Page 26 of An Endless Memory

“Yep.”

“I have to get groceries.” I looked down at my shorts and T-shirt. I’d have to nurse, then shower, or vice versa, and then get Cali dressed in something other than pajamas. Kellan was in his sleeper too.

“Go feed him and get ready.” Eliot went to the fridge. “I’ll figure out lunch.”

“You’ve already done enough. I’m sure you have family waiting to hear from you after you left the picnic last night.”

“They’ve gotten along without me for years.”

Why was it so easy to trust him?

Because, for once, I couldn’t see what was in this arrangement for him. I wasn’t a ready-made mom for his neglected daughter. I wasn’t a wife who would work at his clinic for cheap. And I wasn’t running his errands.

A girl could get used to this.

A girl should know better than to think anyone else can clean up her disrupted life.

“I’ve gotta ask one thing,” he said.

There it was. The ask. He’d tell me what he expected out of me. Should I tell Cali to give us a minute?

“I looked for food downstairs. What’s with the mice in the freezer?”

Lily

Flakes had been fed a thawed mouse before we left. His tank was in the main bedroom, a juxtaposition compared to the old-fashioned style of the space.

Cali had talked Eliot through the whole process. He’d been patient, but judging from the wary look on his face, he would’ve rather released the snake into the wild and flushed all the mice.

After I had showered and dressed, I fed Kellan and dressed Cali. Eliot had already heated up a frozen dinner for her. The retching sound she’d made over the gooey brownie made it as far as the bathroom, and I’d known exactly which kind he’d tried to serve.

Now we were at the grocery store. Eliot attracted attention from everyone we passed. Sometimes, he ran into someone who thought he was one of his brothers. With the Knights in town, it was like tall, dark, and handsome grew on trees.

“Ooh, Mommy. Granola bars.” Cali pointed at the shelves.

Eliot grabbed the box she was most excited about. He’d cleaned up, but his scruff was still in place. I couldn’t quit letting my gaze stroke over it. Instead of concealing his jawline, the dark stubble enhanced it. He had his ball cap pulled down low, and he was studying a box of granola bars Cali was asking for as he held Kellan in his other arm. The bars were name brand.

“You can put that back. We usually get a different kind.” A cheaper kind.

Cali let her shoulders hang. “Mo-om. These are better.”

Yes. They were. Those granola bars were definitely a case of generic not being the same. “You know we don’t eat those.”

Eliot was studying me. “How about I get them for me? I might share one.”

A large grin spread across my daughter’s face. “Yeah!”

He quirked a brow at me, and I shrugged. I knew what he was doing, and it made Cali happy. One box of granola bars wouldn’t hurt. He put the box at the end of the cart.

I shook my head, but my smile broke through. I circled around the aisle and went for the beef display.

“Nope.” He tugged the front of the cart, and I was helpless to push it after him.

“I need to get some hamburger.”

“I’ve got a place you can get hamburger. Let me make a call.”

Sutton had mentioned their freezer was always stocked with Knight beef, but Eliot wasn’t likely to haul a cooler of it in his pickup at all times. “You can’t raid from your siblings.”

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