Page 6 of Moonlight Feels Right
"Not if it reminds you of your friend. You should probably put it away, though, because I suspect Olivia will want to play with it again."
"If it makes her feel more comfortable, then I'm fine with it."
"I didn't realize you were Olivia's godfather."
He shrugged, as if that fact baffled him, too. "I'm not sure why they asked me to do it, but I couldn't say no. Gary and I met ten years ago, when we were twenty-four years old. We spent the last ten years flying together." He paused. "I still remember the night Olivia was born. She came two weeks early, and Gary was stuck with me on the other side of the world. We stayed up all night, waiting for word. I'd never seen him so nervous in my life. Bree and Olivia were everything to him. He should be here now, but he died in the crash that injured me."
"I'm sorry." She knew her words were meaningless, but she still felt the need to say them.
"So am I. You probably want to ask about the crash, about why Olivia is here," he said with a resigned sigh.
"I don't want to pry."
"We were flying a humanitarian mission in northern Africa, in a remote area that had been cut off by relentless fighting for more than three months. They needed food and water. There weren't supposed to be any enemy combatants in the area. That turned out to be false. We were hit by fire and crashed. I was the captain on that flight. And my best friend died."
The heavy guilt in his eyes touched her heart. "That's awful."
"The point is I owe Gary, and I should have checked on Bree and Olivia months ago, but I wasn't in a good place, mentally or physically. So, I need to step up now and take care of Liv. I just don't really know what to do."
His humble candor was surprising, but she didn't comment. Sympathy wouldn't help, but action would. "Okay, this is what we're going to do. We need to figure out what Olivia brought with her and what she's going to need for school tomorrow." She'd no sooner made that statement when Olivia came out of the bathroom and ran to her pink suitcase. She sat on the floor and unzipped the bag, pulling out three small stuffed animals.
As Olivia played with her stuffies, Emmalyn couldn't help but notice the file folder sitting on a small pile of clothes. She pulled it out and handed it to Hunter.
Then she said to Livvy, "Let's see what else you brought." She found enough clothes for three to four days as well as a hygiene kit and several well-worn books. But no backpack, no lunchbox. "You need to go to the store," she said, glancing back at Hunter, who was staring at whatever was in that file folder.
Since Livvy was distracted by her animals, she walked back to Hunter. "Did her mother give you any more information?"
"Bree enrolled her in school. She left me her medical records." He shook his head in bemusement. "But nothing about where she is now and when she's coming back."
"She also didn't leave her with a backpack or a lunchbox, which she's going to need for school."
Hunter didn't act like he'd heard her. He was still staring at the note Bree had left for him.
"I'm going to check the bedroom," she said, sensing he needed a minute to regroup.
Olivia followed her into the bedroom.
"Do I have to sleep in here?" Livvy asked with concern. "It's cold."
She could see why Olivia was distressed by the room, which was as empty as the living room. There was a dresser to go with the bed and the nightstand, but no other personal items.
"I'm going to see if Hunter has some clean sheets for the bed, and then I'll make it up for you," she said as Olivia dumped her stuffies on the floor by the window, as if she was desperate to stay in the small beam of light streaming through the blinds.
She walked back into the living room. Hunter was still standing in the middle of the room, staring at the file folder, desperate to find some answer that wasn't there. "Do you have clean sheets I can put on the bed?"
He started, then frowned. "No. I'll have to wash the ones that are on the bed."
"Or you could buy sheets appropriate for a six-year-old when you pick up the lunchbox and backpack at the store."
"She needs special sheets?" he asked in bewilderment.
"Well, she doesn't need them, but anything we can do to make the bedroom feel warmer and more welcoming would be good." She paused. "Should we talk about food? If you want to go to the store, I can watch Olivia for you. Or we can all go together."
"I don't see how I'm going to do this," he mumbled.
"You're going to do it because you have to. Her mother must have thought you could handle it, or she wouldn't have left her with you," she said, although she had as many doubts about that choice as he did.
"Bree was desperate. I don't think she thought this through. She was living with her parents, but I guess that situation fell apart. She needs to find a job and a place to live. She's also still trying to come to terms with Gary being gone."
