses the “speaker” button on the phone.

“What’s up, Seth?” I ask.

“Matt?” Seth asks, and he sound a little breathless.

“What’s wrong, Seth?” I ask. I set my gun down and start to pull off my gloves.

“Have you talked to Aunt Sky today?” he asks.

“No,” I reply, the hair on the back of my neck immediately standing up. “Why?”

“Today was the first day she was supposed to pick up the girls, and I just got home and no one is here. It’s getting late, is all.”

“I haven’t talked to her,” I say. “Do you want me to come over?” I’m already making my way to the front door and Pete is taking over with my client.

“Call us if you need us,” Paul says to my back. Like he has to remind me. With a glance over my shoulder, I wave at him, and he nods.

“Did you call her phone?” I ask.

“Yeah, but it’s going directly to voice mail. And the texts I sent say delivered but not read.”

“Her battery is probably dead, Seth,” I say. I’m not worried at all. Well, maybe a little.

“She should have called to tell me where she is,” he murmurs, and I can imagine him scruffing his hair in frustration.

“She probably thought you wouldn’t be home yet,” I say. “I’m on the way to keep you company. You feel like a pizza?” Teenage boys always feel like pizza.

###

I stop to order a couple of pies at Rico’s really quickly and take them with me. When I get to the apartment, I see Sky unloading the girls from the car in front of the apartment. She’s found a spot and is ushering them along. She has bags and bags of stuff in her hands.

“Need some help?” I ask.

She looks up and blows her hair from her face with an upturned breath. “Matt,” she says, but a pleasant smile tips the corners of her lips, and it’s enough to take my breath away. She has a boyfriend, asshole. Don’t get any ideas. “What are you doing here?”

I grin because it’s how I’m feeling inside. “Seth called me freaking out when you weren’t home,” I admit.

Her face falls. “Oh,” she says. She frowns. “Why would he do that?”

I shrug. “He was worried.”

She slams the door of the car even though there are still more bags in there.

I look through her window. “Let me help with those.”

She shakes her head. “I’ll come and get them later,” she says. “After I calm Seth down, apparently.” She looks ruefully at me. She holds up the bags. “We went shopping.”

“I can tell,” I say. I motion toward Mellie and crouch down. She climbs onto my back and holds on tightly. I stand up and swing her around the way I would my niece, and she squeals and laughs. I still have pizzas in one hand, so I set them on top of the car.

“Do me,” Joey cries, clinging to my leg.

I scoop Joey up too and spin them both in circles.

Sky laughs. “I think they like you,” she says quietly. There’s a look of longing on her face.

I jostle them both. “Yeah, they like me.” They both squeal as I spin them around again. “I mean, really,” I tease. “What’s not to like?” I arch my brow at her, joking with her like I would a woman I might be interested in. But there hasn’t been one of those in a long time.

Her face colors, and she’s so damn pretty. But she doesn’t say anything. Her eyes travel, though, from the top of my head to the tips of my feet, staying in some places longer than others. Is that interest I see in her eyes? She licks her lips and looks away.

“Careful,” I warn quietly.

She shakes her head, like she wants me to shut up. So I do. For now.

I follow her into the building with the girls still clinging to me since I’m holding on to them and the pizzas, and they’re still squealing when I walk through the door of the apartment with them.

“Look what I found,” I say loudly as we step into the kitchen. Seth spins around, his face hard, and he starts to open his mouth. I can just imagine what’s about to come out, so I cut him off. “Your Aunt Sky was nice enough to take the girls shopping this afternoon,” I say. I meet his eyes and give him a subtle warning to keep his trap shut.

He glares at me and leans around me to say to Sky, “You could have called so I wouldn’t worry.”

“I didn’t think you’d be home yet.” She glances at her watch. “I didn’t mean to worry you, Seth,” she says. She’s sincere. And knows she worried him needlessly. “I’m sorry about that,” she says quietly.

I give Seth a look, and he heaves a sigh. He walks to her and wraps her up in a weird hug like ones I’ve seen him give his mom a hundred times. He picks her up off the ground a little. “I was worried about you, too,” he explains.

She smiles, and it’s beautiful. “Thanks,” she says. “My phone is dead, too. I’ll be sure to keep a charger in my car from now on. I’m not used to having to check in.” She starts to put bags down. “I took the girls shopping for some new clothes,” she says. She looks up at Seth. “I hope that’s okay.”

He looks a little chagrined. “That teacher of theirs has been harping about their clothes for a week.”

“Girls,” she calls. “Come and show Seth what you got while I go unload the rest.”

Seth looks up at me and then down at the many bags that are scattered all over the place. “There’s more?” he asks.

I grin and swipe a hand down my face. I saw all the shit that was in the back of her car. “Lots more,” I say. Sky walks toward the door so I jerk a thumb in her direction. “I’m going to help your aunt,” I say.

