Games of the Heart (The 'Burg #4)(136)

“No,” I replied. “I know it.”

“Dad knew him,” she told me. “He was around. But I didn’t know him very well. Was he like Fin?”

“Absolutely.”

She held my eyes then said quietly, “Then I would have liked him too.”

I lost hold of the tears I was controlling and felt one slide down my cheek.

My voice thick, I told her, “Yeah, you would have, honey.”

“Can I say something Dusty?” she asked, still talking quietly.

“Anything, beautiful,” I whispered, my voice still thick.

I saw the tears gather in her eyes, the wetness increasing then she whispered back, “I wanna thank you too, for making Dad happy.”

Oh my God. Oh my God.

I loved this girl.

Then one second I was staring at a beautiful girl’s face and the next second I was in her arms.

I wrapped mine around her and held on. Her body bucked as a sob tore up and two seconds later, mine did the same. But we both held on. And we did it tight.

“What’s goin’ on?”

We jumped apart like guilty children and both of us looked to the door to see we were so in our moment neither of us heard Fin come back in.

Fin’s eyes narrowed on Rees then on me. “Why are you guys crying?”

I waved my hand in the air then dashed it on my face and explained, “We’re girls. Today was full of drama. After a day filled with drama we do three things. Eat until we feel sick. Throw a tantrum. Or collapse into tears. Sometimes it’s a combo of two, bad times it’s all three. Trust me, honey, we picked the best one.”

Fin scowled at me and I didn’t know if he was doing that because he was pissed about the possibility I made Rees cry or just pissed two girls he loved were crying and as a boy who was mostly a man he pretty much knew he had no power over that.

Then he asked, “Are you guys done crying then? ‘Cause I need to get Reesee home before Mr. Haines gets pissed at me for bringin’ her home late.”

I looked to the clock over the microwave and saw it was twenty-three minutes to nine. He totally had enough time. He just wanted to make sure he had the time to make sure his girl was okay and, probably, give her a goodnight kiss which would make certain she’d be okay.

I looked at Rees and she must have felt my eyes because hers came to me. “I’m okay if you’re okay.”

She nodded, dashed a hand on her cheek and her lips quirked into a little smile that was seriously cute.

“I’m okay, Dusty.”

“I think you both did so well in the kitchen, Thursday night is taco night every week,” I informed them, stepping back to indicate I was done with creating a girlie scene.

“Great,” Fin muttered and I bit back a smile.

“Sounds good to me!” Clarisse chirped.

I held her eyes. Then I lifted my hand and blew her a kiss.

She replied by giving me one of her big, beautiful smiles.

Then I turned away, calling, “’Night Rees. See you in a bit, Fin.”

“’Night Dusty,” I heard Rees return to my back.

“Later, Aunt Dusty.”

I walked upstairs to Kirby’s room, grabbed my cell, lay with my back on the bed and called Mike.

“Hey, Angel,” he answered.

“Had a breakdown in your daughter’s arms about Darrin,” I announced.

“Shit,” he muttered.

“Just so you know, when she’s home soon, if you see her eyes puffy, she cried with me.”

“Shit,” he repeated on a mutter.

“It’s all good,” I assured him.

“You wanna come over?” he offered.

“I come over any more, I’ll be living there.”

This was met with silence.

I figured this was partly because Mike was harking back to the fact that since we got home from Texas, this was true. Unless Rees was at the farm and I had to chaperone, I was at his house (with Fin). In fact, the schedule normally was that Rees came over to study with Fin after school then when Mike came home, we all went to his place to eat dinner and hang.

I also figured the silence was due to the fact that I was currently scoping out apartments. I shared liberally my apartment hunting in The ‘Burg stories with Mike, a pastime I had no idea would be so fruitless and annoying. These stories never failed to put him in a bad mood not because they were fruitless and annoying to me. No, it was because he loved me and I loved him. It was because he loved to spend time with me and he knew I loved spending time with him. It was because he knew I was having a time of it with all the crap swirling around me and he liked to be close to make sure I was okay and if I wasn’t, to make me okay. It was because he loved to have sex with me and knew I loved ha**ng s*x with him. And it was because we liked sleeping in each other’s arms.

If he had no kids, I had no doubt the offer to move in would have been extended.

Since he did, and Mike was the kind of Dad Mike was, this was not going to happen for a while.

Which he clearly found a tad bit more than annoying.

Mike ended the silence with, “You want me to come over?”

“I’m good, honey,” I said softly.

This was again met with silence and this silence surprised me.

When it stretched, I called into it, “Mike?”