Chapter 26

As he strode through the store on a Sunday evening buying a new trap for under the sink as well as some extra fittings just in case he broke something, he had Ronan on the phone. "Can you believe that prick? He does this shit for a living and didn't so much as take a look at it."

Ronan grunted. "They're divorced."

"If she lived alone, sure. But Sadie lives there. Why would you want your kid to live in a house that had problems? I wouldn't expect him to come in and renovate everything, but damn it's a leak. She had a pile of wet towels sopping up the puddle."

"You need me to come over?"

"Thanks for the offer, but I think I got it. If I get stuck, I'll find a video online. I'm pretty sure it's just the trap. But if it's more, you got a plumber, right? She has no contacts, so she'll just Google shit like she did for the windows."

"I'll text you a number in case you need it."

"Thanks, man."

They disconnected and he paid for his purchases. He couldn't wrap his head around having to call strangers to fix things in your house. He had memories of his dad fixing things and once he was gone, his brothers handled most repairs. For bigger things, there were guys from the neighborhood. They all relied on each other.

Renee didn't have that. Maybe once she was in her neighborhood longer, she might find that. She was still new to the area.

When he got back to the house, Renee was on the couch with her laptop open and Sadie was playing with dolls on the floor. He patted her head as he walked by and went to the kitchen. Sitting on the floor in front of the sink, he watched a video on his phone to see if there was anything he needed to be careful of.

Seemed pretty straightforward. He already pulled the old trap off and tossed it. He shifted so the top half of his body was under the sink. A moment later, he felt someone next to him.

"Can I help?" Sadie asked.

He hunched a little to see her. "It's kind of gross down here, but you know what would be a big help? Can you hold my flashlight so I can see what I'm doing?"

"Sure."

He crawled out and handed her the flashlight, which was bigger than her entire forearm. She gripped it with both hands, and he showed her where to point it. Hopefully, he wouldn't be blinded by it.

She did a duck walk to get closer and he felt her eyes on his every move. He got the trap in place but not tightened yet. He slid back out. "What do you think? Does it look good?"

He showed her the picture from his phone. She leaned under the sink and studied his work. "I think so."

"You want to help me tighten it?"

Her eyes lit up. "Yeah."

She laid on her back beside him and he helped her hold the wrench. Together they tightened the fitting.

"Sadie?" Renee called.

Sadie froze and her eyes got wide.

"Did you do something wrong?" he whispered.

"Mom told me not to bother you."

He smiled. "No problem then. You're not bothering me. You're helping."

"Sadie. I told you to leave Declan alone."

"You said don't bother him. I'm helping. Declan said it's okay."

"I've never had a better helper. Now, do you know the difference between your right hand and left hand?"

"Kinda. Sometimes I forget."

"Well, I'm going to teach you the cardinal rule for tightening and loosening things. It works for screws and jars and everything. Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey."

She giggled.

"That means when you want something to get tighter, turn it right. When you want it looser, turn it left." Together, they tightened the second fitting. "Okay. Let's test it."

The both shimmied out from under the sink. Renee stood with her arms crossed.

"How do we test it?"

"Turn the water on."

Her eyes got wide again. "But it'll make a mess."

"Not if we did our job right." He lifted a shoulder. "Ready?"

She made a worried face, and when he reached for the faucet, she squinted her eyes. Once the water was on, he closed his eyes. "I can't look. Go under and see if we're making a mess."

She crawled under the sink. "There's no water."

He turned off the faucet and joined her under the sink. "I think we did it."

They gave each other a high five. Renee was still staring at them.

"What?" he asked.

She turned her attention to Sadie. "When I tell you to leave Declan alone, I mean it. It's not his job to entertain you."

Sadie's smile disappeared and she mimicked Renee's angry face. "I was helping."

Declan waved his hands. "Hey, it's okay. She was curious. She asked if she could help."

"Not the point." Turning back to Sadie, she said, "It's bedtime. Go get ready."

Sadie stomped off without a word.

"I'm sorry if I overstepped again. I didn't know she wasn't supposed to be in here until you called her. She wanted to help."

"I appreciate you letting her help and do whatever. But she needs to listen to me."

She followed Sadie out of the room and Declan was at a loss for what just happened. Renee wasn't mad at him. He knew what that looked like. She wasn't herself. Her reaction didn't fit the situation. At least not from his perspective.

