Page 3 of Ward
Fuck, that voice. My feet drag my body into the kitchen to clean up the mess now. It’s good distraction while I talk to her.
I give her the brief backstory and ask for the favor. When she answers “yes,” the deal is done. I’ll be at her house in about thirty minutes to drop off Laney, precious, wild-ass Laney…with awitch.
“I’m actually really good with kids,” Yvette chimes into the phone, as if she can read my thoughts. Hopefully she can’t, but I wouldn’t put it past her.
“It’ll just be for a couple of hours.”
“However long you need is fine. Oh, I’m excited!”
“Fantastic. Thanks.” I hang up and peer over at Laney, who’s bouncing on her bottom and grinning.
“Uh oh,” she says, but she didn’t drop anything this time.
“Big uh oh.” It’s not just that Yvette is “witchy” and nutty or that we get called out to her house likeevery fuckin’ other shift, which is the reason I even know her.
Truth is, like Hearth, I can’t help the feelingIget whenever I’m around Yvette, either. I’d never use Hearth’s words to describe that feeling. My words aren’t safe, comfortable, or seen, not even close. My words are irritated, horny, and… Actually that’s it. Just those two.
Irritated and horny is how Yvette makes me feel.
Two
Yvette
There is nothing quite like the simple joy of bubbles! Every time I blow a few, Laney squeals with this excessive, contagious laughter. Occasionally they come out really big, delighting us both as they hobble and float. The way her blue eyes grow big and bright as she follows them across the room, all the while refracting all the rainbow colors.
It’s magical!
For a moment, watching Laney interact with the bubbles whisks my thoughts right away from Ward and the fact he was standingright therewith that lingering look and those big arms, the grin in his voice that always sends heat straight down my spine. I can still scent traces of his woodsy cologne if I really focus in on it.
Which is exactly what I amnotdoing. But gosh, Ward is a whole thing. He’s amanman. He can literally juststand thereand be radiating some raw magnetism that makes my skin go hot. And this time, I can’t blame it on any fires.
“Bubbo!” Laney chimes, snapping me from my daze. She’s a spitfire, this one. I can get away withnothingaround her—not even daydreaming about devastatingly handsome Ward with his chiseled jaw and his ridiculously meaty shoulders.
I blow out the biggest breath I can muster this time, and the bubbles are insane. Laney bursts with glee. This is why I told Ward to take all the time he needs. I could just stay here with Laney all day. I’m tempted to do a live because she’s just so darn cute, but I’d never dare put another person’s baby on the internet without their permission.
“Last one!” As I blow, my phone rings with a call from Ditra, my best friend from back home in Texas.
“Pone!” Laney singsongs.
“Yes! Pone, phone. Either one works!” I answer the call. “Ditra! Oh you have got to say hi to this cutie pie—”
Ditra’s loud cry stops me in my tracks.
“Ditra? Honey, what’s wrong?”
She’s crying so hard it’s difficult to make out all of her words. But I catch enough of them to know what she’s saying. “Daddy. He’s gone. He’s gone, Yv.”
Her dad, Papa Donovan? Oh no.No, no. He was so much like a dad to me, too. My throat squeezes tight around the sobs that I want to let out, but I can’t. I don’t want to stress out Laney, who won’t understand, or make things harder for Ditra. She doesn’t need my crying, she needs to cryto me. It’s so hard to control the emotions that are ransacking through my entire body.
“Uh oh!”
“Wait, who’s that in the background? Did you have a baby and not tell me?”
“I would never. That’s Laney, I’m watching her for a bit for Ward, who was watching her for Hearth, who’s on her babymoon—”
“Ward,” Ditra repeats the one word she apparently caught from all that. “You mean like,Ward, Ward?”
I swallow the lump in my throat that’s present now for another reason. “Yes,theWard.”
