Page 23 of Against the Clock

I walked over and stood next to Roman, folding my arms over my chest.

He turned his head for a split second, noticing I was there, before turning his attention back to Rosie.

“Okay, how about a break,” he said nervously, and I knew he was trying to gauge my reaction.

Rosie spun around, a frown on her face that quickly changed when she saw me.

“Mom!”She ran over and wrapped her arms around me, almost knocking me over.“Did you see me?!”

“I did,” I laughed, her excitement enough to make me feel silly.

“He was showing some guy how to hit the bag, and I really wanted to try it.He said no, but then I asked Uncle Mike, and he said yes.”

I raised my brows at Mike, who just shrugged.

“Then Trevor jumped in and helped me get the gloves on, and his friend Max came by, and he gave me some pointers too.”

“It looks like you’re a very lucky little girl who has a whole army of superheroes to protect you,” I said quietly, pulling her into me for another hug.

“They talked to us at school today about what to do if someone tries to take you, but I think that if anyone ever tried to take me, I would just hit them instead.”

My heart skipped a beat, and I could feel the heat of everyone’s eyes on me.

“Well, let’s hope that never happens.Now, go get ready so we can go home and give Roman a break.”

“Can we stay the night with him again?”Rosie asked as she pulled her gloves off.

My eyes flew open as I whipped my head around to Mike.There wasno waythat this was going to go over well.I had planned on telling him about it soon; there just hadn’t been time.

“Relax, I already know,” Mike said, holding his hand up to stop the trainwreck of thoughts pulsing through my head.

“You know?”I looked to Roman, begging for more clarity.Did Mike know about us staying there and nothing else, or did he know about everything else?

“We talked, and there’s something that you need to know,” Roman said, lowering his voice as he stepped closer.Trevor and Max—I guess were their names—helped Rosie put her gloves away before taking her back to Roman’s office to get her backpack.

“What’s up?”I asked a little too nervously as I looked between Mike and Roman.

“Remember the hat we saw in the photo from your mom’s house?”Roman asked.

“Yeah,” I said slowly.I had a bad feeling about whatever they were about to drop on me.“What about it?”

“It’s mine,” Mike said with a tight smile.

I pulled my head back in confusion.

“It’s your hat?You’ve been stalking Rosie?”

“No,” he blew out and rolled his eyes.“But my hat used to be in my office, and I haven’t been able to find it for almost a week.”

“How do you know it was yours?”

“Because there was a stain on the side from Rosie’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich.She was so upset about it and didn’t want me to find it, so she got the scissors and tried to cut it off.”

“Oh my god,” I laughed.“I remember that!”

Roman pulled out his phone and zoomed in on the picture.

“See right there,” Mike said as he pointed to it.“That’s where it was cut.”

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