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“Make a list, and one of the boys’ll go pick some up for you,” Forrest replied easily

“Why us?” Eli asked

“I have no fuckin’ clue what to buy a newborn Send Lu,” Siahat her as she came back into the room

“Why would I knohat to get?” she asked, rolling her eyes “What? Because I’m a woman?”

“You have a niece,” Siah argued

“That doesn’t et”

“I’ll go,” I cut in before they really started arguing The two of theue about the color of the sky for hours They got off on that shit, but it irritated the hell out of the rest of us “Uh, rab you some paper and a pen”

“I can just goher hand to wavearound here?”

“You gonna walk?” I asked, getting up from the table

“Well, if it’s close enough, sure,” she said slowly

“I was bein’ sarcastic,” I h the junk drawer by the back door “You’re not walking to the store in the ht”

“There a reason the two of you can’t go together?” Forrest asked dryly, a his words

I paused, bracing ether Never in a ain would rattle s had happened, the way I’d loved her and the way the ties between us had been severed meant that it would never be easy to run into her I hadn’t been concerned I’d see her in San Diego because I was barely ever there, but I’d braced for it every tiht that I’d be able to handle it

Maybe it was the situation ere in that was s so difficult The fear I’d felt The fact that she was standing in the oddamn baby

“That would work,” she said cautiously “Is that okay with you?”

I turned to face her Fuck, she looked tired Tired and scared and sad, though I doubted any of the others noticed it Cecilia had inherited most of her looks from her mother, but the calm, detached expression she as pure Casper

“Yeah,” I said with a nod “Go grab what you need and we’ll head out”

After she left the roo and soon, everyone else was quietly laughing with him

“Shut up,” I said with a sigh, leaning back against the counter

“Who would’ve guessed that all we needed to rattle you was a little blonde wo a baby?” Lu asked

“Not just any blonde woman,” Siah said

“Cecilia,” he and Ephrai

“It’s been a long fuckin’ night,” I replied