Vulnerable [Suncoast Society] (Suncoast Society #29)(62)

He wasn’t all too sure she hadn’t just fallen asleep standing up. He reached out and touched her shoulder. “Eva?”

She looked up at him and, with her voice so low it couldn’t be heard by eagle-eared Laurel in the living room, she said, “Promise me something, please?”

“I’d have to hear it first.”

“If…just…if. If…he doesn’t…promise me you’ll move in here and stay a part of our lives. Please?”

He could barely process much past the point that she meant if Leo didn’t make it. “Eva, you’re her mother. I don’t care what papers are filed, I will not take her away from you if he…if.”

“No. That’s not what I meant. I want you to be her guardian. She loves you. If…I know that Leo wouldn’t want me to keep you out of her life, because she loves you. You could still go to school and work and not worry about where to live. I wouldn’t have to worry as much about my schedule. It would be—”

He finally cradled her chin in his hands just to shut her up. “Eva,” he quietly said, “he’s still alive. He’s going to make it. We don’t have to plan anything beyond that right now.”

“But what if he doesn’t make it?” Her voice broke. She sounded more like Laurel than a woman of thirty-eight. Defeated, lost. Vulnerable.

WWLD—What Would Leo Do?

He kissed her forehead and pulled her in for a long, strong hug. Hoping he didn’t regret this, and that it wasn’t allowing her to transfer her emotional dependence from Leo onto him, he said, “If. I will always be a part of your lives. Hers and yours. I promise. We’ll deal with that only…if. But I need you to do something for me.”

He felt her nod against his chest.

“I need you to help me be strong, too. We have to stay strong for Laurel. I know you’re hurting right now, in more than one way. I’m hurting, too. You and I have to be a united front for Laurel right now. She needs to see us working together so she doesn’t have to worry about there being any tension. I refuse to think in any terms other than Leo is going to make it. But you have to help me with this. Okay?”

“Yes, Sir.”

Sleep left his system. Yes, during their pillow talk, Leo had mused that he suspected Eva was submissive. That, sometimes, she’d jokingly call him “sir” in the course of trying to get something done, if he asked her to do something.

Jesse didn’t know if he should be giving more weight to this than was intended. But now that she knew about the kinky stuff, he couldn’t ignore it, either. He was hurting because he risked losing Leo.

She’d already lost Leo, not once, but now possibly twice. She also faced the loss of her fantasies of him maybe one day coming back to her. Reality had set in. She was officially divorced.

And she’d handed custody of Laurel over to him.

He squeezed her a little harder, his chin resting on the top of her head. “Good girl.”





Chapter Twenty-Three


Jesse didn’t even get a shower. He plugged his cell phone—and Leo’s—into chargers on the bedside table, stripped down to his briefs, pulled the covers back, crawled under them, cradled Leo’s pillow in his arms, and…

That was the last conscious thought he had until he awakened to someone poking him in the center of his forehead.

“Uncle. Jesse.”

He opened his eyes to find Laurel lying next to him on the bed, on top of the covers. She wore different clothes than she had been wearing when they got home—clothes that absolutely didn’t match—and her hair was wet and stringy.

“Did you go swimming?” It was the only thought his brain could process, that if she’d disobeyed them and gone into the pool alone, he would have to discipline her for that.

Eye roll. “No. I took a bath.”

Duh.

His brain didn’t want to engage. “Where’s your mom?”

“Her door’s locked. I think she’s still asleep. I heard something break a while ago but she didn’t answer when I knocked. I think her TV is on.”

His eyes dropped closed, sleep swirling around him until she poked his forehead again. “Uncle. Jesse.”

He peeled his eyes open again. “Sweetheart, what time is it?”

She climbed over him, managing to nail him both in the gut and the nuts, to reach his cell phone on the side table. “1:17.”

Now he was wide awake and in pain. At least he still had the covers over him, but her bony knees and elbows had driven the breath right out of him.

When he finally managed to suck in a pained breath, he asked, “What did you need, sweetheart?”

“I’m hungry. Can I have lunch?”

“Yes.”

Despite his pain, his eyelids started to droop again when she asked, “Can you fix me something? Please?”

Right. He didn’t know what was in Eva’s kitchen. At their house, they always kept sandwich fixings where Laurel could easily access them and make her own. Leo was big on making sure she was as independent as possible, teaching her how to do things so she didn’t need to rely on them for everything.

“Okay.” He sat up, taking care to hold the covers strategically in place. “Let me get some shorts on and I’ll be right there. Go on.”