But there he was, leaning against my kitchen counter, my reactionary words having cut him deep.
“I’ll, uh, see you later?” I asked hesitantly, this fragile thing between us far too delicate for the strain we were putting on it.
He stared at me, his gaze searing me with its intensity, and I swallowed, finding myself holding my breath while I waited for him to answer.
“Yeah,” he finally ground out, that smile back in place, but not quite reaching his eyes. “I’m not going anywhere, Bird.”
Chapter sixty-three
Hawk
Present
Istaredattheback of the door, listening as her piece-of-shit car rattled to life and pulled away, before I allowed myself to breathe again.
“Motherfucker,” I snarled into the empty house, my anger finally escaping now that Wren had left.
This whole thing was going to shit, and I needed to get a handle on things before I lost control and lost my girls.
Because theyweremine, even if neither of them was fully on board yet.
Pushing off the counter, I checked the time, noting that Charlie would be arriving any minute for the dinner that was not going to happen. Between the forgotten lunch, and the now abandoned dinner, it wasn’t looking good for meals around here.
Wren clearly didn’t want my help locating Cooper, but there was a buzzing feeling under my skin that didn’t seem to want to go away. I felt useless, and that was something I really hated feeling. Staring around the kitchen, I noticed a roll of aluminum foil on the counter. Tearing off a strip, I covered the still-warm casserole—but not before snagging a single forkful that had me groaning at how good it was—and slid it into the fridge for later.
Once that was done, I looked around again, the realization that I was alone in Wren’s house settling over me.
My first instinct was to snoop. Through her room, her closet.
Her underwear drawer.
When I’d gone down on her earlier, she’d been wearing the cutest pair of plain black cotton panties. Something about the simplicity of them was just so completely Wren.
That didn’t mean I wasn’t picturing her in a sexy lace number with a thong tucked between her perfect cheeks.
Fuck.
Chastising myself for being a fuckin’ creep, I pushed aside all thoughts of Wren’s panties and focused again on the fact that Cooper was missing and Wren was concerned.
Thinking back to my own childhood, there had been plenty of occasions where I’d snuck out under my mom’s nose, but I’d never been a teen girl in a vulnerable headspace, either.
Still restless, I wandered down the hall, casting a longing look at the door that I assumed was Wren’s and instead stepping back into Cooper’s room.
When I’d first come in here, I’d been distracted by Wren’s panic, not really able to take in the wonder that was Cooper’s personal space. Her bed was against the far wall, the open window directly above it. The walls were painted a smoky gray color, the bedding a deep navy blue, with the covers tossed haphazardly back over the bed in a hasty attempt to make it.
It was simple and clean and not at all what I would have expected a teen girl’s room to look like. On the opposite wall, there was a desk with a computer that looked pretty intense. I knew she mentioned gaming, but I never anticipated this level of dedication. I had absolutely no idea what I was looking at, but I knew it was impressive.
I wondered what she’d say if I let her pick out her dream gaming computer...
Shit, no. That’s exactly what Wren said she didn’t want me to do. Buy Cooper’s affection.
But fuck, I had more money than I knew what to do with. And really, how much could one computer cost?
Taking out my phone, I snapped a photo of her setup, wanting to be able to talk to someone about what I could do to help her improve it, when a photo on the wall above the dual monitors caught my eye.
The photo showed Cooper and a friend—the church girl, most likely—smiling and posing the way kids did when they take selfies. She looked a bit younger, if I had to guess. Maybe a year or two. They were sitting in the grass next to what appeared to be a small lake.
She looked happy, far different from the surly, angry girl I had met earlier. My heart ached to see the smile that reaching her eyes, wondering if I would ever get a chance to see her smile like that for me.
