Page 53 of Vicious King

“Take the night, Sunshine.” He leans over and plants his lips on my cheek, then my temple and forehead. “Get some rest. We’re doing just fine.”

Without overthinking it, I lean up and wrap my arms around him, squeezing him so tight, I’m shocked he can breathe.

I pull in a shuddering breath, and he drags his hand down my spine.

“I want you to talk to me when you’re ready.”

“I will.” I kiss his cheek, then sink down into the pillow, barely hearing the door close as I drift off to sleep.

Seventeen

CARSON

“Can we swim some more?” Charlie asks me after I finish cleaning up the pizza boxes. My kid might be only six, but he can pack away the food. “There are lights out there and everything. Mom won’t know.”

“First of all, we don’t keep secrets from your mom.”

Charlie’s shoulders droop.

“She’s the one person in the world that you and I will never lie to, or try to deceive.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means to keep her in the dark, so she doesn’t know what’s going on. Because she loves you, and she has to know all the things.”

“She does anyway. How does she always find out?”

“I think it’s a mom thing.” I shrug and pick him up, hitching him over my shoulder as I take him upstairs. “Besides, it’s late and time to get ready for bed.”

Charlie giggles and lightly pats my back as he hangs upside down.

“You’re tall.”

“You will be, too, one day.”

“Mom says I have to eat vegetables to get big and strong, but I hate them. Whoa!”

I toss him on his bed and smirk when he pretends to faint.

“Okay, you know the drill. Shower, then a story, then sleep.”

“I don’t know how to work this shower,” he says as he hops off the bed and goes running for the bathroom. “It’s huge.”

He could probably host a birthday party in here, but he’ll grow into it.

“I’ll help you.”

Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought that I, the grim reaper of assassins, would be helping my kid get ready for bed while my wife rests down the hall.

I hope she’s okay.

I’ve wanted to check in with her all day, but I also want to give her space. She was always a thinker, but she never asked for time away from me before.

I don’t like it.

Once I get Charlie through his shower-time routine and into new pajamas, he climbs into bed and chooses three stories.

I don’t fight him on it. He’ll be asleep after one anyway.