Page 22 of Mine To Keep (Southern Wedding)

“Caine,” Loren says my name softly, and I should take a second and ask what is going on, but my heart is beating out of my chest for two reasons. One, my daughter is in the arms of a woman she doesn’t even know. Second, she’s in a woman’s arms, and she’s never been in anyone’s arms but mine.

The babysitter sure as fuck doesn’t sit down and cuddle her. Not even my mother has cuddled her the way she is, making me feel things I shouldn’t. “I don’t feel good,” Meadow says right before she projectile vomits all over Grace, who sits there, not doing anything. As if having my kid vomit on her is just another part of her day. The woman has weaseled her way into my life, and now she has my child sitting on her lap.

“Oh my God,” Loren gasps, putting her hand on her mouth while I rush to grab Meadow away from Grace.

I pluck her off Grace. “Give me my daughter,” I hiss at her before turning and rushing her into my private bathroom. “Are you okay, honey?”

“I don’t feel good,” she repeats as I walk over and turn on the water in the sink, putting her down on her feet.

“Are you going to throw up again?” I ask, wetting a washcloth with the water before I wipe her mouth. She shakes her head as I wet another one to wash her face. “You feel a little warm,” I tell her. “Did they give you some medicine at school?”

“No,” she mumbles as I squat in front of her. She walks into my open legs and lays her head on my chest. “I’m thirsty.”

“Okay, baby,” I soothe, getting up and walking out of the room. I don’t know why, but my eyes scan the room to see if Grace is still here. She’s not, though. She is nowhere to be found. On the other hand, Loren is there, and she’s spraying some mist in the room.

“Oh, hey,” she says when she turns around. “How is Meadow?”

“She’s thirsty,” I state, putting my hand in my pocket as Loren walks over to the brown bag on my desk.

“I have something.” She opens the bag. “There is Gatorade, some ginger ale, a couple of juice boxes.” The minute she says that I look down at the floor.

“I want juice,” Meadow declares, and Loren just looks at me, and I nod.

“We’ll sit for a bit to drink the juice and see if you’re okay,” I tell Meadow as she walks over to the couch where she was just sitting with Grace. I can’t help but picture them again, and my hands get tight when I do.

Meadow gets on the couch and holds out her hands for the juice. Loren smiles at her, handing it to her. “Careful,” Loren cautions, “don’t squeeze it, or else it’ll spill all over you.”

“Okay,” she says softly, grabbing the juice.

“Can you explain to me why my daughter is here?” I ask quietly.

“The daycare called, said they tried to call you many times, but you didn’t answer,” she explains, her voice low. I pull out my phone from my pocket, seeing I have five missed calls from the daycare and one missed call from Nash.

“There was no signal in that building,” I say. “For security purposes, we had to hand over all cell phones.”

“She left as soon as she got the call and got here maybe a couple of minutes before you did. She had this delivered while she went to get her,” Loren continues with her voice low. “I sent her home.”

“Yeah,” I say, without saying one more word. I’m going to address this in the morning when I’ve calmed down a bit. “We’ll talk in the morning.” I walk over to Meadow. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah.” She holds up the juice box for me and gets down. “Daddy.” She looks up at me. “My bunny.”

“Where is it?” I ask, looking around.

“I had it in the fairy girl’s car,” she says softly.

“We can get you another one.” I squat down in front of her. “We’ll order you another one.”

“But, Daddy,” she whines.

“Here.” I look over my shoulder and see Grace walking into the room. She must have changed her top because she’s wearing a big white T-shirt. She doesn’t even look at me. “I found this in the car and thought you would want her back.” She talks just to Meadow, who squeals and smiles.

“My bunny!” She grabs it from Grace’s hand and brings it to her chest, hugging it. “Thank you,” she says, and Grace just smiles.

I can see her eyes are red and so is the tip of her nose, and it looks like she was crying. “You are so welcome.” She tries to put on a brave face, but I can see the sadness in her eyes. She turns right away, avoiding looking at anyone in my office as she walks out with her head down.

“Caine,” Loren admonishes, and I just shake my head, scooping Meadow into my arms. “Here, take this,” Loren suggests, grabbing the bag. “There is also some chicken soup and saltines in there.” I grab the bag from her. “Grace ordered it before she left to go get her at daycare.” I feel like someone just kicked me in the balls wearing spiked shoes.

I walk out of my office. I’m not even out of the parking lot before my phone rings, and I see it’s Nash. I answer it reluctantly. “Caine.”

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