“It wouldn’t be a date.”
“What would it be?”
“Dinner.”
“That’s a date.”
“No. See ... I figured I would take you to Grimlock Manor. We could tell Dad what you saw, grab dinner there and then see where the night takes us. That’s not a date because my family will be there and no sane man would take a woman on a date with his family.”
He had a point. “I don’t know.”
“Have you eaten?”
“No.”
“Were you planning to tell my father what you saw?”
“Yes.”
“Then this solves both problems ... and ensures that it’s not a date at the same time.”
I hated to admit it but he had a point. “Fine.” I heaved out a sigh. “Just dinner with your family, though. I’m not letting you turn this into a thing.”
“I would never turn this into a thing.”
I didn’t believe him. Still, I wanted to put distance between the aquarium and me. I was still shaken by the visions. “I hope your father is having something good.”
“I believe there’s a Mexican bar tonight.”
“I love Mexican food.”
“Then this should be right up your alley.”
Four
Grimlock Manor was exactly as I remembered it.
I still wasn’t over the fact that the Grimlocks named their house — it looked more like a castle — and found the entire thing hilarious. The house I shared with my grandfather growing up was a two-bedroom shack compared to the glorious abode Braden parked in front of.
“It still looks the same,” I noted.
He cast me a sideways glance. “Did you think it grew in your time away?”
“No. It’s just ... it’s beautiful.” I knew I sounded wistful, but I couldn’t stop myself from being a little jealous. “You must’ve had the best time growing up here.”
“It certainly wasn’t a bad time. We had a lot of fun, but it wasn’t all easy.”
“I know you lost your mother. That had to be hard. You were already an adult, though. Your childhood must have been amazing.”
Instead of immediately agreeing, he shrugged. “Money doesn’t buy happiness. My mother told me that at a young age. I was whining because I wanted some toy and my father told me no. I didn’t understand because it was obvious Dad had the money for it. She explained that money made things easier, but it would never make us happy.”
That was interesting. “We didn’t have a lot of money growing up. I never went hungry or anything, but there wasn’t much to spare. My grandfather taught me how to catch frogs in the bayou so I could sell them to local brujas and make extra money if I needed anything.”
“You caught frogs for money?”
I nodded. “Why? What did you do?”
“We had chores around the house, but in retrospect that sounds lame. It certainly wasn’t much work for the allowance we received.”
“Still, you all seem to have good work ethics.”
“We appreciate a job well done.” He hopped out of the car and hurried to my side. I was already halfway out before he arrived. “I was trying to open the door for you,” he groused, making a face.
Puzzled, l met his serious gaze. His eyes were a ridiculous shade of purple that made me want to dive into them. “Why?”
“It’s the gentlemanly thing to do.”
I was sincerely amused. “Did your father teach you that?”
“No. My mother did.”
He didn’t cringe when he mentioned her this time. The sadness that often permeated his being when he talked about her was absent. I hoped that was a good thing. No one deserved to be as sad as he often looked.
“Well, this isn’t a date,” I reminded him.
“Oh, it’s a date.” He chuckled when I glared. “Oh, don’t give me that look. We both know it’s a date. You’re not ready for a formal date yet, but this is a half date.”
“I already told you ... .”
He cut me off with a shake of his head. “You don’t want to date me. I know. I’m going to change your mind.”
“I’m not big on the alpha male tendency to club a woman over the head and carry her to his cave until she agrees to his demands.”
“I have no intention of clubbing you.”
“Oh, no?”
“Nope. I’m going to walk into that house and wow you with food and family. After an hour with the rest of the Grimlocks you’ll be begging me to take you someplace quiet where we can be alone.”
He was full of himself. Still, there was something appealing about the glint in his eyes. “Let’s just eat,” I suggested. “You’re right about me wanting to talk to your father. After that, you can take me home and we’ll forget the rest of this … nonsense.”
“Sure. That sounds exactly how I pictured things in my head.”
