Bringing Home the Bad Boy (Second Chance #1)(48)

It felt so good to be nestled against her, Charlie let the hug linger. Pat let her.

When she pulled away, they both wiped their eyes and Cliff clucked at his wife. “Don’t make my baby girl cry, Patty.” He embraced Charlie next, giving her several swift pats on the back, his laughter rumbling against the cheek she’d rested on his barrel chest. Then he wiped the stray tears tracking down her face with his big, big hands.

“Baby girl,” he said with a huge, genuine white-toothed smile. The sparkle in his eyes reminded her of Rae, and made her aware of Evan and her feelings for Evan, and that sent another jolt of guilt surging through her bloodstream.

Rae’s parents. If they only knew.

Evan got a handshake from Cliff and a kiss on the cheek from Patricia, not because they loved him less than Charlie, but because he’d obviously seen them multiple times since Rae died. That, too, made her feel guilty.

Ugh.

“Thanks for picking him up. I’ll come get him when you’re sick of him,” Evan joked. He kicked Lyon’s tennis shoe. “Probably be ready to send you home by tonight.”

“Ha-ha,” Lyon said, taking the teasing in good turn.

“Your dad says you’ve been taking swimming lessons,” Patricia said.

“Yeah!” Lyon explained the lake, the life vest, and a twenty-foot slide going into the deepest part of the lake nicknamed the Slide of Insanity, followed by mentioning he’d watched kids go down it but hadn’t tried yet himself. “Dad won’t let me.”

“Your dad’s smart.” Pat winked at Evan. “We have a surprise for you, Lionel.”

Lyon grinned. “What is it?”

“Don’t tell him,” Cliff teased.

“Poppa!” Lyon’s eyebrows frowned.

His grandfather laughed. “I’ll give you a hint. It’s big and filled with water.”

Lyon’s eyes widened before he guessed, “A swimming pool?” Then jumped up and down, jarring poor Terror some more. “Dad!”

“I heard.” Evan took the fish from his exuberant son and slid the bag into the tank nestled in the crook of one arm.

“And not one of those blow-up pools, or kiddie pools, either.” Cliff threw his arms out. “It’s huge! It even has a diving board.”

“A diving board!” Lyon practically shouted.

Pat stayed her husband with a hand. “You’re not ready for the diving board, yet, dear, but you can definitely swim in the pool.” To Evan, she said, “We also bought water wings and floatation devices. He’ll be totally safe.”

“I know he will, Mom,” he answered easily.

Hearing him refer to Pat as “Mom” made Charlie’s heart squeeze. Evan had lost his mother a few years back—cancer, also. Cancer was a bitch. It was good to see he’d gotten a second chance at a mom. Of course, Pat had been like her mom at one point, too, but Charlie had let herself grow apart from both Pat and Cliff. Maybe her distant family was to blame for that, too, but she thought it was probably the lack of knowing what to say after Rae passed.

She still didn’t know what to say.

“Lyon’s bags are at the house,” Evan said. “I’ll grab ’em if you guys want to hang here.”

“Can I bring Terror to your house?” Lyon asked his Nonna.

“No, bud,” Evan answered. “Terror has had a rough day. You can’t ask him to make a ninety-minute car ride on top of everything else.”

Lyon looked worried but pragmatic when he looked from the fish to Charlie. “Will you make sure Dad doesn’t feed him too much so he won’t die?”

She dropped her hand on Lyon’s head. “Yeah, buddy. I’ll make sure he doesn’t die.”

Evan shot her a look that said she may be making a promise she couldn’t keep, and she realized she might be. If she had to replace Terror because he went to the big fishbowl in the sky, she’d have a heck of a time finding a goldish-brown, long-finned fish roughly the length of her thumb. Maybe once the Mosleys took Lyon, she’d go and see if the lady running the booth had Terror’s twin just in case.

“All right. I’ll be back.”

“Dad.” Lyon held his hands in front of him, the look on his face stunningly serious. “I have to set up Terror’s tank. You don’t know what you’re doing.”

Charlie stifled a giggle by covering her mouth.

“Don’t you want to stay with Nonna and Poppa and show them the festival?”

“No.”

Patricia laughed, the musical sound reminiscent of Rae’s contagious laugh. Charlie thought that might be the reason she’d avoided the Mosleys. Everything about them reminded her of Rae. How did Evan do it? Be around them, around Lyon, without letting grief for Rae overtake him? Then she thought back to what he’d said to her in the studio.

We deserve to be free. He’d embraced freedom for himself… could she?

“Why don’t we come with you, help you set up Terror’s new home, and get your things?” Pat asked Lyon.

“Okay!”

“Charlie? Want to come with?” Evan tilted his head toward the cars parked along the street.

She did. So much. But this was Rae’s family, and there was something intimate about the four of them doing the whole aquarium-setup thing together. “Can’t,” she white-lied. “I promised Gloria I’d meet up with her for a few. I should go find her.”