“No. I told you to buy her clothes. Did you buy her clothes?”
Yes. Yes, I did. I bought her a lot of stuff that was on sale. Even on sale they were not cheap, but I managed to get her a full closet and accessories with five hundred dollars, my heart crying out when I saw the total.
Rain wanted to kill me halfway through my bargain hunt in the place, her mutterings about her little angel needing more falling on the deaf ears of a seasoned bargain shopper.
“Yes, smart ass, I bought her a lot of clothes and pajamas and even this cute little tutu and wings. She’s clothed. I just don’t see why I have to spend so much money on stuff when she’ll be playing in the mud most of the time. She’s two, Lynx.”
“Whatever. You, woman, are nuts. You think she enjoys wearing cotton blends and nylon just because she’s two?”
Why the nerve.
“No, but I don’t see why I should dress her in silk to play in the garden. I can’t wash that out, Lynx, and it gives me hives thinking about Tammy ruining all those clothes when she doesn’t know the difference between cotton and freaking silk from the worms of a thousand dead…whatever! It’s just weird.”
“Whatever. We’re going shopping at five when I get back from work. By the way, where’s your car?”
Oh, ground, open now, I plead when he keeps eyeing me and waiting for an answer. I do not want to admit it got impounded because I ran out of gas in the parking lot and had to leave it.
“Teeny, what happened to your car?” he asks again, this time saying the words super slow as if I’m challenged.
I mumble an answer and muffle a scream of annoyance when he makes me repeat it.
“It got towed.”
“Why?”
I try to mumble again, and he’s in my face, hands planted on the table before I can finish.
“Okay! I ran out of gas on the way there, okay?”
Lynx narrows his eyes and closes them as if begging for patience before sighing and nodding again.
“I’ll get Mom to come and drive you over there to get it out of the lot,” he says, finishing off his coffee with a gulp.
“No! I mean, really, this is just…I can call my friend Miri. She doesn’t know about Tam yet, and uh, she’ll probably want to go over there anyway. I can just swing by and get it,” I say, grasping at straws and hoping to God Miriam is able to get me there because I do not, absolutely do not, want to spend another day showing his mom what a loser I am.
I like them, and I would spend time with them if I could because, let’s face it, I have a family crush on them, but I have some pride left, slim though it may be, and telling people how I got my car towed is not going to cut it today.
“Fine. But be here by eleven to let Lyon in.”
“Come on!”
“Want me to call Mom?”
“Fine. Jesus, has anyone ever told you you’re way too serious, Lynx?” I ask, sucking my teeth when he grins.
“You’re the first one, Teeny.”
I huff at his smile and get up to load the dishwasher, turning to see him gone so fast I frown. Man’s strange in the morning, I think, making a mental note to keep an eye on his crazy.
Chapter Ten
Teeny
“You’re shitting me!” Miri yells just as we reach the hospital, my car now safely at home in the driveway, a little worse for wear because with my luck the tow truck guy got a little handsy with the front fender and it is now completely off and resting in my backseat.
I just can’t catch a break.
“Nope,” I say again, for the third time, rolling my eyes when she starts hopping in her seat like I just won the lottery.
“Is he hot and gorgeous and hot and gorgeous and—”
“The man is fine,” I say ruefully, laughing when she hums deep in her throat and looks me over with a frown.
“So, go for it! Come on, Teeny. You haven’t had sex in so long I hear your vagina crying out whenever I see you. You have to feed your beast, babe, and at the rate you’re going, it’s going to bite off dick if you starve it much longer.”
She says this with such a straight face I shoot juice out of my nose and all over her dashboard when she cackles and wiggles her own crotch.
“Tag takes care of Mama every day, ‘cept when I got the dead reds, and you will note that I am completely relaxed and happy. You’re wound way too tight, Teeny. You need to let loose and live a little.”
I snort as we leave the car and walk through the hospital’s reception, taking the elevator, which sees us crammed in there like sardines.
