Page 25 of Blade

“I win!” I yelled, giggling at the face Blade made.

“You’re a cheater, cheater candy eater,” he teased, poking my belly. I laughed and slapped my hands over the red pajamas I’d changed into that morning. I’d been in the back in the Boo-Boo Room for three days now and I thought I might get to leave soon.

“Cheater, cheater candy eater!” Tinsley parroted from the highchair of shame. She’d flipped the board one too many times while losing and Blade had strapped her in the chair so we could finish one game in peace.

“You’re a sore loser,” I teased him, “and you too, Tinsley.”

“I am not!” both Blade and Tinsley said at the same time, making the situation ever funnier.

“Well, when you come live with me, maybe you can teach me to be a better loser,” Blade said, putting the pieces back in the box.

“Bladdde,” I whined.

“You can’t blame a man for trying.”

What he wastryingto do was convince me to move in with him. It was so fucking tempting, don’t get me wrong. I just was a little hesitant about it. I wasn’t naive. I knew Blade was nothing like Billy. I knew what genuine love looked like, or at least I thought I did, but it was just a scary move and so many things had already changed so quickly for me. Rogue had told me I was also welcome at her house, but I knew she and her Daddy had just moved in together and I didn’t want to mess up their time together. Elliot, Tyler, and Tinsley had told me the same thing, but I was pretty sure I was going to go back to the shelter.

“Rogue!” Tinsley exclaimed, making Blade and me look up.

Rogue stood at the door and laughed. “Were you being naughty?” she asked, walking over to Tinsley and unstrapping her from the chair.

“Yas,” Tinsley answered with a small shug.

Rogue helped her down. “Your Daddy and Papa need you upstairs.”

“Okay!” she squealed before racing up the stairs.

“Be careful!” Blade yelled. “Use your walking feet!”

“Is everything okay?” I asked. Rogue looked kind of nervous and she’d come in so quietly that we hadn’t even heard her.

“I have someone here who wants to see you and I hope that it’s okay that I brought them,” she said, wringing her hands together.

“O-okay?” My tummy did flip-flops as I waited—not the happy kind of flip-flops Blade gave me, but the nervous kind.

Rogue nodded, kinda looking like she was hyping herself up and walked across the room to open the outside door.

Blade sat on the bed and wrapped his arm around me, like he was shielding me from whoever was coming inside.

“Allyson?” I questioned, recognizing my friend from the shelter when she walked in. Why wasn’t she at the shelter? Was something wrong?

“Eloise, I’ve been so worried about you!” she said, stepping into the room.

“Y-you have?”Why would she be worried about me?

“Yes, we all were!”

All?

***

Blade

I knew we’d taken care of the threats that had hurt my baby, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t guarded about who was coming into her space.

“Allyson?”

Allyson?

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