Page 34 of Sometimes You Stay

Her mom shook her head. “You just had breakfast.”

The little girl’s face fell just like Joe’s had the day before when Finn sent him to his pillow, and Cretia would have given anything to slip the girl a few crackers. Except she didn’t have any snacks on hand. If she had, they would have magically made their way into those chubby little fists.

Not that Jessie was hungry. Cretia had just promised herself that she’d take every chance to say yes to a child, regardless of the actual need. It had been that way with the kids she’d nannied. So much so that their mom had had to tell her to stop giving them gummy bears before dinner. Twice.

It wasn’t easy to turn off that switch in her mind, to forget the times she’d been hungry as a child. She’d begged her mom for a blue box of macaroni and cheese and been told to make do with ketchup on crackers. She’d asked for orange soda after tasting it at a birthday party. Her mom had said simply, “No.”

For years Cretia had thought that was her mom’s favorite word. It was certainly the one she said most often. Until all Cretia wanted to do was say, “Yes.”

Stamping down the slew of emotions those memories surfaced, she turned back to Marie. “Thank you. Really. I know you weren’t expecting a guest this week. I’ll pay you for the room. For your hospitality. For your—”

“Don’t even think about it.”

Without looking up from her video, Julia Mae chimed in again. “Mama says not to argue with her. And Daddy says ’specially not when she uses that voice.”

“Julia Mae Sloan.” Marie’s barely stifled laughter took the legs out from under her reprimand.

The three-named child in question shrugged. “What? He did.” Then she went back to her cartoon as though completely unaware that she’d thrown her dad under the bus.

Rolling her eyes, Marie shook her head. “You know what? I didn’t know I needed another adult around here so much until you showed up. Seth is remodeling a house near St. Peter’s Bay this month, so you can stay as long as you like. And please make yourself at home. Whatever leftovers are in the fridge are fair game.”

Cretia was still smiling over that invitation as she reached Finn’s house. She was already staying longer than she would like. But at least she had a comfortable bed and a safe place to sleep. And maybe she didn’t mind being teased about going to see Finn.

She’d almost forgotten that feeling of knowing someone well enough to laugh and joke with them. Marie treated her like a lifelong friend. And Cretia didn’t have any of those anymore. Not that she’d ever had really close friends, except her high school boyfriend Carlos. It was hard to build friendships when she couldn’t invite anyone over, and her friends’ houses only served to remind her of what she didn’t have.

Like a bedroom that wasn’t filled to the ceiling with trashbags and stuffed animals. A kitchen free of rodent droppings. A parent who cared enough to give their kid ahome.

After the car accident when Cretia was nine, her mom had lived off disability assistance until Cretia was old enough to work. The government checks had barely been enough to cover the rent.

And thethings. The figurines and magazines. The Tupperware and unused workout clothes. The baby shoes and cardboard boxes. Cretia still didn’t know where it all had come from. Sometimes it seemed to multiply, showing up on their doorstep. Another pile on top of a pile. Always more.

Until there hadn’t been room to even breathe. Until she’d had to leave.

She eyed Finn’s house with a bit of caution, knowing she’d have to go back inside to use his computer but praying he was out in the barn again. It had been a little easier being inside his home with Joe by her side. And after a bit of goat therapy.

Without a phone, she had no idea what time it was, but maybe she’d made it in time for bottle feeding again.

The sliding barn door was closed, but she bypassed the house and strolled right up to it. A series of barks from the other side greeted her as she pushed it open just far enough to slip in. “Hello?”

She waited for Finn’s response, but the barking behind the chain-link fence only grew more frenzied, joined by a few bleats from the goats. Cretia stopped a few feet in as the cow stared her down. Again. She tried to offer a smile, but one big brown eye just looked on unblinking as the cow chewed her cud and stamped her front hoof a few times.

Maybe it was a warning. Maybe it was just an itch. Eitherway, Cretia took a circuitous route to the goat pen. The gate inside the barn was locked, but Finn must have opened the back door that morning for Jenna to trot out into the pasture. She didn’t even look up as she snacked on lush grass in the bright sunlight.

Sonny and Cher, however, jumped and pranced around their pen, not so eager to go outside. When Cretia leaned over the gate with an outstretched hand, they ran right up to her. Sonny’s ears were like silk, and he nuzzled into her hand as she ran her fingers over them. “You’re a good boy, aren’t you?”

“I like to think I am.”

Cretia jumped at the voice behind her, stumbling back a foot and falling right against a familiar form. Strong hands caught her shoulders, and Finn leaned around her to look into her face.

“Morning. I wasn’t expecting you to fall for me again today.”

Chuckling up at him, she pulled back just a bit, caught in his grip but trying to get a clearer picture of his face. Something had changed. She blinked to focus but couldn’t put her finger on it. He still had those bright blue eyes framed by full but not bushy eyebrows. If his nose had been a touch shorter, it would have been too small to balance his wide jaw and blunt chin.

Which she had never noticed before. Because they had been covered.

“You shaved your beard.”

The corner of his mouth ticked upward as he let her go and stepped back. “Very observant.”

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