Page 88 of At the Edge of Surrender

But we had more important things we needed to be dealing with right then than the insane reaction she created in me.

I cleared the clog of lust from my throat and turned toward my daughter.

My daughter who was standing in the doorway, grinning from ear to ear, wearing another one of those sundresses, her blonde hair done in these little messy pigtails on each side of her head.

My daughter didn’t even know who I was. But if she needed to think of me as herbest friendfor a while, that was just fine.

“Five bedrooms.”

Four on this side of the hall and the primary that was on the opposite side.

“Five?” Her little eyebrows lifted for the sky, then she was peering around me at Emery who was trying to control the hammering of her heart.

I could feel it. The erratic thrum that pounded through the air and bashed against the walls.

A fuckin’ match to mine.

“Told you it was a princess house, Auntie Em. Did you even see my room? It’s gotmagic!” She whipped her hand overhead and twirled a circle like she was casting a wish with a wand. “You gotta come see it.”

With a shaky nod, Emery seemed to suck all her reservations down and stepped forward, woman peeking over at me for a beat as she wound around me.

So damned obvious as she took that extra wide berth.

She seemed to straighten out once she accepted Maci’s extended hand and followed her out.

There was nothing I could do but tag along.

Keeping back and leaning a shoulder on the doorjamb as Maci turned around to face Emery and dragged her into her room with both hands.

“Look it, Auntie! I got a very special room just like my very special bag.”

Emery released a shallow wheeze as she took it in.

The walls were painted blush pink and accented in sage green, the molding done in a glittering gold. A white, wood-framed bed was on the far wall and a circular canopy with sheer blush curtains draped from the ceiling and down to the floor around it.

The canopy was decorated with twinkling star lights and little sprigs of green branches.

Bedding and rug to match.

“How?” Emery muttered from where she stood gaping.

“Had a little help from my family.” Wasn’t even sure if she was asking me, but I was giving her the answer, anyway.

When I’d sent out a text last night telling everyone that my little girl was coming to live with me, along with her aunt who’d be stayinghere for four weeks, Raven had immediately responded, asking what she could do.

She, Charleigh, and Otto had shown to help. River had stayed back at their place since Nolan was asleep, and Theo had business at The Sanctuary, the motel that we used as a temporary holding spot for the families we were trying to get to safety.

And Cash…well, I hadn’t exactly expected him to show.

The four of us had spent the better part of the night painting.

We’d lucked out that Raven had a connection with the owner of this upscale interior design shop downtown. She was able to get in there early this morning before opening and picked up bedding for both rooms, and she’d used her mad decorating skills to bring it all together, fashioning that canopy herself.

Plus, she and Charleigh had just come back and left right before Emery and Maci had gotten here to drop off a bunch of new clothes and different things she thought they may need, working their magic together to make sure both Maci and Emery were comfortable at my place.

Truly, it had blown me away.

The care this family had.

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