“I have a kid now, Miri. Letting loose is not in the cards for me. And ew. Just ew,” I mutter, biting my lips in mirthful glee when her words hit me again.
Beast. What a…true story.
“Oh, come on. You can so still date and make the monkey sex. Get a babysitter.”
“Miria—”
“It’s not natural to not have sex for two years! Your vagina needs to breathe, Teeny.”
Oh, sweet God. People stop shifting and look right at me while she has a monologue with herself about the dangers of storing up all that pent-up sexual energy and how my vagina will start going dry like her mom’s after she got the menopause early from lack of use and—
“Oh, come on, Teeny. He’s hot and rich, and he wears CK’s to the breakfast table. And he’s your boss! That makes it even hotter. You could play Lolita the Laundress and get a shoving with the washer turned up high. It would be so good for you, and if he’s as hot as you say he is, he could definitely reheat the lasagna.”
“Stop! Just stop it. I so do not want to have sex with my neighbor.”
Of course I yell this right as the doors open and fall out of the box right into Lynx. Who’s standing there with his brothers. And his parents. And the social worker, Mrs. Halston.
“Er, what?”
As first responses go, I’m totally calling lame and burying my coolness in the yard tonight, but it’s all that comes out when I look up and see him laughing so hard even I shake against his chest.
I’m blushing, burning up as I turn to glare at an unrepentant Miri, who’s looking at Papa Wylder with enough love to make any man fall to his knees.
“Raaawwr to the silver fox,” she yells, giving Rain a high-five, you know, just to make this worse than it already is.
“I need a redo,” I mutter into Lynx’s chest while the rest of them try not to laugh, and Mrs. Halston gives me a look that lets me know even she heard it.
I will kill Miriam. Someday.
“Don’t worry about it. I think you just informed the entire floor that you don’t want my silly little brother. Come to Hawk.”
I grin at his ridiculousness and almost go to him when Lynx snarls at the man and anchors his arm to my hips.
“Don’t pay him any mind, ma’am. He wants to die slowly,” he says before shocking me senseless with a kiss on the lips that may not be sexual but…
What the heck is happening, I wonder when he starts gushing about my cooking and the way I redecorated the other house so we can rent it out in a few weeks.
“That’s encouraging, Mr. Wylder. I do wish Miss Hughs had told me all this before. It would have made it all so much easier. She will definitely get custody of Tammy Lee now.”
I hear the words, and everything inside me freezes, going stiff because I have no idea what the heck is happening and not knowing, especially when the social worker throws a comment like that out, is not great.
“Just play along. I’ll explain later,” Lynx mutters out the corner of his mouth, squeezing my hip.
The next hour is a total farce, with the Wylders playing the perfect family and fawning over Tammy—okay, that part isn’t a farce. They are the perfect family, and they adore Tam. Anyone with eyes can see it.
It’s just me who’s completely lost because I think Mrs. Halston thinks that I am in some long-term relationship with Lynx and he keeps touching me, which is…
Not good for my senses or the
reasoning I keep trying to employ to assure myself that none of this is real. I would reeeeeeally like it if it was real, but with the way things are going and…can I just say that I am confused here and leave it at that?
“So nice to meet you, ma’am. We’ll be expecting you tomorrow around ten.”
She finally leaves, and I flop into the chair beside a sleeping Tam’s bed, blinking at everyone like an owl.
“Okaaaaay. So, let’s explain this all really slowly,” I say, swallowing the urge to go back into Lynx’s arms because I feel so lost.
Lynx winces, and even Bear does not look happy. In fact, none of the Wylders look happy, and I can only assume it’s because they think I’m on the take for Lynx or something, and if that is the case, I will lie through my teeth and tell them I don’t think he’s my type.
“Don’t get mad, okay, but I had to tell her that we’re sorta…together so she’d keep filing the paperwork for you to get Tammy,” Lynx says slowly, grimacing when I blink again.
