30. River

THIRTY

RIVER

I pushed open the garage door to some kind of mayhem going down in my house.

Though it wasn't summoned by the wicked or iniquitous.

Nah.

There was no question this mess was compliments of my baby sister. Should have known better than to have left her to her own devices.

Taylor Swift was blaring from the built-in speakers, and a riot of laughter carried above it.

Raven's.

Nolan's.

I was pretty sure there was a spot of it from Charleigh, too. That sultry sound rolling through the air and aiming right for me.

It speared me straight in the chest when I rounded the corner of the opening to the kitchen and found the three of them in the middle of it, dancing around like fuckin' loons.

Nolan was on the ground, shouting, "Watch me!" as he spun on his butt, the kid's signature move, while my sister twirled with a glass of red wine lifted over her head, singing, "Go, Nolan, go, Nolan, go!"

And fuck me…Charleigh was laughing and gi ggling and being adorable as shit as she was engaged in this awkward dance, trying to keep time yet totally off beat.

Still wearing those pink scrubs that shouldn't be sexy but never failed to send a bolt of electricity straight to my guts.

My sister grabbed Charleigh's hand, attempting to spin her, though the two of them got all tangled up as Charleigh tried to dip low enough to duck under my sister's arm.

Cracking up, Raven stumbled to the side like she'd already downed a whole bottle of wine, and Charleigh was giggling all over the place as she got taken with her.

Her smile radiant and wide.

My heart squeezed, as fucking unruly as my dick that jumped at the sight.

Nolan was the first to notice me, and he popped up off the floor and threw his hands over his head. "Hey, yo, Daddy-O!! You got here already? We're having a dance party, so you'd better get your booty over here."

With Nolan's welcome, Raven whirled my direction, her expression contorted in suspicion and delight. "That's right, get your cutie patootie over here and join us!"

She shimmied her hips, sloshing a bit of wine over her glass and onto the floor.

I grunted at her from where I loitered at the entryway.

She knew that shit wasn't about to happen. I didn't dance.

Charleigh had slowed to what was mostly a stop, and those cinnamon-flecked eyes widened a fraction, the caramel molten. They couldn't seem to sit still, and they took a little joyride, roving over my body like she'd forgotten my shape in the short time I'd been gone.

"Oh, come on, River," Raven whined like she thought her little pouty face was actually going to convince me to start dancing around in my kitchen.

I grunted again as I set the bags from the Chinese takeout place onto the counter.

"Whelp, even if he doesn't wanna dance with us, Auntie, he at least brought food, and we gotta have food if we're gonna have a party." There was my kid. Always sticking up for me.

"Guess he has to be good for something." Raven said it with all her sass, still shimmying her hips around, while Charleigh kind of just swayed back and forth, like she might be trapped in that spot.

Raven groaned and reached over to her phone she'd left on the counter and turned off the music. "Oh, fine, I see the dance party is officially over since the two of you are just standing there drooling over each other."

"You droolin', Dad?" Nolan peeped, oblivious to what Raven was implying. "You must really be hungry."

I couldn't pry my attention from the woman who remained rooted, skin flushed from dancing and wine, lips still swollen from my kiss.

Yeah. I was fuckin' famished.

"Oh, he's hungry, all right." Raven laid it on thick, her gaze keen as she strutted across the floor where she started to pull plates out of the cabinet.

I didn't even give my baby sister the benefit of an eyeroll.

"Well, I'm definitely hungry," Nolan hollered, skipping over to the bags of food. Holding onto the edge of the counter, he tried to jump high enough to see what was inside. "What'd you get me?"

Finally forcing myself to suck down the insane reaction the girl had over me, I turned to start unloading the white take-out containers. "Your favorite, of course."

"Orange chicken?" He might as well have won a million bucks with the way he shrieked it.

"Yup."

He threw himself at my leg, fully wrapping himself around it with his arms and legs, hanging off me like I was a jungle gym. He tipped his head back, looking at Charleigh upside down. "Told you I got the best dad in the whole wide world, Miss Charleigh. Except that he won't get me a puppy, but you got me one, so now I got everything I even need."

God. The way this kid managed to make my mangled heart throb.

"Yeah, I can see you have a really good dad." Charleigh murmured it in that raspy voice, emotion thick, and fuck, I didn't know what to do with her standing in my kitchen like this. Being here within my walls.

Never had brought anyone back to my place. Not once. It was our safe place. These walls were here to protect only those who meant the most to me.

And my knee-jerk instinct had been to bring her here.

I sucked the implications of it down, refusing to give it too much thought, and instead gave a little shake to my leg.

"All right, Little Dude, go sit down and I'll bring everything over."

He jumped off and went scampering over to the big island where we always ate.

Charleigh cleared her throat. "Is there anything I can help with?"

"Nah," I told her, gesturing toward the row of stools. "Take a seat. We'll take care of it."

"Sit right here, Miss Charleigh." Nolan smacked at the countertop in front of the stool to his left. "We don't hardly never have any special guests unless my uncles come over, but they don't count as a guest because they are my family."

A soft laugh rippled from Charleigh as she slipped onto the stool next to him. "Thank you," she murmured.

"Did you know I got four uncles and one auntie?" Nolan told her, offering up his life story the way he always did.

"It sounds like you're a lucky boy to have so much family."

"I'm the luckiest! How many you got in your family?"

I didn't think I was the only one who felt Charleigh flinch when he asked it because Raven also slowed as she'd begun to set plates at each spot.

Sorrow swelled, flooding from the woman who tried to keep a smile on her face, though she failed, and the words were barely audible when she muttered, "I don't really have a family."

"What do you mean, you don't got a family?" A compassionate sort of horror rippled out with his question. "How come?"

Charleigh hesitated then whispered, "Because I lost them."

"Well, I guess you'll just have to be our family since you don't have any," he said, spilling his innocence .

Charleigh fought to plaster a smile to her face, though it was brittle, and that glowing, pretty skin had turned a pale, sallow white.

Didn't like much the way it slayed me seeing her that way. Way it made me feel like I was getting flayed alive, taken down to bare bones where the rot and decay was exposed.

The way it took everything I had to remain standing where I was and not go running to her and taking her in my arms.

Giving her false promises that it would be okay.

So fuckin' reckless.

But the urge was there.

Charleigh fully shifted on the stool, turning to face him as she touched his cheek. "That is the sweetest, kindest thing anyone has ever offered me, Nolan, and I think you might be the sweetest, kindest boy that I've ever met. But I don't want you to be sad when it's time for me to leave here. You have your family, and I may not be a part of it, but I promise, I'll always be your friend, even when I'm not here any longer."

"Family's just the people you love the most." Nolan shrugged. "And I love you, so that's gotta mean you're my family, too."

He said it nonchalant, like it was the simplest thing in the world, when it was nothing but profound.

Emotion crested the room. The overpowering kind. The kind that made it feel like you couldn't move.

Raven was the one who broke it by grabbing the bottle of wine and refilling Charleigh's glass before she lifted her own and said, "Now, I will drink to that."