Page 11 of Mended Hearts

Leighton was futilely trying to lift her chin, curling in on herself in an oversizedBombershoodie.

Those gray-blue eyes were red-rimmed like she’d been crying, and my heart sank.

Suddenly, I was back on the bank of the bay they’d miraculously made it out of after hurdling off the bridge—holding her and Mattie in my arms as we all fucking cried in relief and terror and grief.

Nothing prepares you for that kind of horror.

Before I’d even processed closing the gap, I had, and she crumpled into my open arms.

“Hey, Trouble,” I breathed against her hair, trying very hard not to catalog every note of citrus, or the way her warmth collapsed against my body in a kind of surrender. “What’s going on?”

“Shitty day,” she squeaked into my shirt.

“I see that,” I said, snorting when she jabbed a finger between my ribs.

That was about as long as I could hang onto her before my dick would demand to make his feelings known, so rather than risking beingthatcreep, I unspooled us and motioned her toward the house.

Twenty-three.

She wastwenty-threeand fuckingcrying.

There was no universe where this woman wanted to be saluted by an erection right now. Certainly not mine.

“Come eat.”

“I’m past my calorie count, too.”

“Bullshit,” I scoffed. “Get your ass inside and eat some pizza. Mattie and Beau are picking Halloween costumes.”

“Halloween,” she repeated vacantly.

“Ghosts, goblins, and ghouls. Trick-or-treat. Devil’s Night.You know.”

Finally, she snapped her eyes to mine in an accusatory glare.

“Yes, I know what Halloween is, thank you very much,” she said before marching inside, leaving me to follow.

There she is.

I smiled to myself.

This clearly wasn’t ‘I damaged my spinal column in the accident’ bad.

It was just regular bad.

Everyday issues I could work with.

Hell, spinning them was kind of my thing.

I pretended I didn’t hear her work to clear her throat as she kicked off her shoes, then hollered,“I hear there are two ghouls in this house?”

Smirking as she hustled around the corner to the thunderous rumble of two pairs of tiny feet, I bent down and snatched her shoes off the ground, placing them neatly beside mine on the shoe rack by the door.

My ears strained but could only catch snippets of the kids’ elated chatter as they filled her in on what I was sure was every single moment of their day.

Whether or not she knew it, Leighton filled a hole in their lives.

A gaping chasm left behind by their narcissistic mother.

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