Not for whatever reason he’s thinking, I’m sure, but rather because he seems hesitant to tell me this and the truth is that I am a leeeeeettle okay with that.
“Uh, why?”
“Because your fat slut sister is back and she went to the cops and told them Mrs. Crane stole Tammy and she’s been searching for her ever since. She even filed a report two days ago.”
“What! But that’s not true, and how can she have filed a report? She was gone! We all know she was gone. Mrs. Halston knows she was gone, and what about the malnutrition?” I yell, feeling everything fall apart around me.
I can’t let her get Tammy back, no matter how bad I feel about taking her kid away from her. She belongs with me because I’ll feed her and keep her clean and dressed properly and…
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Lynx says, pulling me in for a hug when all I can do is cry.
“But—”
“Bear talked to one of his friends in the department, and he’s digging around to find a connection between the officer who filed that bogus missing person’s report and Ally. For now, Mrs. Halston is going to try and push temporary custody for us, but to get that, we need to show the judge that you’re a stable home for Tammy.”
“But we did all the repairs and stuff, and I have a job.”
“Yeah, but at this point, all we have to go on is the doctor’s reports, and Ally provided proof that she took Tammy to a free clinic to get her ears seen to. It’s all bullshit, but to win this, we need to be a better home for her.”
I can’t process this right now because my mind is reeling at the thought that Ally is back and she wants to take a kid she just dumped for days. God, I wish I’d gone to her apartment to document the state of it before now because I can damn guarantee she’s got that place shipshape by now.
“I don’t understand any of this. She left Tammy.”
“We know, Teeny,” Lynx says softly, sighing into my hair because I’m clinging to him and I can’t help it.
Last night, I spent hours thinking things over, and I know that I am the best bet Tammy has. I love Ally, but after all this, I just can’t see myself letting Tammy go back to her.
“How is she doing any of this? Just days ago, she was gone, probably broke after getting her tips, and now…”
“She hooked up with a guy named Xavier. He moved her in with him, and they’re saying that he and Ally are engaged and will give Tammy a good home,” Bear says softly, his blue eyes filled with regret.
That look scares me more than anything else that I’ve heard because I’ve talked to Lynx about a lot, actually. Family and all that stuff, and he says that if anyone can fix a problem, it’s Bear.
“Is this…oh God, are you telling me that Ally and that idiot Xavier are going to come and take Tammy?”
I start planning in my head immediately, and I think that with the five hundred dollars I have left in my pocket, after Mir flashed the guy at the lot to wave the costs, that I could take Tammy and run.
I could. I could go somewhere close but far enough away for them to not find us, and I can get a job and—
“Stop it! Don’t do this to yourself. I won’t let this happen. That’s why as soon as Bear called, I got everyone here to show a united front. Mrs. Halston wants Ally to get Tammy about as much as we do, so we have an ally. She’s going to take the doctor’s reports to her judge and backdate some paperwork, but we have to show them that we’re a couple, that we’re a stable home for Tammy,” he says again, looking down at me with eyes hard as sapphire chips.
“But I mean that’s not…and you know I can’t expect any of you to do this, because it’d be lying, and you could get into trouble because of me, and I just—”
“Shut up, Teeny,” he groans, pushing a hand over my mouth when Tammy starts fussing and making waking noises. “It’ll be just fine. You and Tammy will move in with me just until things are worked out, and then you can go back to your own place. We’ll have Hawk there for a few weeks just to make it all look legit. Bear and Lyon are looking into the guy who helped Ally, and they’ll nail him. Okay?”
I take a deep cleansing breath and force myself to believe that it’s all going to be fine, nodding even when I want to cry and run all over the city to find my lying sister.
“Okay. Okay. I can do this. So, we get temporary…are they gonna grant it, because, Lynx, I can’t take it if Ally gets her while I fight this,” I say on a breath that sticks in my throat. “She doesn’t take care of her.”