He grins at me. “Helping? Is that what they’re calling it now?”

Sky is already out the door, and I really want to go with her. “She has a boyfriend,” I say.

He shakes his head. “Not anymore. He dumped her yesterday. It wasn’t pretty.”

So she doesn’t have a boyfriend? My heart leaps. Hot damn. “Did she cry a lot?”

He shakes his head. “But there was a weird discussion about orgasms, his junk, and him being selfish in bed.” He shudders. “Way more than I wanted to hear.”

“Way more than you should be repeating, too,” I warn.

He grips my shoulder. “You need all the help you can get, man,” he says, giving me a squeeze. He grins.

I flip him the bird in a way that Joey and Mellie can’t see and follow Sky into the hallway. She’s still waiting at the elevator, so I jog up to her and stop, a little breathless. I’m not sure if my lack of air is because I’m so f**king relieved she’s unattached or the quick jog, but my bet is it’s the former. And I’m okay with that.

Skylar

Goodness gracious, he’s handsome. Matt’s wearing a gray T-shirt and jeans, and his hair is pulled back with a rubber band. He’s so tall that I have to tip my head to look up at him. He grins down at me. He’s breathing a little hard, and I have to admit I am, too.

“How was your day?” he asks. The elevator dings beside us, and we step inside. He hitches his hip against the rail and crosses his arms in front of his chest.

I ran out of the apartment because I was a little overwhelmed with emotion. It’s pitiful that a kid can make me lose my tight grip on reality just by being nice to me. But when Seth grabbed me and told me he was worried about me being late, I realized that I’m part of a family, and like the Grinch who stole Christmas, my heart swelled to twice its size. Then it cracked and my eyes filled up with tears and I had to get out of there before I lost my shit.

I swipe my fingertips beneath my eyes and smile a watery smile at Matt. I wish he had given me a few minutes to myself, but it’s too late now. I get to look like an idiot in front of an attractive man.

Who am I kidding? He’s hot as hell. And I’m about to start sobbing. Why is it that I get all teary every time this man is around?

“Sky?” he asks quietly. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I croak. I clear my throat because there’s a lump the size of Texas in it.

He walks toward me and touches my chin with gentle fingers, tipping my face up to his. “Then why are you crying?”

“Because I’m a girl,” I squeak out, like that’s an excuse.

“Liar,” he says. He cups my face with his palm, his fingertips tickling the skin in front of my ear, brushing back and forth.

“You’ll think it’s stupid,” I say.

“Try me,” he tosses back.

“No.” I sniffle. I square my shoulders. “I’m fine, really. It’s nothing.”

The doors open on the lower level, and we step out, but instead of walking toward the front doors, he takes my hand and tugs me with a quick jerk into the stairwell. He closes the door and sits down on the lowest step. He pats the spot beside him. “Take a break for a second.”

I gingerly sit down next to him. He scoots closer until his hip touches mine. I scoot away from him, but he scoots even closer. I look up, and I can’t keep from grinning at him. “You’re in my space,” I warn.

“I like being in your space. I kind of want to be all up in your space,” he says, his voice teasing and playful. But then he pats his shoulder. “God didn’t give me broad shoulders just hold up my T-shirts.” He uses his hand to push my head onto his shoulder. He’s quiet for a moment, but then he says, “Let me take some of your burden, Sky. Tell me what’s wrong.”

He sits quietly and just breathes. He doesn’t say anything more. I sit there and take in the scent of him. It’s woodsy and manly and clean. It’s Matt, and I like it. I don’t want to cry anymore. I want to climb into his lap and kiss him. “Oh God,” I moan.

“Nope. I’m just Matt,” he says with a chuckle.

I punch his shoulder playfully. He pretends to fall to the side, but he pops right back up, getting even more in my space.

“Is this about your boyfriend?” he asks quietly.

I shake my head. I had almost forgotten about Phillip. “No,” I start. But I can’t get the words together. “Never mind.”

He sits quietly, and then he starts to whistle. He’s not letting me off without an explanation.

“It’s just that I never had a family.” There I said it. Now he can pity me. “So when Seth was worried, not just about his sisters, but about me too, it made me feel a little emotional.” I shrug. It sounds even more stupid now that it’s out of my mouth. “That’s all. I know it’s stupid.”

He doesn’t say anything. He just nods.

“I just am having a hard time finding my place in this situation. But I think I’m finding it, and it feels good.”

He arches his brow. “So, that was a good cry?” he asks.

“That was a very good cry.” A grin tugs at the corners of my lips even though I’m still feeling really emotional.

“Okay,” he says with a nod. He pats his shoulder. “You want to cry on me some more? I kind of like having you touch me.” He grins and opens his arms in invitation. “I’m really good at hugs, too.”