16. Kyle

“Thirty-four?” Dylan scrutinized the massive pile of colored boxes, a frown tugging at her lips.

“Sam wanted more Lego sets. It didn’t seem fair to get him a new set only, so I got a few for everyone.” I shrugged.

“Our facility isn’t big enough for all the stuff you keep bringing in.”

The place looked plenty big to me. There were huge areas of play space, and there was room for more shelves under the far windows.

“It’s not that much stuff.”

She pursed her lips as she dragged the pink crystal on her neck along its silver chain. “First it was more dominos so you and Piper could beat the other team.”

“It’s not my fault your fiancé cheated.” I shrugged. Cortney had gone out of his way to get just about all of my teammates here, as well as his former teammates from the New York Metros, to vote for his domino run. “I had the lead almost all day, but then he pulled ahead.” I roughed a hand over my jaw. Still couldn’t get over how close I’d come to losing. “Piper and I needed some extra material for the final push.”

“And you won.” Dylan sighed. “Then you got the full Playmobil set. Do you know how many pieces came with it? I still don’t understand why you thought we needed it.” She put her hands on her hips and scanned the colorful space.

“Grey and Sam asked for a pirate ship, so I did a little research. Once I started looking, I couldn’t pick just one. There were so many awesome options.” I’d never put much thought into kids’ toys. At least not since I was little. So I’d never realized how cool they could be. These, especially, had so many details. The cannons on the ships even had little balls that shot out of them. “So I bought a few.”

She pointed across the room. “A few? Try a few dozen . And then you figured we needed more finger paint colors?”

“You only had three…”

“Yeah. The primary colors. So I can teach kids how to mix them to make their own shades.” She turned and pointed. “Now I have a new shelf and every color ever made.”

I nodded. “So Sam has options. I’ll get a table and some more shelving for the Legos too.”

Her shoulders slumped. “Kyle Bosco, you have a big heart. And apparently way too much time and money.” She patted my arm. “So later this week, we’re going to have to start thinking about what we’re donating to The Greater Boston Family Crisis Network. Delia has put a lot of time and effort into it, and they’re always in need of items or monetary donations for the moms and kids they support. It’d do a whole lot more good there than here. No one here needs any more stuff.”

I wasn’t sure that was true, but it was a battle for another day.

“Okay.” That didn’t mean I had to stop buying things for Sam and Grey.

The door opened, and Piper slipped inside. Ashley, her therapist, came in behind her. The two had started ABA therapy on Monday, and they’d had their third session today. I was tempted to pull Ashley aside and pick her brain. Ask how it was going. Find out what Piper needed to work on. But that wasn’t my place. Harper was right. I’d been bulldozing like crazy. So I was trying to help while keeping myself removed.

When I showed up last at Piper’s school on Thursday, I expected Harper to send me away with a glare. But it had been clear before I even stepped out of the Escalade that between her daughter’s fit and the awful woman running drop-off, she was on the verge of breaking down.

The sight of those glassy, exhausted, amber eyes mixed with the iron will she possessed to get her daughter to school had yanked hard at my soul. The woman was tough as nails, but she needed support, a friend to lean on. And dammit if I didn’t wish I could be that friend.

Even if JJ didn’t entirely trust my plan, a friendship between Harper and me would be a good thing. For all of us.

“Hey, Pipe,” I called.

She turned, her eyes lifting to my face for a second before she looked away.

“Want to build something with Legos?”

With a succinct nod, she shuffled to the tower of boxes and chose one. Although Sam needed help to follow the step-by-step instructions and find the right pieces, Piper was the Lego queen. She’d have at least one of the sets finished before her mother picked her up at five thirty.

It was just after five when my phone vibrated. I yanked it out of my pocket, and when Crabby flashed across the screen, I couldn’t help but smile.

She’d been insistent that she wouldn’t give me her number when I asked, so I’d been shocked when she texted me last week. But now that I had her contact information, I had this weird desire to text her multiple times a day, just to check in. Make her laugh about something. Send her an annoying meme or a picture that would have her sending me a photo of her glaring.

I didn’t understand it. Yet I didn’t hate it either.

Crabby: Head’s up. There is an accident on Storrow Drive, and I’m stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. I’m not going to make it by five thirty. Piper will be upset.

Across the room, Piper was almost finished with her Lego set. She’d start watching the clock any minute, like she had at this time every day since she started here.

Me: Want me to take them home?

Crabby: No. You don’t have to do that.

That was her go-to answer. She acted like any help I offered was some big inconvenience to me. I was still working on how to make her see it differently.

Me: I leave here when they do. I might as well drop them off. Your place isn’t that far out of the way.

That second part was a lie. It was in the opposite direction from my apartment, but honestly, I didn’t mind.

Crabby: It might be easier on Piper.

Me: I agree.

Tucking the phone back into my pocket, I strode across the open space. Across the tiny table from Piper, I dropped into a child-size chair. It had been awkward squishing my body into such small furniture at first, but I had mastered the art of pretzeling my legs by now.

I tapped the table next to her Legos to get her attention.

With a sigh, she looked up. Her eyes almost met mine before she glanced over my shoulder and focused on something behind me. Slowly, she was getting more comfortable with me.

“I was thinking maybe Cam and I would take you home today. What do you think?”

She zeroed in on the clock over the door, her hands fisting so tightly on the table her knuckles went white. “At five thirty?”

“Yes.”

Her shoulders and hands relaxed in unison, and with a nod, she went back to her project, clicking a pink brick into a larger piece that looked to be taking the shape of a tree.

I stood, pulled my phone out, shot Harper a text to confirm that Piper was okay with the change of plan, then headed to Sam. “Hey, dude. Ten-minute warning. We need to start getting packed up. Mom’s stuck in traffic, so I’m going to take you home.”

“Ooh, do we get M&M’s in the car again?”

Harper was strict about what the kids ate. It made sense for Piper, but it was harder for Sam. I was very aware of how difficult it was to live by rules that were created because they were what was best for someone else.

“How about I give you a few to have after dinner?”

His brows disappeared behind his shaggy red hair, and his eyes went wide. “Mom is going to let you stay for dinner?”

“I’m not sure.” The answer should have been no. We hadn’t talked about it. But now that Sam mentioned it, maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea.