Page 118 of Sven

“I can figure it out,” he said before dropping a sweet kiss on her lips. “Can you take Winnie?”

She nodded, and he carefully passed her the sleeping baby.

“I’ll be right back,” he said, tipping Natalie’s chin up to him.

She just nodded and blinked away tears.

Sven seethed.

Conner grabbed his keys, and they headed to the garage.

“How are you holding up?” he asked as they made their way to his car.

“I’m so fucking pissed.”

“We got your back,” Conner said as they got in. “We’ll get it sorted out, and you and your girls are good to stay here as long as you need. It’s safe here. I remember keeping Sasha safe here,” he said as his mouth turned up in the corner.

“Can we not take a journey down memory lane right now while everything is so fucked?”

“You’re right. Let’s get your stuff.”

39

Natalie

Sven and Conner headed out the door. There was a part of her that ached to pull him back and make him promise not to leave her side, but he needed to get things for them, and he knew Winnie would wake up hungry, and she only had enough formula in the diaper bag for one more bottle. She thought about texting him to make sure he didn’t forget her formula, but she knew she didn’t need to. He would know. He knew how to take care of Winnie and how to take care of her, too.

Only now, everything was so messed up. She should probably just leave and not be a drain on them. That’s how she felt. She felt like a drain, like all the wonderful people she had met here would be better off if she’d never come.

“What are you thinking?” said Sasha asked Hillary.

“That I’m fucking pissed. That this whole thing is because of the motherfucking Moms Fighting For Freedom and their book-banning, homophobic, white-supremacist, alt-right bullshit. Fuck them!” Hillary shook her head.

Natalie laughed. As unlikely as it was and as angry as she was at all of this, Hillary spoke the fucking truth.

“Fuck them!” Sasha echoed back.

“Fuck them,” Natalie said, nudging the building ball of anger she was trying desperately to avoid.

Once that anger was out, she didn’t think she could control it.

Hillary let out a breath and sat back in her chair. “At least tomorrow is a rest day, so we can all just lie low for the day, but we are going to need to get a jump on because this something we need to deal with.”

Sasha nodded. “But we have your back, Natalie.”

“Oh, yes, we do. Don’t doubt that for a second,” Hillary echoed.

Natalie nodded.

It did feel good to hear them say that, but she didn’t know how to feel. There was a maelstrom of feelings inside of her. The weight of being a burden threatened to drag her down while the growing ball of rage inside of her threatened to explode.

Instead, she just nodded and said, “Thank you.”

It was easier to keep the pleasant smile on her face than to give way to the growing war inside.

Winnie stirred in her arms. She’d been sleeping most of this time, and it was way after her bedtime. They needed to get her to sleep, but everything was just such a mess.

“Why don’t I show you to the guest room? We don’t have anything for Winnie to sleep in...” Sasha said with a look of concern.

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