Page 46 of Mistaken Identity
“Ta da!” Lottie screamed just before Webber came back shoving his phone into his pocket. “Parker, his uncle, is heading here now.” He looked at the father and daughter pulling out all of his petunias that his wife had planted not too long ago and said, “What’s our next step?”
“Wish I knew,” Audric admitted. “There’s going to be a lot of paperwork. We also have to do a lot of visitations. I’m not even sure that he wants her to stay with…”
“Yes.”
We all looked over to see Gunner standing there, looking very serious, with a look of determination on his face.
“I’m not going to say that I won’t take a few missteps, but I want to do this.” His voice cracked. “Fuck, I don’t even own a car.”
Webber snorted. “That’s the easiest fuckin’ thing to fix at this point.”
Gunner ran a hand through his unruly, curly hair.
“You know,” I drawled. “You’re going to have to learn how to put product in your daughter’s hair. You can’t let it go all crazy like you do yours.”
Gunner opened his mouth, then closed it. “What kind of product?”
“Well, that might be the one thing I can truly help you with, with a hundred percent confidence.” I clapped.
Tiny, toddler clapping followed my clapping, and I looked down to see her holding up some petunias, roots and all. “Oh, thank you, Lottie.”
“’Elcom!” she cheered as she went back for more.
“Fuck,” Gunner said. “This fucking hurts.”
Gunner shook his head before saying, “I need to go. I’m not going to go far. I just need a few minutes…can you watch her?”
Audric smiled. “Been watching over her for you for two years, my man. Though, you and I didn’t know it.”
Gunner’s smile was brittle as he disappeared around the corner of the house.
“We’re going to make this work,” Webber said. “How do you feel about a new roommate?”
“I think I don’t have room for a new roommate.” Audric chuckled. “But I don’t see why we couldn’t move into Gunner’s place for a while. That’s where she’ll end up eventually, anyway.”
The sadness in his voice hurt my heart, and I couldn’t stop myself from patting his forearm.
This was going to royally suck for him, but he would survive.
The man I knew Audric to be, he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Eleven
I hate when somebody makes me be mean, and I had a pocket full of sunshine before that.
—Audric to Creole
AUDRIC
“You okay?” Gunner asked, looking at me worriedly.
“I’m fine, I promise,” I said. “Now, stop treating me like a little girl and go to bed. I’ve slept in worse places.”
Gunner, though he had a very large house, he didn’t have furniture to fill his large space.
Him having no furniture made it quite easy to babyproof his place.
Though, Parker, Gunner’s uncle, had brought his wife and she’d made absolutely sure that she could run free in Gunner’s house and not come to harm.