“WE. We’ll fight this, Teeny Bop, and I promise you that, come hell or high water, that little angel will be with you.”
I don’t know why, maybe it’s the way he’s stepped up and helped me without expecting anything in return, maybe it’s the solid, steady look in his eye, but I trust him completely, and I will put all my faith in him.
I just hope Lynx Wylder is as superhuman as he appears to be.
We leave the hospital an hour later, and he shoves me into his truck no matter how much I protest, because according to Bear, not one person will get into Tam’s room without him knowing.
I demanded an explanation because, let’s face it, I’m going nuts right now and I refuse to leave Tammy alone in case that crazy bitch tries to snatch her, and Bear calmly explained that he has an agent planted here as a temp nurse and she will kick some serious ass if anyone so much as breathes on Tammy.
“She’ll be fine. I promise. Rose is a good agent. She’s armed at all times, and she knows what to do if anyone unauthorized goes into the room,” Lynx assures me again after buckling me in and starting the truck.
“Armed?”
“Knife. She’ll dice ‘em, take Tammy, and go to a prearranged location. Trust me, Bear is a mastermind at this shit. No one’s taking that kid under his watch.”
“I know and I do. I do trust you and your family. You have been kinder to me than anyone has ever been, and I know that it’s not about ulterior motives, so it makes you doubly trustworthy. I just…I let this kid down when I allowed Ally to leave with her. I should have known she wasn’t capable of taking care of her, but I let her go because…because I just thought she isn’t mine and so I can’t really do anything and…”
I want to cry so I stop speaking and just breathe through the tightness, telling myself that if worst comes to worst, I’ll ask Bear to get my kid and I’ll make a run for it.
Honestly, people go missing in America every day and no one ever finds them. And I watch Mountain Men! How hard can it be to live off the land? I’ll just have to get over my squeamish reaction to blood and like killing things and I’ll be good.
“Teeny, I am really glad that you trust me, and believe me, I know how hard this must be for you but—”
“For me?” I ask incredulously, turning to stare at him as if he’s nuts. “Lynx, you have helped me more than anyone ever has before, and you have been so kind and giving I don’t think I will ever be able to repay you. It’s not just Tammy that I’m worried about, okay? I feel terrib
le that I’ve involved you in this, and I mean, it’s not even your problem. No one could blame you if you just walked away from this and called it all good, but here you are, moving me and a child into your home because you want to help me. I am so grateful I just—”
I can’t finish because I’m getting all weepy and emotional again, and yes, okay, I’m also feeling all sorts of unhappy that this has happened because I find Lynx Wylder really hot and now he won’t ever look at me as anything other than the idiot he had to help and—
“Don’t thank me, Teeny. The truth is…is that I like you, a lot more than I should, and having you in my house is going to be a temptation I don’t think I can resist.”
“But—”
“But I can’t do anything about that because you’re the hearts and flowers kinda girl and I don’t have anything to offer but sex. I don’t want a relationship, and I won’t be the guy you date for two years and then eventually marry. I’m the kind of guy who hooks up and then goes his way when it’s run its course,” he says, glancing at me as if to warn me not to look for more.
It’s not exactly romantic or anything, but I feel a sense of feminine power and satisfaction at the thought of him wanting me. I want him. I want him a lot, and I think…maybe I could do this with him and not be a baby about it when we part.
Miri is right. I haven’t lived, really lived, for me in…ever. And I need to. I should just once jump in with both feet, not knowing what the outcome will be, because I want to.
I want Lynx badly, and it’s also true that I need him. I need just one night of nothing but feeling because I just cannot think anymore. One night where nothing matters but pleasure and sex and forgetting everything.
That may be wrong, but as I stare at him, trusting him implicitly, I don’t care about anything but having him.
“I want you too,” I say softly, making a face when he goes quiet and keeps his eyes on the road.
The silence is one of those awkward pauses that just drags on and on, and I regret the quiet admission the longer we drive with Lynx remaining silent.
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