I couldn’t say how he felt. Just that he was quiet,silent, and a few hours passed before Mateo stirred enough to remember his phone.
He plugged it in and powered it on. A few seconds later, a text buzzed through to mine.
Mateo:thatthing u were goin 2 say... mayB we can xxx
21
MATEO
PRESENT DAY
No one ever warned me that having more than one kid meant someone stared at you 24/7. All day every day, if they were in my house, one of them was fucking staring at me.
I came to in my own bed, reaching for Em, unsure of what had woken me beyond the distinct sensation of eyes on me.
Little eyes, but not the littlest.
I shifted, finding myself pinned by Liliana’s sharp gaze as she lay on her belly a foot down the bed, dainty chin on her folded arms, fully clothed in her school uniform, ink already staining her fingers. “What—” My voice sounded like Saint’s when he hadn’t spoken for a month. I cleared my throat and tried again. “What are you doing here?”
“Duh, I live here.”
Fucking duh.I sifted through my cloudy mind, trying to recall what day it was, but I had nothing save the belated memory of Embry leaving before dawn to play catch up on the Whisper Farm site.
It was fucking weird to wake up in bed without him. To be this out of it and not be with him. To be this out of itat all. The pain in my stomach was minimal and getting better by the day. The brain fog from whatever had happened to me while I’d been under was fucking insane.
Tuesday.
It was Tuesday.
“You don’t live here on Tuesdays.” Because she had art club at the arse crack of dawn on Thursdays and until four days ago, I’d been the motherfucking don at springing out of bed in the mornings.
“It’s Monday.” Liliana switched to English, which somehow didn’t help. “And you said I could live wherever I pissing like.”
“Don’t say that word.”
“It’s what you said.”
“I know, just... never fucking mind. Where’s your sister?”
“Saint took her out.”
I absorbed that—both that Saint was in the vicinity to have my littlest kid in his care when I hadn’t seen him since he’d left the haulage run, and that he was comfortable enough to do it. That brother, man. He was amazing with kids, but tiny babies terrified him. I loved watching his bond with Hope grow now she was bigger. I loved lots of things, including waking up to my kid when I’d been so sure she was somewhere else.
“Is your mum here?”
“Well,duh?—”
“Don’t fucking say that either. Come give me a cuddle.”
Liliana wriggled up the bed and under my arm. Then she changed her mind and put a foot of space between us, the same worry she’d had for Embry in the bad old days folding her face in half.
“You’re not going to hurt me, nena.”
“You have holes in you.”
“Stitched holes. I can’t even feel them.”
“Then you’re weird.”