I couldn’t stop myself from chuckling. “I’m sure things will work out for both of us.”
“Oh, I’m sure they will, too.”
ONE STEP INTO GRIMLOCK Manor told me he was right about the noise level. We were barely inside the door when I heard an infant wailing as if she was about to die. There was only one baby in the house, so I didn’t need to ask who was making the noise.
“Lily doesn’t sound happy,” I noted as I shrugged out of my coat.
Braden shook his head as he collected it. “I’m starting to think she’s possessed.”
I pursed my lips as I followed him through the house. “What’s wrong with her?”
“She’s already spoiled rotten, that’s what’s wrong with her. Just prepare yourself. She’s even louder up close and personal. She was staying here, but then Aisling got self-conscious and went back home. That doesn’t stop her from visiting constantly, though, and she brings the noise with her.” Braden held open the door that led to the parlor and I cringed when I walked inside and found Aisling pacing the floor with the squalling infant.
“Hello,” I offered, my eyes going wide when I saw the circles under Aisling’s eyes. She looked like death warmed over ... and then run over ... and perhaps set on fire after that. “How are you?”
Aisling, never one for pleasantries, was more caustic than ever. “How do you think?”
I recoiled when the baby screeched at the top of her lungs. “She doesn’t sound ... happy.”
“She’s never happy.”
“Give her to me,” Griffin instructed, appearing from behind me. He had a fresh bottle in his hand and a spit blanket on his shoulder. “Just ... take a walk around the house, baby. I’ll take care of Lily.”
Aisling happily handed over her only child. She did not, however, leave the room. “I think I’m going to drink instead.”
I spoke before I thought better of it. “Can you do that and breastfeed?”
The look she shot me was withering. “I’m not breastfeeding. Apparently I’m bad at it.”
I looked to Braden for help. “Um ... .”
He merely shrugged. “She has a low supply of breast milk. The doctor says it’s rare, but happens. None of us like talking about it.”
“That’s because it’s gross,” the oldest Grimlock child, Redmond, said as he scooted past us. “We should not be talking about our sister’s breast milk. Hello, Izzy.” He beamed at me, the full Grimlock charm on display. “I’m glad to see you’re back to visiting. I thought about stopping in to see you and make sure you were okay after the big hoopla a few weeks ago, but I was warned to keep away.” His gaze was heavy on Braden, whose cheeks flushed. “ I’m a good brother, so I decided to do as I was told.”
“Oh, really?” I pinned Braden with a dark look. “You warned your brother to stay away?”
“He’s a pervert. I did what was necessary.” Braden gestured for me to move to one of the settees. “What would you like to drink?”
The baby’s shrieks as Griffin tried to feed her made me wonder if they were handing out fifths of whiskey to cut through the noise. “Um ... a
Jack and Coke is fine.” I focused on Griffin as he bounced the baby. He looked as tired as Aisling, which wasn’t good. “Do you mind if I hold her?”
Griffin cast me a surprised look. “What? Why would you possibly want to hold her? She won’t shut up.”
“She definitely won’t shut up,” Aidan agreed, skirting into the room with his fiancé Jerry right behind him. “We share a wall with her at the townhouses and had to move into the guest room to get any sleep.”
“Try living with her,” Aisling muttered, rubbing her forehead. She’d looked healthier when she was nine months pregnant. Now her hair was dull and listless, and she was unbelievably pale.
“Please. Let me hold her.”
Griffin arched an eyebrow but willingly handed Lily over. “She never stops screaming unless she’s asleep ... and she doesn’t sleep anywhere near as much as the doctor told us she would. She’s up the entire night … and the morning … and the afternoon.”
“And you’ve had her checked out?” I smiled at the baby as she continued to wail in my arms, adjusting her so I could rest her against my lap with one arm and press my free hand to her forehead.
