Page 36 of Vicious King

I have a mom bod.

And it makes me freeze.

“Whoa,” he murmurs against my lips and frowns down at me. “Stay right here with me and get the fucked-up thoughts out of your head, Sunshine.”

“I’m okay.” I pat him on the chest, and he backs away slightly. “I need to get in to Charlie. You’re welcome to come in and help with bedtime, if you want. We both like having you here.”

“Yeah, baby, I’m coming in. And then we’re going to talk some more. I have so many questions, but more than that, I just can’t get enough of your sweet voice.”

“We can talk more,” I assure him.

I push inside the house and find Mildred in the kitchen, pulling some bread out of the oven. Have I mentioned that the woman is a saint? I love her to death.

“Hello, you two,” she says with a smile. “You have good timing. This needs to cool, then you can just bag it up and have it for sandwiches this week.”

“You’re the best,” I tell her with a smile. “Thank you. Where’s the kiddo?”

“He was watching videos about dinosaurs on his tablet in his room,” she says as she turns off the oven. “He’s been quiet tonight. I think he’s just tired and maybe still adjusting to all of the new exciting things going on.”

“Okay, I’ll check on him. Thanks for staying, Mildred. Just add it to my tab.”

She winks at me and nods at Carson. “I’m glad you’re here to make my favorite two people happy.”

With that, she heads home.

“She doesn’t have a rap sheet,” Carson informs me, as casually as if we were talking about the weather. “Her husband has been dead for twenty years. Had a heart attack at forty-five.”

I stare up at him, stunned.

“She never told me that.”

I knew her husband was dead, but I didn’t know that he had a heart attack so young.

“Three kids, all grown and scattered all over the country,” he continues. “Lives within her means. The house is paid for.”

“None of that is my business,” I tell him.

“It’s mine because she has access to my family. So yeah, I want to know everything about her, down to what she had for breakfast today. Toast with jam, by the way.”

“For fuck’s sake.”

He grins. “Let’s go find Charlie.”

Eleven

CARSON

That first night I helped with Charlie’s bedtime, I stayed awake until dawn, watching him sleep. I couldn’t leave, and Rina didn’t ask me to. I sat there and watched him breathe all fucking night, still shell-shocked that he exists at all.

I could do it every single night. He has my coloring, but he resembles his mother. He has her mouth, her nose, but he has my eyes. I don’t need a fucking DNA test to know that he’s mine. I can feel it in my soul.

But now that he’s asleep, I need to spend more time with my Sunshine. So, I close his door behind me and find her in the kitchen, putting dishes away.

“Did he make you read five extra stories?”

I grin and take the plate from her hand, set it on the counter, and then pull her into me. I press my mouth to the top of her head and breathe her in.

“No, he wanted to hear about Vegas.”