I dove back into the car, started the engine, and pulled back onto the highway. As I passed the moose, I shot him the bird out the open window. “This isn’t over!”
The police were already inside when I pulled into Celine’s driveway, their lights flashing in the dark, making the nearby houses glow. Thank fuck they were here. Gus was right. I couldn’t just handle everything myself. We needed a lot of backup.
Inside the house, Celine was holding Julian and speaking to a police officer. It wasn’t until I was a few feet away that I saw it.
My heart dropped right out of my body, and my feet froze.
Holy shit. Her face.
One side was bruised and so swollen that her right eye was barely visible.
An anger so intense rolled through me that my body shook as I pushed past the police officers and threw my arms around my sister and Julian.
I wanted to build a protective force field around them and make all the bad disappear. I could live another hundred years and never forget what my sister’s bruised face looked like. I would do everything in my power to protect her.
“I’m here,” I rasped into her tangled hair.
“I’m so ashamed,” she cried, her words barely intelligible.
The longer I held her, the angrier I grew. Fuming, I pulled back and turned to the police officer, a kindly-looking grandfather type. “How does she get a restraining order?”
“We can get the paperwork started tonight.”
“Good.” I glared, stroking her hair as she cried into my shoulder. “Can I take them home with me?”
“We have a few more questions, but after that, yes.”
The officer had just continued his interview with Celine when Gus strode into the house, looking murderous.
Just as he crossed the threshold, our eyes met, and he softened.
With a small nod to me, he walked straight over to Ellie and Maggie, who were sitting on the couch, both trembling and crying. He dropped to his knees and dove right into a funny story about Clementine chasing a squirrel.
“Celine,” I said gently. “I’ll take Julian. Go sit down with Officer Hughes and fill out the forms. We need to get this done.”
With a sigh, she passed Julian to me.
Once I had him settled on my hip, his thumb in his mouth and his head on my shoulder, I shuffled to where Gus now had the girls howling with laughter.
With the hand that wasn’t holding Julian, I got my phone out and shot off a text to my lawyers. They were sharks who worked twenty-four hours a day. I’d have the best family law attorney in the state of Maine here tomorrow to make sure that piece of shit never came near my sister or these precious kids again.
“You kids wanna come have a sleepover at my house?” I asked.
The girls lit up. “Can we make a fire out by the lake again?” Maggie asked.
I nodded.
“I could go to the store and pick up supplies for s’mores if you’d like,” Gus suggested.
In unison, the girls squealed. God, this man. As I assessed him, a rush of love hit me so intensely, I almost stumbled.
He was massive, bearded, and intimidating. But he was here, sitting on the floor, making silly faces with these kids, distracting them and easing their fears on what had to be the worst night of their lives.
“Honey graham crackers?” Julian asked. “I hate cinnamon.”
A bolt of shock had my spine snapping straight. He rarely spoke, especially around people he didn’t know well.
“Of course, little man. Honey is way better.”
With a nod, Julian nestled back into my shoulder.
“Let’s go to your rooms and pack some stuff,” I suggested, looking over to where Celine was talking to the police. My stomach knotted as I once again took in her battered face. She better be pressing charges.
“And then we can all go have a super fun sleepover.”
The girls bounced up, and I followed them to their room, where they packed their backpacks and directed me to Julian’s preferred blanket, pajamas, and stuffies.
Gus helped me load my car and took junk food orders from the kids. With every minute that passed, the sleepover plans got more extravagant. Gus was now making a list on his phone of their food requests, which included every type of sugary breakfast cereal for the morning, and the girls had launched into a debate about which movie we would watch. Encanto was the current front-runner.
When Celine finished with the police—with instructions to swing by the station in the morning to finalize her statement and process the paperwork—we had the kids loaded up and packed, all three excited for their wild night at my house.
“Thank you,” I said to Gus, looping an arm around his waist.
“Anything,” he said softly into my hair. “Just ask. I’ll do anything for you, Dragonfly.”
Chapter 35Gus