He cleaned up the mess, made sure the bottom of the cabinet was dry, and put Renee's stuff away.

Renee got Sadie into bed. Before she opened the book to read, she looked at Sadie. "I'm sorry I snapped at you."

Sadie's face was still puckered in anger.

"But when I tell you to leave someone alone, it's usually for a good reason. If Declan was doing something dangerous, you could've gotten hurt."

"Declan wouldn't let me get hurt."

"Not on purpose, no. But he's not a parent and he doesn't always see the dangerous stuff I do. And even if you were safe, you might've distracted him and he could've gotten hurt."

"That would be bad."

"Right. So next time, if you have questions, or want to help, we need to talk about it first. Sneaking off when I'm busy isn't okay."

"I'm sorry." She snuggled close to Renee, all signs of anger gone.

She read until Sadie was near sleep, gave her a kiss on her head, and left the room.

When she went back to the living room, Declan wasn't around. In the kitchen, she found that he'd put everything back under the sink. She walked to his room and knocked on the open door. He was stretched out on his bed, phone in hand.

He set his phone on his chest and looked at her.

"Got a minute?"

"Sure."

She was suddenly at a loss for what she wanted to say to him.

"What's up, Rennie?"

She rolled her eyes.

"Have a seat." He patted the mattress beside him.

Whereas a few weeks ago, she might not have thought anything of sitting on the bed next to him, everything now felt full of innuendo.

"Come on." He inched up so he was leaning against the headboard.

She joined him and sat near the edge, legs outstretched, but not close enough to touch him, regardless of how tempting it was. "I'm sorry I snapped at you."

"It's been a rough day."

"It wasn't though. Not most of the day. I don't know how I keep letting Graham and his shitty attitude affect me." She huffed. "But it's not all him, either."

She needed to explain how it almost hurt seeing him let Sadie help him. He wasn't her dad—didn't want to be her dad—but Sadie might start to view him that way. And although it hurt, she couldn't let that happen.

But she also didn't know how to say that without sounding like a supreme bitch.

"What is it?" he asked, touching her thigh.

"I love the way you are with Sadie. I wish her dad was more like that. Graham would never take the time to let her help like that."

"It wasn't a big deal. She's a kid. It's hard to control your curiosity. I'm sorry if it felt like I was undermining you."

"No. I know you weren't. I'm just—" She scrubbed a hand over her face. "Fuck. I don't know what I'm doing."

"Babe. You don't have to know everything." He slid an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to his chest.

She tried to pull away, but he held tighter.

"Sadie is sound asleep. We both know she sleeps like the dead and never gets up. Just be with me until you feel better."

"You're a bad influence."

"I've been told that before." They sat in silence for a few minutes. Then he asked, "Want to tell me what's really bothering you?"

She didn't move. Didn't want to look at him. "This weekend was great. I love my time with you when I can just be Renee. But that's not my whole life and I feel split. I want the fun with you, but since you live here, I don't know how to keep things separate."

"Why does it have to be?"

"I told you why."

"I'm here. Sadie is used to me being around. But she was also used to me just popping up. Kids are resilient."

She felt the underlying sentiment that he could disappear and pop up in her life like always and Sadie would be fine. He wasn't necessarily wrong. But she didn't know if she'd be fine.

After a few more breaths, Renee pulled away and sat up. This time, Declan let her go. "Want to watch TV or something?"

He pointed at the screen on the wall. "We can stay here and watch something. Or..." He lifted his phone. "We can read."

She chuckled. "I thought we agreed to keep the reading in the living room."

"You're afraid you can't control your horny self when we read sexy books." He grinned.

She couldn't help but make the comparison between his blue eyes full of humor and Graham's eyes. She sighed. "Fine. Read to me." She settled against the headboard.

He eyed the distance between them but didn't comment. She wouldn't go so far as to admit he was right because she absolutely could control herself. But he also made temptation a real, tangible thing for her. She settled in and listened to him read.

Declan wasn't sure how his life managed to flip so many times so quickly. Just when he thought he and Renee had a plan, she spun out. He'd spent the better part of the night trying to get her to relax and be with him. She wouldn't even kiss him good night before hustling from his room.

