Page 75 of Dare to Dance
Kelton removed the cloth. Inside a Plexiglass container with holes on top was his iguana.
Raven hopped onto Kelton’s lap in a flash. “What’s his name?” She studied the reptile with fascination.
“Harry,” Kelton said.
“Again?” Kade and I asked in unison.
“Family joke?” Ms. Waters asked as she sat near us on a small child’s chair.
I laughed. “Every pet lizard Kelton had, he named him Harry.”
Raven tapped on the box. “Can you take him out of the box?”
“Maybe another time,” I said. With my luck, Harry would take off, much like the lizards Kelton had owned when we were kids. My mom or my sister would scream when Harry surprised them. I couldn’t risk Harry surprising someone during the bout tomorrow night. I glanced up at the door again, wondering where Ruby was. She must’ve left the gym. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have missed Raven for the world.
Kelton answered Raven’s questions about Harry while Kade and I watched the amazing interaction between my brother and my daughter. I’d never pegged Kelton for a daddy. He’d always been the lady’s man. He was going to be a great father whenever he and Lizzie had kids.
When Harry moved, Raven giggled as she jumped onto Kade’s lap. As though he was a natural with kids, his arms went around her, and tears surfaced in his eyes again. “He’s not getting out of that box,” he said as he tucked a stray hair behind Raven’s ear.
“Will you protect me if he does?” she asked.
“Always,” Kade responded.
Yeah, Kade would make an awesome dad one day as well.
A lull of silence grew among us as Kade, Kelton, and I exchanged grins.
Then Ms. Waters fired her own questions. “Kross, where do you live? Where do your parents live? Have you thought about finding a place to settle down?”
I’d talked to my parents about the boathouse my old man had converted into a man cave for us boys when we’d first moved to Ashford. Currently, Kody was staying in the man cave. He’d offered to move back into his old bedroom in the main house, at least until I found a place closer to Boston.
“My parents have a separate place behind their house that they’ve offered until I can make other arrangements.” Lizzie would have loved for Raven to live with us at the brownstone in Boston, and I would have loved that setup too. But according to Mr. Davenport, the judge wanted to see a family home environment, not one with roommates and parties. Not that we had parties.
Ms. Waters opened her mouth to speak when Penelope glided in with her gym bag on her shoulder. “Why is the gym closed?”
I guessed she had completely overlooked the sign on the main entrance that said we were closed.
Her green gaze narrowed in on Raven sitting in Kelton’s lap. “Kelton, you have a daughter?”
“No.” Kelton set the lizard down on the other side of his leg and grabbed some LEGOs. His tone was even, quiet, and not the cocky Kelton tone he normally used around Penelope. He wasn’t fond of her. He’d always thought Penelope was after the limelight I received for boxing and nothing else.
I pushed to my feet at her startled expression. “Can I talk to you outside?”
Once we were out in the gym area far away from the daycare room, I came unleashed. “Where have you been? Obviously, you’re okay. What happened to you?”
“Is the little girl yours? Because she doesn’t look like Kade.”
“She’s mine.”
Her eyebrows snapped up. “Since when?”
“It doesn’t matter.” I gripped her elbows. “Focus, please.”
“I’m fine. I was just drunk that night.”
I wasn’t about to argue that I hadn’t smelled alcohol on her. I had to stick with my own advice and get to the heart of the matter. “That night, you were babbling about a guy and Ruby.”
Her smooth forehead wrinkled. “Ruby? Guy?”
