Page 44 of Room One Hundred and Nineteen: Watching Her

“I’ll take that bet,” Josh murmured. And we turned to look at him, not that he spared us a glance. “She’ll let us in,” he said confidently with a sardonic smile on his lips. “Even if it’s just to prove a point that we can’t handle shit.” I stayed quiet because I had a feeling he was right.

“Deal,” Miles said, and I rolled my eyes. The dumbasses shook on it. I didn’t care. I just wanted to get to Elena and the kids. I turned to face them.

“This all settled so we can get this shit on the road and go after what we came for?” I asked, then everyone nodded.

Without saying another word, we slipped out of the oversized SUV and made our way to the front door.

Ready or not, Elena needed to brace.

Because as messy as life could be, we were good at cleaning up messes.

16

MILES

Rick rang the doorbell, and we waited. Patience had never been my forte. Just as I was about to knock on the door, it opened.

But no one was there.

“Dr. Miles?” a little voice said, and the three of us dropped our gaze to find Betsy, who was wearing a long nightshirt and her damp hair was wild with waves, looking up at us.

“Bets! What have I told you about opening…” Our girl came barreling into sight, immediately halting to a stop when she noticed who was at the door. She blinked. Once. Twice. A third time. Almost like she couldn’t believe that we were there.

“What are you guys doing here?” Her eyes bounced back and forth between us before her attention moved down to her daughter. “Baby, you shouldn’t open the door. That’s dangerous.”

“But it was the docs! Mike and I saw them sitting in their cars from the window.” My hand rose to scratch the back of my neck. We’d been busted.

“Okay, but still. Say hi, and why don’t you guys, umm…” She looked around, weighing her options about where to send herkids so they wouldn’t overhear whatever ass-chewing she was going to hand out.

“Actually.” Her shoulders slumped forward, almost in defeat, and that was the moment I started to get worried. “Go back and sit with Mike and watch the movie. The docs and I are going to talk right outside.”

“Okay, Mom!” Betsy turned and waved goodbye to us then joined Mike, who was watching us from the couch looking miserable.

“We can talk outside,” Elena said quietly, brushing her body past ours, and I shut the door behind us.

“What are you guys doing here?” she asked quietly. Too quietly as she kept her distance from us. And I really fucking didn’t like it.

“You really think it was going to be that easy to brush us off?” I asked a little too roughly, and her eyes rose to meet mine. I could see how tired she was. Weary and hurt.

“You guys…”

“We want real,” Rick said, and I had never been more relieved for someone to interrupt whatever asinine thing that was about to slip past her lips.

“You want real?” she repeated, her brows bunched. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”

“Let us be the judge of that,” I quickly added as gently as I could manage. “Let us try at least.”

“Try?” She licked her lips and glanced away. “What if…”

“What if we can’t handle it?” Josh asked, surprisingly intuitive, because when Elena’s gaze met his, she nodded. “That’s not going to happen. What is it you think we won’t be able to handle? Some puke? We see that shit on a daily basis. Literally, at work.”

“Yeah, but this isn’t work. This is real life. Those two kids are real. They’re with me twenty-four, seven. You three knowthat. Their dad signed away his parental rights so I could get full custody, and he wouldn’t have to pay child support. They’re here. Always.”

“Good,” Rick said, and I noticed how Elena braced her body, almost like her heart knew he was going to say something deep. “First, thank fuck the dumbass took the easy way out. This way, it’s easier for us to adopt them down the road.” I winced on the inside because even though I knew she cared about us and maybe was falling in love with us, I knew just how tricky a situation this was, and I sure as shit didn’t want to scare her off. “He saved us from having to run him down to sign. It’s done.”

“You can’t mean that.”

“The hell we don’t.” Josh and I said the words almost simultaneously.

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