Page 117 of Sergeant O'
My stomach picked that moment to growl loud enough to make her laugh.
“Uh-huh. Sit. I’ll make you something.”
Before I could argue, she was already heading toward the kitchen.
“Coffee?”
“Please.”
She went to put Conor in his bouncy seat, but I reached for him, and she handed him off without hesitation.
“Hey, buddy. How’s my godson?” I cooed as I settled him in my lap so he faced me.
He looked up at me with a toothless grin that punched something deep in my chest.
“He’s a happy baby.”
Lainey poured coffee into a mug and set it in front of me with a smile. “He is.”
“I know you made a conscious effort to stay upbeat while you were pregnant. It must have worked.”
“I hope so.”
It would’ve been easy for her to fold after Shawn was killed, never knowing he had a baby on the way. Instead, she dug in, determined to make a life for her and their child.
I respected the hell out of her for that.
Conor held on to my fingers, and I commented, “He’s got a strong grip. He must get that from his godfather.”
She rolled her eyes with a grin as she cracked an egg in a bowl.
I smiled back, bounced him a little, and tried to sound casual. “Have you seen your sister lately?”
“Yesterday,” she said, not looking at me as she started whisking. “She’s not great.”
My chest tightened. “Oh?”
“She hadn’t gotten out of bed for two days before I went over there. I finally talked her into a shower.” Lainey cored a red pepper, then glanced at me. “So, what’s your plan?”
I looked up. “Plan?”
“Yeah. You’ve already done the damage. Now what are you going to do to fix it?”
I stared down at Conor, who was gnawing on my finger like it was a teething ring. “Honestly? I don’t know yet.”
“Well, you’d better figure it out,” she said as she diced the vegetable. “She’s humiliated. Everyone’s talking, and she thinks you let them.”
“I didn’t mean to. I just…” I rubbed the back of my neck. “She’s been through enough. I didn’t want her dragged through more gossip because of me.”
Lainey shot me a look as she scraped the peppers from the cutting board into the bowl. “She’s a big girl, Brian. She’s handled worse.”
I hung my head. “Yeah, I know,” I said quietly.
Lainey’s voice softened when she poured the mixture into the pan. “She didn’t need you to protect her, she needed you to stand next to her.”
“I see that now.”
“You should probably tell her that.”
