Page 65 of Unexpected Love
Maybe this is just a bad dream, a blip on the radar. Maybe there’s some kind of mistake. Surely, Cal filed the proper permits. He would know to do that, right?
And giving him the benefit of the doubt means that there’s something else going on. Some failure or inadequacy in the system.
Whatever it is feels a lot like defeat and has me beginning to wonder if this whole town is out to get me and prevent me from opening my shop.
Chapter 27
Jules
Charlie screams and bucks, arching her back and kicking at the seat, as I try to wrestle her into her car seat. From the way she’s acting, you’d think that it’s a torture device I’m strapping her to.
“Charlie.” I seek the dregs of my patience and say her name in a low voice while fighting both her and the diaper bag that’s slipping off my shoulder. Charlie doubles down on her efforts. The diaper bag falls, and she bangs her head on the car and manages to slap me in the face at the same time.
“Cool it, kid,” I bark, clamping my arms tightly around her so she can’t move. She immediately quiets, her eyes going wide and round, her little lips downturned at the corner.
I’ve never disciplined this child. Never really had to. Usually, we redirect and go with the flow. But my patience is at an end.
Charlie goes limp as a rag doll.Great. Now I’ve scared her.
Maggie was completely wrong. I will never be a good mother because I can’t handle shit.
Once Charlie’s buckled in, I step back and take a deep breath. What a shitty way to start our evening together. My ire drains away as I look at her sweet little face. She’s a toddler, and she’s just reacting to my mood. She doesn’t deserve my frustration.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. Juju has had a hard day. I’m frustrated,” I say, smoothing a hand over her perfect chubby cheek before leaning in to kiss her pert little nose.
She surprises me by taking both of my cheeks in her hands and gazing into my eyes. It’s a sucker punch right in the heart.
“You learned that from Uncle Cal, didn’t you?”
“Unka,” she chirps.
“Uncle Cal is working. It’s a girls’ night tonight.”
“Unka,” she repeats.
I load the rest of Charlie’s gear into the car while she keeps saying “Unka” over and over again.
“I guess it wouldn’t hurt if we stop by the station and see him on our way home.”
This feels new. Kind of forbidden.
I’ve never been to his station, though I know the one he works at. Drive by it all the time when I head to Newman. Mind made up for reasons I don’t want to explore, I point the car in the right direction, and in no time at all, I’m pulling into the drive.
Charlie is wide-eyed in the back seat, pointing at a bright red fire engine that’s parked on the concrete pad outside of the open bay doors. “Wee-woo.”
“That’s right. A firetruck says wee-woo.”
Cal emerges from the open bay door, grinning at someone over his shoulder. He’s sexy as all hell in hisuniform, wearing a fire dept. baseball cap, something I’ve never seen him wear. Concern takes over his expression when he recognizes my car. In a few long strides, he’s at my door.
“What’s wrong?”
I’m slightly taken aback. “Nothing. We just stopped to see you on the way home.”
His shoulders relax, and he bends to kiss me. A brief press of his lips to mine. But it does the job and settles me like nothing else had since that horrible phone call earlier.
He moves to Charlie’s door and takes her out of the car seat, and I shake my head at how accommodating she is for him, pointing at the engine and being all sweet. Cal holds her perched on an arm, and he extends the other to me, taking my hand and leading us to the engine.
“She’s got you wrapped around that little finger, doesn’t she,” I observe as he indulges her in anything she shows a tiny bit of interest in.
