Page 43 of Say You'll Stay

“I know you won’t hurt me. My instincts haven’t caught up yet in certain situations, but the rest of me knows.”

“I won’t do that again.” He lowers down next to her, their knees brushing. “Thought I was helping, but you don’t need to wonder if I’m about to do something weird.”

“I’m not afraid of you,” her knee bops his and her voice turns sweet. “You can grab me all you want.”

She’s doing that thing again that looks like flirting, but probably isn’t. He ducks his head, mumbling a curse that makes her laugh before the baby cries from her spot on the sofa, breaking the tension with an unsolicited comment.

“One day you’ll learn, too,” Olivia scoops her up to push a soft kiss to a rosy cheek. “We’ll teach you to be brave.”

We. She’s used that word before and every time it strikes a balance of fear and hope in his gut. They are sticking together, that much is certain, but years from now, who knows where they’ll be.

Maybe she’s feeling some sort of way about that word, too, because she changes the topic, saying they should check what Andrew from the care home put in the bag and dragging it from a corner, revealing far more supplies than he expected.

Towels, blankets, and a fresh first aid kit. Energy bars and those nutrition shakes he used to see in commercials.

“They were loaded if they could spare all this.” He watches Olivia pull out a small disposable camera that they could never hope to develop.

She snaps a quick photo of Lucy. “Who do you think put this in there?”

“One of the residents? They have a lotta stuff in their rooms and no use for it now.”

He leaves out his first-hand experience of how generous they were. The evidence of that still burns a hole in his pocket in the form of an unnecessary condom.

“Hmm. Maybe. Don’t know when we’ll ever be able to see these photos, but it’s nice to have a way to take them. She’s growing so fast. Soon all I’ll have are memories of how little she is.”

She hands him the baby, and just like that, the camera clicks before he can react, making him the unwilling subject of a photo.

“Oh, come on,” he groans. “Don’t do that.”

She smirks. “You didn’t think you were getting out of this, did you?”

“I was hoping.”

“Nope. And there’s more where that came from.”

His lips form a thin, unamused line. “Great. Okay, gimme that thing.”

He trades the baby for the camera. Olivia’s a natural in front of it, posing with Lucy for the best photo he’s ever taken in his entire life. Flower’s ears pop up behind Olivia’s shoulder as he hits the shutter button, and she laughs, her face transforming into the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.

That’s everything he cares about right there in that picture. He loves his best friend, wouldn’t ever say that to Wade’s face even if it’s true, but that isn’t tangible anymore. Olivia and Lucy are. They’re what’s keeping him going now and he can’t help but feel that surge of affection he’s been trying to squash triple and amplify.

They were someone else’s family when he found them. Someone who didn’t deserve or appreciate what he had, and now Cole would give anything to make them both his.

Chapter 12

Lucy won’t stop crying.

She’s been relatively quiet since birth, but now she uses every opportunity to let them know she’s unhappy and can’t explain why.

It’s taken its toll on Olivia no matter how often she reminds herself that it’s normal. Lucy is changing and growing, and her easygoing nature doesn’t guarantee that she’ll always be that way. It’s still difficult to accept after hours of wailing.

“Something could be wrong,” she says, repeating the same complaint she’s voiced a hundred times. “She could be sick. We don’t have a doctor. She looks okay though, right? Can you see a difference? What do you think?”

Cole hovers nearby while she paces the room with a screaming baby on her shoulder. Even Flower has gone into hiding in one of the closets, preferring to bury herself in a pile of clothes than listen to the noise.

Olivia hasn’t slept much in the last week. Her eyes droop and her skin runs hot in a telltale side effect of being overtired. Her stomach growls, but stress keeps her from eating, and not even Cole’s attempts at reassurance have worked. Lucy passes out from exhaustion but wakes quickly. When the baby’s up, everyone’s up.

“She’s not sick,” he says confidently, as if he knows, which he can’t. “There’s no fever.”

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