“The doctor says there’s nothing wrong with her,” Aisling said dully. “He says some babies simply need to cry and she’ll settle down when she’s ready.” She accepted the drink Redmond brought her and downed half of it in one gulp. I wasn’t sure how healthy that was given her current state, but now was not the time to question her decision-making skills.
“When was the last time you slept?” I asked, adjusting the baby so I could feed her. Lily automatically took the bottle and started vigorously sucking.
“I don’t even remember what sleep is,” Aisling said. “That’s a thing, right?” She looked to Griffin for confirmation as he sat next to her. Together, they looked like the walking dead. “I don’t think we’re ever going to be able to sleep again.”
She was in a bad place mentally, that much was certain. I turned back to the baby, who seemed perfectly fine sucking her bottle. “Is she quiet only when she eats and sleeps?” I asked.
Griffin nodded. “Yup. Otherwise she’s constantly screaming.”
I turned my attention to Cormack as he walked through the door. Compared to his children, he didn’t seem bothered by Lily in the least. “Have you considered hiring a nanny for them?” It was a pointed question, but I couldn’t stand seeing Griffin and Aisling so run down.
“I have,” Cormack confirmed. “The first thing I offered was a baby nurse. Aisling said she wanted to do it herself.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she noted. “The townhouse is so small that we’d be able to hear her no matter what. Even if someone else was with her all night, we would hear her. She’d make sure of that.”
“Yeah, but you could stay here,” I suggested. “I know you have your own home, but you need sleep. In fact ... your aura is way too yellow. It was magenta before. The change is … jarring. You can’t keep on like this.”
Cormack tilted his head toward me, his eyes alert. “What do you mean? Is she sick?”
“You can’t tell that by looking at her?” I challenged. Lily had finished her bottle so I shifted her to my shoulder to burp her. Griffin wordlessly handed me the spit blanket and Braden helped slide it in place. “Lack of sleep can hurt someone more than almost anything. In fact, twenty-four hours without sleep is enough to affect cognition, memory and bodily function.”
Cormack slid his eyes to Aisling. “We have a nursery here. Why don’t you guys move in for a bit like we talked about before … and you ultimately decided against? We’ll all get her through this tough stretch together. I’m sure she’ll calm down soon.”
“That doesn’t seem fair,” Aisling argued, annoyance flashing. “I’m supposed to take care of her. It’s my job.”
“Yes, well, I’m your father. I’m supposed to take care of you.”
“Not once I’m an adult.”
“It never ends.” He flashed her a fond smile. “You’ll stay here and we’ll take turns watching Lily. You need to get some sleep.”
Aisling looked so relieved that for a moment I thought she would start weeping. “Maybe just a few nights,” she conceded.
Cormack smiled as he rubbed her shoulder. “It’ll be fine. Just ... have another drink. I’ll send the cleaning staff up to get the nursery ready, including buying anything we might need. We’ll set up a schedule and I’ll get a night nurse in if we need help.”
“Thank the maker,” Jerry enthused. “If Lily is here, that means we can sleep in our bed again. I thought I was going to have to redecorate the guest room to our tastes.”
“Yes, that’s the important thing,” Griffin drawled.
“Hey. I need my beauty sleep. No one wants to see me with bags under my eyes. It’s unseemly.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking.”
CORMACK MET ME BY THE FOYER WHEN Braden and I were getting ready to leave.
“Thank you for stopping by,” he offered. “I appreciate you telling me what you saw at the aquarium. I don’t know what to make of it, but it’s ... interesting.”
“I find it more interesting that I never thought to look for Lauren’s soul,” I admitted sheepishly. “She should’ve been there when the lights came back ... but she wasn’t.”
“I should’ve considered that, too. I don’t know what to make of it, but I plan to put the research team on it tomorrow.”
“He means he’s going to make Cillian start digging into it,” Braden offered, handing me my coat.
“Cillian is the most important member of my research team,” Cormack admitted. He grabbed my wrist before I could walk out the door Braden held open. “Wait. I also want to thank you for what you did for Aisling.”
