Defending What’s Mine by Aubrey Wright

Author:Aubrey Wright [Wright, Aubrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-20T04:00:00+00:00

17

Leslie

“I don’t know how he’s going to get everything he needs today, I really don’t,” I told Zoe. “He must have some killer connections.”

I winced at my word choice. Zoe beat one of her blocks on the floor, then scolded it in a babble.

“What did the block do?” I asked.

“Zibbe ba,” she said solemnly.

“Oh, well that is a serious transgression,” I replied in the same tone. I rolled over onto my back on the floor and sighed. “How can such an adorable, innocent kid come from a man like that?”

“Dada?”

“Yeah, Dada. Dada’s been keeping secrets.”

She cocked her head at me curiously, furrowing her little brow.

“You look just like your daddy when you do that,” I told her. “You must be thinking real hard about something.”

“Mm,” she said, bouncing into a nod. “Izzit?”

“I don’t know,” I sighed. “Maybe he’s not so bad. I don’t know, though, that’s the whole point. He seems like a good dad. A little unconventional maybe, but you’re happy and healthy and you seem to like him.” I looked over at her, wondering what her mother had looked like. Fair skin, blonde hair, I decided. Unless Roman was born blond too and had darkened naturally over the years. I’d seen that happen a few times.

“And that’s the thing,” I said. “He’s got all of this baggage. This history. Criminal history, I’m absolutely sure of it. He was way too careful about telling me what he did for Lloyd. Not telling me, I guess. At least he admitted to doing things he wasn’t proud of. That’s something, right?”

Zoe babbled back at me, matching my tone, and I smiled. “You need more people to talk to. You like to talk, don’t you?”

She babbled again, seeming to agree with me.

“And it’s just you and your dad. That’s sad. That makes me want to ignore everything and sweep in and fix everything and love you both just because you need it. That’s not a good reason to love people, you know. That’s how you get hurt.”

“Owwie?”

I nodded. “Big owwies, in the feelings. You can’t just put yourself out there like that, do what needs to be done just because it needs doing, without putting some protections in place for yourself. The world will eat you alive if you let it. Trust me, I know.”

“No,” she said, touching my nose.

“No, that’s a nose,” I laughed. “I meant know, like know…” I tapped my head, then laughed at myself. “Look at me, trying to have a conversation with a baby. You’re a fun kid, Zoe, but I’m not sure you can help me.”

“Hep?” She stood, toddled over to me, and started to pull on my hand. “Uppies? Hep?”

I laughed and rolled up, letting her think that she did it. She pulled hard, grunting with the effort, and I got to my feet. I swept her up in my arms and hugged her.

“See, you’re going to have to be careful. You jump right in to help people as soon as they say the word. That’s the kind of thing that can get you into trouble.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.