Page 1 of Don't Leave Me

Chapter 1

Pecker

“Peck!” Bree squeals as she leaps into my arms. She wraps her tiny hands around my neck and buries her face in the hood of my sweatshirt.

“What’s going on, Bree?” I squeeze her a little tighter as Danny moseys into the room.

“I missed you!”

“You saw him three hours ago, Bree. He’s not that cool.” Danny rolls his eyes as he grabs his video game controller off of the coffee table.

At ten years old, Danny thinks he’s too cool for everyone. He’s been having a rough time since Rob left and I can’t blame him. I’d probably be pissed at the world if my dad up and left me too.

“He’s the coolest uncle ever!” Bree glares at her brother.

She’s a whopping six years old and the cutest little girl. She’s always happy to see me and begs me to do things with her. She makes me feel loved and wanted. The complete opposite of how Danny makes me feel.

“Are you playing or not, Bree?”

“Yes!”

Bree wiggles out of my arms and runs to Danny’s side. They turn on a racing game and forget about me within seconds.

“Danny, stop being rude. Peck’s here to help us. He didn’t need to walk away from his life in Tuft Swallow to move here.” Sydney steps inside the room and pats a hand on my back. “Sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong with him,” she murmurs.

“You mean other than having his entire world turned upside down?” I raise a brow. I'm not going to yell at Danny for taking his anger out on me. Out of everyone in this house, I’d rather have his emotions focused on me than Bree or Sydney having to deal with it.

“Yeah,” she sighs. “I hate Rob for doing this to them.”

“I hate him for doing this to all three of you. He hurt you too, Syd. You can’t pretend you weren’t affected.”

“You’re right, but I'm old enough to realize it had nothing to do with me and everything to do with him liking to stick his dick in women he isn’t married to.” She rolls her eyes.

“What’s going on this week?” I steer the conversation towards safer topics. Though the kids aren’t paying attention to us, I don’t want them to overhear what Sydney is saying.

Sydney wants to pretend everything is great, but I can see the hurt in her eyes. She thinks she does a good job at hiding it and maybe it works for the kids, but not me. I see right through her.

“Why don’t you go out for the night? Do something just for you and let me take care of the kids.”

“What would I even do, Peck? I haven’t had a night to myself in over ten years. I don’t even have any friends to go out with,” she sighs again.

“Go to the bar and have a drink or two. Just get out of the house and start living again.” When she doesn’t seem like she’s going to take my advice, I add, “Rob would hate it.”

Sydney’s gaze snaps to mine and a slow smile spreads across her lips. She glances at the kids and I see the moment her hesitation sweeps over her again.

“They’ll be fine. I'm their uncle and a police officer. There’s no one better to care for them.”

“I know… it’s just hard. I don’t want them to think I'm going to walk away too.”

“They don’t think that. While you’re gone, I’ll try to have a talk with Danny. Someone needs to make him realize we’re not the enemy.”

“It’s fine. He’s working through things in his own way.”

“That doesn’t mean he can disrespect you or Bree.” I spin her around and give her a gentle shove. “Go. We’ll order some pizza and watch a movie.”

“Fine. I'm going!” She disappears into her room and comes out a few minutes later in a pair of jeans and a black sweater.

She says goodbye to the kids and a few minutes later, it’s just Danny, Bree, and me.

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