Say It's Forever (Redemption Hills #2)(21)

Or rather, who.

Little Gage was in the exact same position, blowing his lips against the glass and making his cheeks puff out.

The lights were on in both the rooms, and the two of them were lit up in their own personal fishbowls.

Juni howled with laughter. “Mommy, look! My new best friend is the funniest in the whole world, and did you knows he even likes the stars, too?” Her voice lifted in excitement. “He said he’s gots the whole solar system hanging in his room.”

She looked back at me with her blue eyes wide with delight. “Even Mars!”

“Even Mars? No way.”

“Yes, ways!”

Soft laughter slipped from my mouth, and I moved to stand behind her, brushing my fingers through the long tresses of her black hair that was still damp from her bath. Gage waved like mad when he saw me.

Another laugh slipped free, and I waved back.

A grunt sounded from behind us. I glanced back to find Darius standing at the end of the hall. “What’s going on in here?”

“Apparently, our Juni here found a new way to tell her best friend goodnight.”

“Like this, Uncle D!” She leaned up higher and copied the blowing that Gage had been doing, but she didn’t get her mouth fully on the glass, so she just ended up spluttering air and slobbering all over the window.

It only made her laugh harder.

Darius grunted again. “Still think you and Juni should take my room. More privacy that way.”

I smiled back at him. “She clearly doesn’t mind.”

“Nope, not at all. Not one little bits.”

His head shook, all that overprotectiveness pouring out. A frown took to my brow, my heart hurting that he felt this way. Fear and sorrow the thief of his joy. The thief of belief.

“They’re harmless, Darius.” My voice was a whispered plea.

He moved to the front door. He paused with his hand on the knob, contemplating before he swiveled to look at me. “Thought we didn’t trust anyone?”

Sadness bound my spirit. “Maybe it’s time we did.”

Dread tightened his expression. “Trying so hard to give you a life, Salem. A real life. One where none of us have to be afraid.”

A wistful smile pulled to my mouth. “Is it wrong it’s finally starting to feel that way?”

His lips thinned as he contemplated. “No,” he finally said.

Juni grabbed her favorite doll and pressed it to the window, the same as Gage was pressing a teddy bear to his. Darius watched her, his love pouring out. He returned his gaze to me. “I’m going to Carly’s. Just…be careful, okay?”

“I am.”

I’d been careful for years. I’d basically perfected it.

Darius slipped out the door and into the night, and I leaned down and kissed my daughter on the top of the head. “Come on, Juni Bee, you need to finish getting ready for bed.”

“Oh, man, do I have to? Looks it right there. Gage still wants to play, and Molly is finallys getting to say hi to him.” She held her doll out to me like she was a person.

Light laughter tumbled from my mouth, though I kept my voice firm. “Tell her to tell him goodnight.”

She poked out her bottom lip. She turned her sad face to Gage. He pouted right back.

The two of them were wrapped up in their own little language, so sweet, especially when he drew a little heart on the window.

It panged in mine.

Juni giggled and blushed and brought her shoulders up to her cheeks. “I loves him the mostest, Mommy!”

“It looks like he loves you, too.”

I sent a wave to the little boy then shut the curtains. Cutting off her view was the only thing that finally coaxed Juni to her feet.

We moved into the short hall where the second bathroom was across from Mimi’s room. We could hear her snoring from behind her door.

Juni scrunched up her nose and held her laughter, her words a secreted whisper, “Mimi is a snorin’ up a morin’.”

“A morin’, huh?” I quirked a brow.

Juniper nodded with a blink. “The worst kind.”

I touched her chin. Affection pulsed at my chest.

Powerful.

Unending.

A gift that’d made it out of the ash.

My one purpose.

“It’s time for you to get to snorin’,” I told her.

“Oh, fine, okay,” she grumbled.

She went to the sink and brushed her teeth, and then she was running back for the living room. “Story times!”

She dove onto the makeshift bed we’d made on the floor, and I climbed down beside her as she grabbed the book we’d been reading together, the first in The Boxcar Children. Sitting on the mat, I pulled her onto my lap where she sat facing out. Her little heartbeats thumped against my chest as I went to the page we had marked.

I began to read.

Soft and slow.

Changing my voice the way Juni demanded I do.

She rocked her head back to look up at me, those eyes full of their belief. “I’d live in a boxcar with you and goes on every adventure you wants to take, Mommy, but I likes it here the best.”

My spirit squeezed in sorrow.

Each time we’d moved from one place to another, I’d amped it up, told her we were going on a great adventure, and tried to make it seem as if it were exciting rather than a horrible reality of our lives.