Page 24 of Exposed

“Wait, what?” I ask.

“We both know I don’t belong here. I don’t want to put you or Simon at risk.”

This girl. Whatever happened to her has her majorly spooked. From my interactions with her so far, it’s clear she’s never been shown how priceless she is. The whole fucking world should be hers, and I want to be the one to give it to her.

Simon’s bottle is empty now, so I stand and lay him on my shoulder to burp him. “Let me put Simon to bed, then we’ll talk.”

“Okay. I’ll wait for you,” she turns to leave the bedroom, but I don’t trust her to stay.

“Please, stay. Talk with me,” I beg quietly as Simon burps and spits up on my shoulder. Crap, I forgot to put a burp cloth on me. Oh well.

Her eyebrows rise in consideration, then she nods silently.

8

DADDY’S HERE

MATT

Half an hour later, I’m in a power struggle with a newborn.

“You’re strong Simon, but Dad is going to win this battle. It’s time to sleep, little man,” I coax in a gentle voice, but he cries in response. Hearing me call myself Dad is a trip, and I almost laugh at the irony. Almost ten months ago, I was trying to forget the pain of losing Grace. Instead, I helped create a new person.

Simon wriggles and whines in my arms. “When you get older, you’ll love sleeping. You need to rest, especially tonight, because I have to convince the beautiful girl in our living room to stay with us. Help me out here.” He responds by kicking my arms while I rock him.

Why is this so hard? There shouldn’t be a question of ifI or my four week old has more stamina, but this little guy is wearing me out.

A throat clearing at the doorway catches my attention. Pepper is leaning against the doorframe, studying me while a soft smile plays on her lips.

Crap. She caught me talking about her. Well, I’m not ashamed of being caught.

“Shh, Simon. The beautiful girl is here,” I murmur, then turn to look at Pepper. “Getting him to sleep is harder than it looks. I don’t know what to do. He knows I’m going to put him alone in his crib, and he’d rather stay up all night.”

“You’ve got this. He likes your voice. Sing to him,” she suggests.

“Hmm. Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Because it’s hard to think when you’re trying to calm a screaming baby.”

“True,” I groan, then sigh.

I don’t know traditional lullabies, but my parents always sang 80’s songs to me.

When I begin singing, “Lean on Me,” Simon looks at me. I glance over at Pepper, and a curious look crosses her face.

He fusses a little more, then snuggles into me. After another fifteen minutes, he gives up and falls asleep. Gingerly laying him in his crib, I grab the baby monitor and motion Pepper to sneak out with me.

I heave a big sigh when we’re finally in the living room, then I cross to the kitchen to do dishes.

“You can live here until you save up enough money to do whatever it is you need to do.” I told myself repeatedly today that I won’t push her. If she wants to tell me, she will.Selfishly, the most important issue for me now is to care for Simon.

She steps up next to me to help load the dishwasher after I’ve rinsed off the dirty plates.

“You don’t have to help. I’ve got it,” I say, so she stands awkwardly next to me like she doesn’t know what to do. Maybe I should’ve let her help.

We stand in silence for a few moments while I finish loading the dishwasher. When the click and quiet hum of the dishwasher begins, I turn around to face her.

“Stay here,” I insist.

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