Page 84 of Second Chance Baby

Before he could speak, I held up a hand. “I know I have no right to ask. But I need to know you have my back.”

His hesitation to answer proved to me he was taking the question seriously. Evaluating every bit of it before he answered. “I do. One hundred percent. So, go see whoever you need to, and I’ll be waiting at home whenever you’re done. Then we will go to the city.” His lips quirked. “Maybe I’ll do a quick Trolls and Scooby-doo search while I wait for you. It’s not a full Halloween season if my older brother doesn’t ticket me, you know?”

I amazed myself by laughing. And it wasn’t forced or fake, either. “Yeah, Amerie will be so happy that you’re trying. You don’t have to kill yourself to find them. We’re already breaking the cycle,” I added quietly. “The no dad in the house scenario is ending for good with us. So, we’re already fucking ahead.”

“We are. And the no mom one is ending too. So, as far as I’m concerned, we’re rocking this shit.” He framed my face in his palms and gave me a soft kiss. “I love you so much, and I’m so fucking proud of you. I’m sorry I never said that enough. But I always was.”

I reached up to flick away the tear on his lashes. Thank God for him. And thank God I’d been smart enough to find my way back to him. “You have nothing to be sorry for. Well, other than taking too long to eat that delicious chili.” I reached down to pat my belly, noting the interest in his gaze that had his lips curving and flashing his dimples. “I’ll be home in not too long,” I promised, leaning up to give him a quick kiss.

“Holding you to it,” he said as he stepped back. “Want me to bring you back home so you can take your car?”

“Oh, yeah, duh, good point. No, can you drop me at Lacey’s? I’ll have her bring me back when we’re done.”

Though he quickly blinked it away, relief flared in his eyes for a moment before he nodded. “Sure thing.”

I took a step then looked behind me at the closed front door. “I’m just going to give Care Bear one more goodbye hug before we go. The first one was too quick.”

His smile spread across his face. “Take your time.”

After running back inside to hug my girl once more, hanging on so long she finally lightly pushed me away with a laugh, I ran back out to the truck. Travis was still smiling as he tapped his thumbs on the wheel in time toThrillerplaying through his speakers.

While he drove, I looked up the address of my older sister’s house on GPS. Instead of letting it tell him where to go, I read each of the directions to him on the text list. Stop here. Turn left. Turn right. Yada, yada.

“Reminds me of the old days,” he said with a grin, reaching over to squeeze my knee under the hem of my flirty dress.

“Sure does. Back when we’d take road trips for fun. Just as a way to waste a weekend, driving wherever we felt like. Right there, at the end of the block behind that huge maple.” I bit my lip, noting that I needed to help my sister with her overgrown hedges. They’d grown up to the point that it was almost impossible to see the windows of her screened-in porch, where a cheerful jack-o-lantern light glowed in the darkness.

“I’ll bring over my trimmer,” he said quietly, squeezing my knee for a different reason this time. “Won’t take but a couple minutes.”

“We can both do it. Or I can rake while you trim.”

“Sounds like a plan. Now go before I kidnap you and tie you up in this truck to have my dastardly way with you.”

“Sounds like my kind of night,” I said with a grin before I opened the door and hopped down.

I watched him reverse then waved until I couldn’t see his taillights anymore. I hurried up my sister’s couple of steps, avoiding the broken board in the middle of the top one. I knocked on the porch doors, then realized she probably couldn’t hear me due to the loud Dua Lipa music pouring out into the night from inside. I pulled open one of the creaky doors before crossing the porch and ringing the glowing doorbell.

“It’s your favorite sister out here, Lace.” I tried to lift my voice over the music.

I wasn’t sure I’d succeeded until I heard my sister’s faint reply. “Bridget?”

I laughed as she threw open the door. “Do you have another sister I don’t know about?”

“Not that I know of.” She opened the door and looked out, peering around with obvious confusion. “Just you? Where’s Travis and Carrington?”

“Yeah, I need to talk to you. Carrington’s spending the night at her grandparents’ place while Travis and I go down to the city to clean out my apartment. Not the smartest to do it at night but my place is here, so there’s no reason to wait.”

Lacey waved a hand. “Just turn on a lot of lights. You’ll be fine. Not like you damaged the place with your crazy raves or something.” With a laugh, she drew me into her arms, the smell of lemon furniture polish wafting over me as we hugged. “Sorry, cleaning my ass off. The place turns into a sty so damn fast.”

“You think this qualifies as a sty, Lace?” Wonder lined my words as I glanced around her painfully neat home. Nothing seemed out of place to my eye. No stray magazines or newspapers or even electronics, no random toys that belongedto humans or pets. Even all the couch pillows seemed perfectly orderly and fluffed, as if the room had just been tidied up by a fleet of cleaning elves. The coffee table in front of the couch had been polished to a high sheen. Even the end tables were gleaming, without a spot of dust to be seen anywhere. “You definitely didn’t learn this attention to detail from mama. I don’t think she even owned a duster.”

“Definitely not. She always claimed she was allergic to polish.” Lacey shrugged and aimed her mini hand vac at the couch cushions. Only looking closer allowed me to notice the light layer of golden fur scattered here and there. “Was as good an excuse as any, I suppose. It wasn’t as if I liked cleaning the trailer, either. Though I always liked vacuuming.” She shrugged and used the mini vac on crumbs between the cushions. “I liked that you could see results right away.”

I peered around the corner at the hallway, currently mostly clean except for the pair of kid’s skates tipped over on their sides and what looked like a frisbee tossed in the corner. “Hey, where’s Biscuit? And Amerie?”

“Biscuit is probably hiding from the vacuum. He’s no fan of it. Amerie went to her friend’s house, though she wants to see all of your Halloween decorations lit up at night soon. Seeing them in the daytime just isn’t the same, she informed me.”

I laughed. “She does have a point. Travis is trying to abide by her wishes, by the way.”

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