Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
If she had any reservations of me calling my place our ‘home,’ I couldn’t see it in her face.
“Like what?” she asked.
“Well, the kid needs to go to a sit-down restaurant,” I said as Judah started to wiggle and whine in the cart, clearly done with this trip, getting hungry and likely tired since he’d skipped right over his nap to shop.
“That will be… interesting,” she said.
“He needs to go to a park. A movie. Maybe an arcade.”
“He’ll love all of that,” she said as we moved up, and she started piling things onto the belt.
I figured it was best to talk about what she could give to Judah, not the experiences I wanted to give to her. Eventually, she would become more comfortable again doing all the things she did before Warren, and before becoming a mother.
It would all just take time.
Luckily, when all this shit was done, we would have nothing but time.
After the store, we treated Judah to his first taste of fast food nuggets, cheeseburger, and fries that he dipped into a milkshake, and he ate like he’d been starved for weeks.
“I feel I should be offended that he’s never eaten food I’ve cooked him like that,” Claire said as she looked back at him in his carseat, humming and rocking to himself as he ate, his little toy plushie getting the occasional ‘bite’ of food as well. It was going to need to go in the wash when Judah went to bed.
“It’s hard to compare with deep-fried junk,” I said, shrugging. “But he would’ve eaten the entire tray of brownies if you’d have let him.”
By the time we got home, got the stuff in the house and put away, Judah had put himself to sleep on the floor in the living room amongst a pile of his new toys, including one of those big, squishy toys that he was using as a pillow.
Claire put him to bed while I poured us wine from one of the bottles I found in the pantry. We had to drink out of coffee mugs, but neither of us cared as we curled up on the couch, amongst the chaos of toys on the floor in front of us, my fingers toying with her hair, her head resting on my chest.
And, suddenly, I could envision nights just like this, over and over and over, for the next several years.
All I could do was hope Claire’s head was in the same place…
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Claire
We fell into a similar rhythm like we had back in Navesink Bank.
The only difference was that Aurelio didn’t have meetings that took him out of the house. He did occasionally have a phone call to take, going outside to do so, leaving me wondering what they were discussing, if it had to do with Warren, how things were going on that front.
But I didn’t feel like I could really ask for details, considering this involved his whole family, a criminal empire that likely didn’t appreciate non-Family members being too in-the-know.
I did imagine that, considering we were still in the sweet little safe house, that Warren was still, you know, alive.
I couldn’t imagine how Denny had managed to keep control over Warren enough to not start directly attacking the Grassis in an attempt to get to me.
I guess I could just be happy that he’d managed to do so.
I couldn’t live with the guilt of more of Aurelio’s loved ones getting hurt because of this.
There had been updates from Lettie about the guard, though. And he did manage to pull through, but it sounded like there would be some lifelong impacts for the poor guy.
“Don’t worry about him,” Aurelio had said, wrapping an arm around me, and pulling me against him. “We take care of our own. Even if he can’t work, he and his mom will be provided for.”
That didn’t lessen my guilt, though, as I imagined a young, healthy man suddenly debilitated from his injuries because he’d tried to save me and my son.
My only hope was that Luca and the rest of Aurelio’s family would be able to somehow handle this situation before Warren attacked again. Maybe they’d catch him off-guard and handle the whole thing without any injuries.
That, at least, was the hope.
We were pretty secluded up at the safe house, with only the rotation of guards around.
Despite the situation, though, it was like a little oasis to me. And, hopefully, to Aurelio as well.
I knew, objectively, it was maybe not great how we were playing house, were acting like a little family.
Especially if, when this was over, it turned out that Judah and I would need to… start over on our own.
To be fair, Aurelio wasn’t putting out any signs that he was sick of me, or us.
If anything, he was even more affectionate with me. And not just in bed. Or in the kitchen. Or in the bathroom, the laundry room, the living room, or any of the other places we’d had sex in the house when Judah was napping or sleeping.