Page 191 of American Hellhound
“Good morning,” Holly said.
Kristin slowly resumed slicing red bell pepper.
“I thought we’d make a few breakfast casseroles, since we have a crowd,” Holly said. When Maggie walked toward the stove: “Oh, I didn’t mean to drag you into cooking. I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s alright. I’d rather be busy.” She nicked a bacon slice off the plate by the stove and polished it off in three quick bites, swallowing a surge of nausea. “What can I do?”
She wound up tearing a loaf of challah bread into chunks and distributing it between three casserole dishes while the girls put together the veggies, bacon, and egg mixture to pour into them.
Emmie joined them, and then Sam, and then Whitney.
When Ava came in to set Pillsbury cinnamon rolls on a baking sheet, she said, “Yeah, so I sort of wrangled Littlejohn into babysitting…allof the kids.”
The kitchen became a too-hot vat of savory and sweet smells, body heat, and an oppressive amount of oven heat. Laughing, familiar voices kicked back and forth, sisterly banter.
It was normally one of Maggie’s favorite scenes, all her girls together in one place, safe and sound, ribbing one another. But today, with all the heat, dizziness got the best of her. She was about to duck out for a breather when she saw Kristin beat her to the punch, slipping out of the room and around the corner.
Well.
Maggie grabbed a ginger ale from the fridge – Ava shot her a knowing, suddenly-sympathetic look; she wasn’t sure she was going to get used to that expression coming from her daughter – and followed the new girl.
She found her standing halfway down the hall, back pressed to the wall, head bent, hands clasped together over the back of her neck. Maggie could hear her breathing from a few feet away, a ragged gasping through her mouth. The picture of simmering panic finally boiling over.
Maggie popped the tab on her ginger ale, and theclick-fizzalerted Kristin to her presence.
Her head lifted, eyes wide and wild.
“It’s alright,” Maggie said. “I won’t come over there. Just needed some air.”
The girl stared at her a long, unblinking moment. A fox caught in a trap. A deer scenting for predators at the water’s edge.
Maggie made a show of slumping sideways against the wall, sipping her drink. “I love my girls,” she said, conversationally, “but this whole being pregnant after forty thing is kicking my ass.”
Kristin’s brows jumped, betraying a hint of interest. Her gaze shifted to Maggie’s stomach, looking for a bump that wasn’t yet there.
Maggie put her hand there anyway, self-conscious suddenly. “Yeah, I’m an idiot,” she said, surprising herself.
In the past weeks, she’d alternated between furious excitement, and something like dread when she thought about the baby. But she hadn’t had a chance to trulydigestthe idea. She and Ghost hadn’t had time alone in which they hadn’t been exhausted, or restless, or plotting what to do about this new threat. They hadn’t truly talked about becoming parents all over again. She hadn’t been intimate with him, the way she’d craved the first time around, when she was pregnant with Ava.
She didn’t wish that she wasn’t pregnant – didn’t resent the baby – but right now, yes, she felt stupid. She hadn’t expected that.
“You’re being careful?” she asked. “With Roman? Condoms? Pills?”
Kristin visibly startled. “Oh. We’re. We’re not…”
Another surprise.
“You’re not?” Then: “Shit, I don’t mean to pry. I just assumed.”
Kristin looked away, blinking hard. She whispered, “He’s nice to me.”
Maggie didn’t know what to say.Nicehad never been a word she’d associated with Roman Mayer. To think that he had rescued a pretty girl from a life of torture, and that he hadn’t taken advantage – it painted him in a new light. Made her less certain of his machinations. If any existed.
Purposeful footfalls announced someone before Ghost came around the corner and found them.
Kristin went stiff again.
“Hi, baby.” Maggie pressed a fast kiss to her husband’s cheek and steered him back the way he’d come, down the opposite hall toward the back door: toward privacy, and away from scared girls who looked like cornered prey animals.