First thing in the morning, Sadie was rushing through breakfast so she could go outside and play. From where he was still lying on his bed, he heard her usual chatter with Renee. Sadie was excited, which was what he'd wanted when he came up with the idea for the yard. He climbed out of bed and tugged on a pair of sweatpants, not bothering with a shirt.

In the kitchen, Sadie bounced from her chair. "Wanna go outside and play on my monkey bars?"

"Sadie. Let Declan wake up."

"He's awake." She pointed at him as if Renee was blind.

"I mean, let him have some coffee and get dressed."

He looked over at Renee and smiled. "I'm dressed enough for a quick run around the yard." Turning to Sadie, he said, "Let me go to the bathroom and brush my teeth. I can drink my coffee outside."

"Yay!"

As he walked past Renee, he ran his thumb along his waistband, drawing her eye. She slowly licked her lips and he wasn't sure which of them was more tortured. He did his business in the bathroom and when he got back in the kitchen, the room was empty. Looking through the window, he saw Renee and Sadie swinging together. Although he couldn't hear what they were saying, the sounds of their voices carried. They were happy.

For the first time, he saw what she wanted him to see—they were a family by themselves. She'd keep him at a distance to make sure he couldn't disrupt what she was building with her daughter.

"Fuck me," he muttered to himself. He poured a cup of coffee and gulped the hot liquid. What was he doing here? He'd told Ty he was ready for something different. Was he really? Or was he talking out his ass like he usually did?

Setting his cup on the counter, he strode to the back door. When he slid it open, a cool fall breeze swept in and he decided that putting on a shirt would be a smart move. He retreated to his room and grabbed a shirt. He wasn't ready to walk away from what he had with Renee, but he didn't know if he was really ready to sign on for the whole thing.

What if he fucked things up for her like Graham did? Renee said she was worried about Sadie, but he was beginning to believe she was every bit as worried about herself.

Going to the yard, he yelled from the back steps, "Sadie, my lady, are you ready for some monkey bars?"

"Yes!" she screamed as she jumped off the swing. She raced over to the monkey bars and used the ladder to climb up. It was still just a little too tall for her. They'd been guessing how tall she was and what her reach was. She stood on the top step, gripping the side rails and looking up at the first bar.

As he walked by Renee, he said, "You can go to work if you want. I'll hang with her a while."

"Thanks."

He turned his attention to Sadie. "You might have to jump to grab the first one. But remember what I told you about momentum?"

"Kinda."

He grabbed her hips and said, "You're gonna do a little jump. Just enough so you can reach the bar." She looked unsure, so he added, "I'm right here. I won't let you fall."

She leaned and reached more than jumped and if he hadn't been holding her, she would've hit the ground. He hoisted her to the bar. "Let's start with the part you know how to do."

They spent the next half hour or so swinging back and forth on the monkey bars. Who the hell needed to go to the gym when you had a kid to play with?

When Sadie was tired of the monkey bars, he asked if it was okay for him to go back inside to work. She didn't care because she still had the slide and swings to play on. As he walked inside, he smiled. This was what he wanted for Sadie.

He poured himself another cup of coffee and went to the dining room to figure out a plan for painting. Renee was at the front door waving at someone. She turned and came back in carrying a pile of books and folders.

"You have clients drop things off at your house?" Even though she was an accountant—like the most boring job ever—it still didn't seem like a good idea for strangers to have her address. Not with Sadie right outside.

"No. That was Chloe."

"Chloe?"

"Yeah. When we were cleaning up on Saturday, she asked if I could look over the books for The Black Rose."

"What?" Every muscle tightened. That mother fucker.

Renee shrugged. "She said something was off about the books and she asked me to take a look. It's the least I could do after your brothers built the playset."

"No, it's not. I told them to leave you out of their bullshit."

"This has nothing to do with political campaigns. This is the bar she wants to buy. Not that either one should matter. I'm looking at numbers, not running around like a cop."

He clenched his jaw. He didn't believe it. He wouldn't put anything past his brothers. They were on a mission to find answers and they didn't care who got hurt. But to send his girlfriend? That was low, even for Ronan.

He also knew arguing with Renee wouldn't change anything. He needed to calm down and later today, he'd go see Ronan. He'd calmly tell him to stay the fuck away from Renee.