“Nine o’clock,” I assure him.
“Okay,” he says. “Bye, baby Abigail.” He gives her a kiss on her cheek. “Bye, Lexi.”
He steps onto the bus, and once he’s seated, waves to us.
“All right, sweet girl, you ready to go home?”
She doesn’t respond, fast asleep, but I take it as a yes.
A little while later, we arrive at our new home. It’s a beautiful four-bedroom, three-bath, two-story house near the beach. As much as we wanted to be on the beach, those houses were ridiculously priced. But we found the perfect house, that’s in a cute gated neighborhood and is only walking distance to the beach. It’s not too far from Alec’s fire station or from our parents. It’s perfect.
When I walk inside, I’m amazed by what I see. Alec must’ve been busy because everything is put away and organized. The boxes that were everywhere are gone.
I set Abigail down, who’s still sleeping in her car seat, and walk over to the fireplace, where he set up several photos in frames. One is from our wedding day. We’re both smiling at each other with such love, I can still feel it as if it were yesterday. The next photo is of the day I gave birth to Abigail. She’s all wrinkly and frowning, but Alec and I are grinning like fools. I’m looking at Alec, and he’s looking at our daughter. Our daughter. We made the decision not to get them tested. Alec said he doesn’t want to know because as far as he’s concerned, she’s his and always will be. He’s listed as the dad on her birth certificate and the three of us share the same last name. They also share the same blood type, which isn’t the same as mine. That means, either Jason had the same one as them, or she’s Alec’s biological daughter.
“Hey, you’re home,” Alec says, walking down the stairs. “I put away most of the stuff, but there are a couple boxes left for you to go through. I put them in our closet.”
“Thank you.” I wrap my arms around his neck. “I can’t believe this place is ours.”
“Well, you better believe it,” he says. “This is our home…” He kisses the tip of my nose. “Our daughter.” He kisses my chin. “Our life.” His mouth connects with mine. “And it’s damn beautiful.”
Alec
The Next Day
Georgia: Thought you should know Lexi is out graffitiing the walls.
I click on the picture accompanying the text and see Lexi stuffing spray cans into a backpack, unaware that her sister is taking a picture of her. I left them in the box for her to either keep or get rid of. I guess she’s putting them to use.
Me: Did she mention where she was going?
Georgia: No, but she did say she needed to go finish something she started…
Me: How long ago did she leave?
Georgia: About thirty minutes ago. I figured I’d give her a head start.
Me: And I take it you have Abigail?
A moment later, a picture comes through of my beautiful daughter sleeping soundly in her crib—her belly down and her bottom popped up in the air.
Me: Give my daughter a kiss for me.
Georgia: Will do. Try to keep my sister out of jail…
Me: Will do.
I exit out of our conversation and pull the tracker app up, clicking on Lexi’s name to see where exactly she is. When I zoom in on her location, I can’t help but laugh to myself.
“Hey, Chase, you mind covering me for a little bit?”
“Sure.” He shrugs. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I just need to run a quick errand.”
A few minutes later, I pull up to the abandoned building I haven’t been to since the night I was here with Lexi. Her jeep is parked along the side, and when I walk around the corner, I find her, with her back to me, spray painting the wall.
She doesn’t know I’m here, so I stay quiet and watch her as she creates, lost in her own world. When she finishes and backs up to check out her work, I clear my throat, startling her.
She spins around, her eyes wide at having been caught. But when she sees it’s only me, her shoulders sag in relief. “You scared me!”
“Shouldn’t be doing bad stuff…”
She rolls her eyes. “My sister rat on me?”
I laugh, not answering her question, and walk over to her. “It feels like forever ago since we were here and I was watching you paint.” I tug on the bottom of her tank top and pull her toward me, connecting our mouths for a brief moment. It’s only been twelve hours since I last tasted her, but I’m already missing the hell out of her.
“A lot has happened since we were here,” she murmurs against my lips.
“Very true,” I agree. “We’ve gotten married, had a baby, bought a home…We’ve created a life together since that night.”