“I didn’t do anything for her. I mean ... I fed the baby. That seems pretty small compared to everything else.”
“Yes, but ... I didn’t see. I mean, I did. She looks rundown. I didn’t see how close she was to the edge. The fact that she agreed to stay here without a whisper of lip tells me that she needed more help than I realized.”
“I’ll be around now,” Braden noted. “I’ll help with Lily. Put me on the schedule. Aisling really does look like death. She needs a good night’s sleep.”
“She needs more than one night,” I corrected. “You guys can’t be expected to fill in constantly, but she’s at her limit.”
“What I don’t understand,” Cormack said, “is why Lily refuses to calm down?”
That was an interesting question. Unfortunately for him, I had no answers. “I don’t know. Eventually she’ll cry herself out. You guys need to help Aisling until that happens.”
“That’s the plan.”
“Well ... just keep me informed. I’ll try to think of something to help.”
“You fixed her feet,” Braden noted. “Maybe you can fix Lily, too. If you could make it so she never cries and doesn’t crap ten times a day that would be great.”
I shot him a look. “She’s a baby. Those things are normal.”
“I’m starting to think nothing that kid does is normal.”
Something was definitely abnormal about the situation, but for now I’d done all I could. “I’ll think about it. I’m sure there’s an answer we’ve overlooked.”
“I certainly hope so,” Cormack said. “If that baby doesn’t stop crying we’re all going to join her … and then things will really fall apart.”
“WELL, THANKS FOR DINNER.”
Braden insisted on walking me to my apartment when we returned to Belle Isle. He made a big show of searching the boathouse for errant ghosts, even going so far to look behind the Welcome Center bulletin board, which was full of classified ads and missing person reports, before stopping in front of my bedroom.
“It was my pleasure. You did more for my family than we did for you.”
“I don’t know. I thought the taco bar was amazing. I can’t remember the last time I’ve had guacamole that good.”
He smirked. “Yeah, well, my father is big on theme bars.”
“Your father is a good man.” I meant it. “I feel sorry for him that he didn’t see how badly Aisling was struggling. He’ll carry that guilt with him.”
“They all will. I wasn’t home, so I get a pass. Still, I saw her on a few video calls. She was mostly in the background. I should’ve realized something was seriously wrong.”
“It’s not that there’s something seriously wrong,” I cautioned. “It’s just ... she’s exhausted. That baby is two weeks old and I don’t think she’s slept more than an hour straight since giving birth. In case you haven’t noticed, she’s pretty much lost all of her baby weight already ...and she’s not breastfeeding. That’s not a sign of good health.”
Braden’s handsome features twisted. “Can we not talk about my sister breastfeeding? It’s gross.”
“It’s natural.”
“No, it’s gross. She’s my sister.”
“And you’re going to go home and take first watch with the baby,” I surmised, grinning. “You act as if she annoys you — and I have no doubt she does — but you love her.”
“She’s ... a piece of work. That doesn’t mean I want to see her run off the rails. Lily is a part of our lives now. Apparently she’s going to be a really annoying part. She must get that from Aisling.”
I had other ideas, but I didn’t want to give them voice. Er, well, at least not yet. “You love your niece. I saw the way you were looking at her when I was holding her. You were making faces, trying to get her to smile.”
“That shows what you know. Babies don’t really start smiling until they’re, like, six weeks old. Some don’t start until they’re three months old.”
I was officially impressed. “You’ve been doing research on infant development?”
“I ... no. I ... maybe a little.” His cheeks flushed with embarrassment. “She’s our first baby. We’re going to spoil her rotten. I’ll blame my father for it, but I’m sure I’ll be equally responsible. I can admit that.”
His moment of candor had me leaning forward. I surprised myself when I pushed his hair away from his face. “You’re going to be an amazing uncle.”
Only the Quiet Page 4