“You know, when you said nursery? I thought you meant helping you set up in the future.”
Molly giggled. “Well, you have to admit, drawing out a nursery is much better than moving furniture around in a room only to realize that it doesn’t work.”
I pointed to the laptop screen. “What if you moved the crib over here? It would open up that window, and then you could put a rocking chair or something there and feed the little one with a bit of a view.”
She sighed. “Yeah, I know. But if we move the crib there then I don’t have an outlet to access for his mobile, or for any sort of bedside table lamp I might want to put up.”
I nodded slowly. “Where are the outlets again? Are they the dark yellow little dots?”
“Yep. That’s them.”
I tapped against the screen. “Well, you’ve got one right there in that corner, and you know extension cords come in all shapes and colors now. I bet we could find you a slim one to slide along the wall that would match the color of the baseboard, and then you’d never notice it was there.”
She groaned. “If only I could hook this thing up to the internet. Then, I could actually research and compile a list of all this stuff!”
My eyes fell to her stomach before I cleared my throat. “You said that you feel safe here, even while you’re pregnant. Do you still feel that way?”
Molly smiled at me as she nodded with pride. “I know these men will do anything and everything possible to protect me. To protect all of us. Cole, especially. That man has dug me out of some pretty sticky situations, and while I know you’re new to us now, take it from me. You can trust that these guys will always make sure you’re okay.”
“So, if I were to tell you that I was thinking of going and staying with my sister in Santa Barbara, your reaction would be…”
She sighed heavily. “My reaction would be that you’d only be opening yourself up to trouble. You need to be around these guys, and not just for yourself. They’ll protect your little girl, too. But you have to play by their rules. They know what they’re talking about, and if you don’t trust Tanner, then trust me: they will always do right by you. In their eyes? You’re already family. You’ve had a child with Tan. Doesn’t matter when that child happened, but it did, and it links you to them. To all of us. You’re family, Summer, and that’s exactly why they’ll fight for you and your little girl every step of the way.”
Something within the pit of my gut came alive with every word she spoke, and while it didn’t deter me from taking Cheyenne to Sloane’s, it did convince me to stay behind and be part of the frontline that kept her safe. If Molly, a pregnant woman with nowhere else to go, could feel that safe within the walls, then I didn’t have shit to worry about.
Right?
I didn’t know much, but I knew this: if I stayed with Sloane, then I’d be chronically worried about Tanner and what was happening. But if Cheyenne went to stay with Sloane and I came back here, then at least I could find a way to receive updates about my little girl from my sister’s end.
Because I knew damn good and well Tanner would never update me if I left this place.
If I left his side for a second time in our lives.
“I still think it might be best to send my daughter to my sister’s. Sloane? My sister? She’s a detective with the Santa Barbara police department. Plus, she’s great with Cheyenne. That’s my little girl.”
Molly smiled. “That’s a beautiful name, Cheyenne.”
I nodded to her stomach. “The first one always feels so surreal, doesn’t it?”
She rubbed her belly with pride. “It really does. Cole’s already gone into overprotective mode, if you can believe it.”
I giggled. “I can certainly believe it.”
She looked at me. “Do you really feel like Cheyenne wouldn’t be safe here?”
I shook my head. “It’s not about her being safe here or not. It’s more about keeping distance between Cheyenne and everything that’s happening. I mean, Tanner knows who she is, but she still doesn’t know who he is, and I don’t want the first impression of her father—if they do meet—to be all of this.”
She nodded. “You know, I can understand that. Have you tried explaining it to Tanner that way?”
“Honestly, I don’t think I’ll have to. For all of the garbage and craziness my sister and I put him through when we were younger, he’s already respected my sister’s gumption and strength. We went through a lot growing up with my parents, and we grew up fast. Sloane, especially. I think he’ll be hesitant about it, but I think he’ll ultimately support it.”
She scooted a bit closer to me. “Will you tell your sister what’s going on, then?”
I leaned back against my chair and let my head flop back. “I honestly don’t know. I think I might give her an overview. Maybe. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll just chalk Cheyenne’s visit up to her needing some space and stability while I get a grip on my new job or something like that.”
She took my hand and squeezed it. “One thing I’ve already found with motherhood, even during pregnancy, is that Moms usually always know best. I’ve had to fight Cole on a couple of things regarding my medical treatments and gestational diabetes, but in the end, I know in the pit of my gut that I’m right. That it’ll be better for me, and our little boy, if we took my routes instead of his. Does it feel like that, Summer? Like it’s right, in the pit of your gut?”
I didn’t hesitate to answer either. “Without a shadow of a doubt. It feels right and good for me to stay here, but not Cheyenne. Not like this, anyway.”
She leaned forward, gazing into my eyes. “Then, you know what you have to do.”
I licked my lips. “Do you know where that SAT phone room is?”
Molly ripped me out of my chair and tugged me out of her and Cole’s bedroom before we rushed down the hallway. We peeked into bedrooms to make sure we weren’t disturbing anyone, and once we got to the room we slipped inside and closed the door behind us.
Before I plucked the SAT phone off the wall and dialed out to my sister.
“Hello?” she asked.
“Hey! It’s me.”
She paused. “Summer? What the fuck kind of number are you calling from?”
“Look, I don’t have a lot of time to explain, but Cheyenne is going to come visit you for the weekend. Is that okay?”
“Uh, I mean… yeah, sure. I’m always up for seeing my niece, you know that. But where are you calling—”
I interrupted her as Molly clocked my time on the phone. “I can’t explain. A lot of stuff has come up. But I’ll have her at your place by—”
“Wait, wait, wait, wait. How did your first day on the job go?”
“Gotta wrap it up. You’re at twenty seconds,” Molly whispered.
I closed my eyes. “Look, that’s the issue. My first day didn’t go well at all. It was rough, and I’m having a hard time accepting it, so I’ve taken a weekend shift to see if I can work on my skills with a slower crowd. But to do that, I need someone to take Cheyenne. Can you do that?”
“Sure, of course I can do that. Do you want to talk about it?”
I shook my head. “I can’t. I gotta go. But Cheyenne will be at your place no later than dinnertime on Friday. And thank you so much for this. I love you.”
“Love you, too. But did you get a new cell—”
I hung up the phone on her and prayed to God on high that she didn’t call back. I held the massive phone in my hand, waiting for it to ring. But the longer I stared at it, and the longer I went without a phone call, the more secure I was in hanging the phone back on the wall.
Before I turned to face Molly. “I did the right thing, right?”
She nodded. “And not a second sooner. You were right at twenty-nine.”
“Jesus fuck,” I whispered.
Yeah, I couldn’t keep Cheyenne in this tense of an environment, especially when there was a chance we could be tracked down and attacked again.
Now, all we had to do was get my daughter four hours away without being tracked by the same crew that terrorized me at the club.
Fabulous.
