Chloe hoots and hollers as she bounces across the living room, her shoes echoing loudly as she heads down the hallway toward the front door. "Come on, Killian!"
"Are you sure?" I ask. My hands slide around her back and I pull her against me. "I know this is a big deal."
She looks up at me, her eyes smiling. "I know. So don't fuck it up."
"That's some sage advice." I kiss her lightly on the lips, then a second and a third time. God, I can't get over how it feels to have this woman around so much. The more I'm around her, the more I want to be around her.
"Gross. Eww, kissing." Chloe materializes, yelling loudly. "Super, super gross. Barf. Barf all over the floor."
Lily laughs and steps back. "I'll see you guys at the park in like thirty minutes. An hour, tops. Don't let her run with sharp objects. Or swim in the pond. You hear me, Chloe? There are snapping turtles in that pond. Do not get too close to the edge, Chloe. Don't let her too close to the edge, Killian."
"No swimming. No sharp objects. No getting close to the edge. Check, check, and check."
Chloe sighs again. "Come on already."
Half an hour later, Lily texts me to say that the cake repair is taking slightly longer than expected. Chloe and I are cool, though, sitting in the grass beside the pond with her little fishing pole in the water. She was beside herself with excitement for the first fifteen minutes, but she's since declared fishing really boring.
"It's just waiting," she proclaims, standing up just so she can dramatically throw herself back down on the grass.
I can't help but laugh. "It's a lot of waiting, but then a fish will bite and it will be exciting."
Chloe scrunches up her face and gives me a "whatever" look, turning over onto her stomach in the grass and poking in the dirt with her finger. "Did you know that ants can carry their body weight? Mrs. S taught us that in science."
"I did know that. You're almost done with school, right?"
"Yeah. I'll be in second grade next year. Too bad Hannah will be too."
"Who's Hannah?"
"This stupid girl in my class. She's mean."
"To you?"
"Yeah. Sometimes to other girls, too. But mostly to me. She says my mom came to this town because she did something bad."
I clench my jaw at the thought of Chloe getting teased at school. "Sounds like Hannah doesn't know what she's talking about."
"I know. She's always saying stuff like that." She's silent as she picks up a twig and pokes the ground. "She said that her parents said you were in jail because you're no good."
"Did she?" I ask. Heat rushes through me. The kid moves to a new town with her mother, gets teased by a stupid girl about her mom's past, and now takes shit because of me? That's real fucking great.
"Yeah."
"Jail is where bad guys go. Like robbers."
"Well, just so you know, I've never been to jail."
Chloe nods, still looking at the ground. "I know. You're not a bad guy. Or a robber."
"People say stupid shit sometimes," I say angrily. Shit. "Don't tell your mother I said that word."
"You have to give me a quarter for saying a bad word."
"I know."
"In second grade, I'm not going to let anyone push me around. Second graders are brave."
"Did one of the kids at school push you?"
Chloe shrugs. "Alex. He's Hannah's boyfriend."
"In first grade? Why does this kid have a boyfriend?"
"I don't know," Chloe says, exasperated. "He's a boy and he's her friend and he just does what she tells him to do. On the playground, he pushed me off the climbing wall. Mrs. S was looking the other way, and Ellie told her that I fell but Mrs. S said to go play. Then he tripped me at recess on purpose. And kicked dirt in my face. Hannah and Molly and Alex just laughed." Chloe rolls over, kicks out her leg and hikes her pant leg over her knee. "I just got a scrape. Don't tell mom. She'll just worry. And she'll talk to Mrs. S again."
My blood is pumping in my ears. "Your mom doesn't know that these kids are hurting you?"
"No."
"So these little shits are pushing you around on the playground for fun?" I ask in disbelief. "Okay, I owe you another quarter for that one."
"They're just mean. At recess, I've been staying against the wall because I don't want to go where they are. But it's okay. Ellie stays with me."
"Next time that Alex kid – or Hannah – gets near you and tries any of that shit – three quarters it is – you need to punch them, good and hard."
Chloe's eyes go wide. "Mom says you shouldn't hit. Ever."
Oh, hell. Am I giving bad advice? Fuck it, those kids are hurting her, she should know how to defend herself. "It's not hitting. It's called defending yourself."
"I don't know how."
"Let me see you make a fist."
"Really?" Chloe sits up straight.
"I'll teach you how to throw a punch."
38
Lily
"He should be a permanent fixture around this place," Opal declares as she pushes her way into the kitchen.
"I assume you're talking about Killian?" Killian has been here every day from morning until we close. I'm letting him help out, despite all of my earlier vows to never rehire him.
Oh well. I also said I'd never screw him. So I'm eating a little humble pie.