Page 39 of Watercolor Skulls

“Okay,” he says, grabbing my hand while clutching his bug catcher in the other.

“I like you,” he says quietly as we walk up to the house.

A pain clenches in my chest as I think about how I almost missed all of this. Jenny would be so proud of me. “I like you too, Jackson.” I squeeze his hand in mine.

Jenny’s baby would have been the same age as Jackson. Somehow she talked my dad into letting her have it. He was even going to allow her to be part of the adoption process. I remember the day they came home from the agency, she told me she had found the perfect couple. It was a chapter wrote by the fates themselves she had said.

I’d never seen her happier. Her unexpected pregnancy delayed our escape plan but we both promised each other that as soon as the baby was safe in his or her new home we would run.

We had already been putting it off until I graduated college, but we knew it was risky. My dad was tiring of her. She and I both realized it. Once the baby came we knew we would have to leave straight away.

But then she had her accident, before the baby was born.

“Oh look, a dragonfly.” Jackson points to the sky above us.

I shade my eyes against the sun, squinting into the bright light.

“Dragonflies are my favorite,” he tells me. “There are lots and lots of them at the lake.”

I smile down at him. “You know Jackson I think you and I are meant to be best friends because dragonflies are my favorite too.”

He and I smile at each other.

These people and this little boy are slowly bringing blood back to my empty heart.

Chapter Sixteen

Dan

???

No one says a fucking word to me about Lily while we pick up the used furniture she bought. I’m going to have to help her restore some of this shit. Dirk mentioned that she had told him she had a privileged life before coming here. Evidently she doesn’t have the privilege now.

When we get back with the furniture the women are all gathered in the kitchen. All the women except mine. “Where is she?” I ask gruffly.

“Hello to you too, big guy,” Jesse smarts off.

I grab her and pull her into my arms, tickling her. “Okay, okay, Jesus. She’s outside with Jackson.”

Rachel wraps her arm around Raffe’s waist. “Jackson broke her window painting.” Raffe grimaces as Rachel continues her story. “Lily handled it so well. Jackson responds to her in a way I’ve never seen before.”

Raffe and I both move to the window. My blue-haired girl is sitting in the grass with Jackson. He is focused on what they are working on. “What are they doing?”

“They painted another window but now they are making a bug catcher,” Rachel tells us. “When they came in to grab the tools he was talking a mile a minute. He was pretty excited.”

“Well she was a kindergarten teacher,” I tell them.

“I bet she was a good one. She should look around here for a teaching job,” Raffe says.

“She told me she’s looking for something different,” Jesse chimes in. Her and Dirk are leaning on each other, watching them out the back door.

“Damn, I’m hungry, Mama Bear, is it lunch time yet?” Raffe asks, kissing Candice on the cheek. She swats him on the ass before shooing everyone out of the kitchen.

“How do you not weigh three hundred pounds. You’re always hungry,” she mutters. She opens the back door. “Lunch time!” she yells to Lily and Jackson. They both look up, smiling and nodding at the same time.

I watch as she talks to Jackson. He grabs her hand, and they start walking towards the house. Both of them pause to squint at the sky. God she is fucking beautiful. Seeing her holding Jackson’s hand makes me ache to see her with my child…our child. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Maybe it’s just my biological clock ticking.

I wait for them by the back door. Candice studies me as she dumps salad in several large bowls. “You know Bill and I are going to watch out for her at the bar.”

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