Good Girl Gone

She giggles across the room and one of her sisters leans over to read her phone, but Star dodges her.

“Are you sexting someone?” Lark cries out.

“No!” Star screeches. But her face turns red.

“Better not be,” her dad mumbles.

Star shoves her phone into her pocket.

Suddenly, Sam appears from around the corner. He stops in the doorway, his hands braced on the frame. “He’s here!” he cries. He wipes his eyes. “Eight pounds, two ounces.” He holds up his fist. “And nuts about this big! My God, they’re huge.”

“How’s Peck?” Peck’s mom asks.

“She’s great. They’re taking care of some really gross stuff right now, but I’ll be back in a few minutes to get you.”

Paul gets up and opens his arms to Sam. Sam hugs him, and Paul pounds lightly on his back and murmurs something in his ear.

Sam nods. “He’s amazing,” Sam says, his voice full of wonder. “I can’t believe I made something so awesome.”

“I can’t either!” Pete calls, but he’s wiping his eyes.

Sam smiles and goes back down the hallway.

Paul sits down beside Pete. “You need a tissue?” he asks, but he’s grinning.

“Nah, I’m good,” Pete replies. He sniffles and Reagan passes him their daughter. She’s asleep, and just her head is poking out of the blankets. “We should get her home,” he says.

Reagan glares at him. “I’m not leaving until I see that baby.”

Paul chuckles.

In a few minutes a nurse comes out to get everyone, and everyone gets up but Star. She stays in her seat. “You coming?” Lark asks.

She shakes her head. “In a minute. You go ahead.”

Lark’s brow furrows. “You sure?”

Star nods.

Her father scrubs a hand across the top of her head as he walks by her, and then it’s just me and her in the room. I’m not family, so I don’t go to see the baby. I just came because Star needed someone to get her here. I’d like to be a Reed, but I’m not. I got a tattoo with the five of them a few months ago that says: Where I go, they go. But that was just because they were grateful for something I did for them.

I followed them one day when they went to do something stupid, and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time with the right weapon and the desire to use it against someone I truly hated. He was the leader of a gang I used to belong to, back when I was in my rebellious stage. My shooting him was called “self defense” in the police reports, but I went back to prison because I was carrying a firearm in violation of my probation, and the day I got out, the Reeds were there waiting for me with a home and all the support I could ever need. When we got the tattoos, they were including me, trying to make me feel like family. But I’m not. I’m okay with it. I’ve been alone for a really long time, and I’ve gotten used to it. Or at least I was until Star crawled her fine ass in my lap last night.

She comes and sits down beside me. “Thank you,” she says.

“For what?”

“For helping me last night. I was kind of a mess.”

“A beautiful mess.” Damn, did I say that out loud?

She smiles softly, her cheeks flushing.

The door opens and Wren walks into the room. She holds the door open and someone follows her in. Star stiffens. “What’s he doing here?”

“Where the fuck have you been?” Wren asks. “I’ve been trying to find you everywhere.”

The guy with Wren looks a lot like Star. They have the same hair color and the same eyes. The same thin body and wiry build. Although on Star, I’d have to call it willowy instead of wiry.

Star jumps to her feet. “Why did you bring him here?” she asks. “He doesn’t belong here.”

Wren puts her hands on her hips. “Yes, he does.”

People start filing out of Sam and Peck’s room, and I watch as they all leave, one by one. They throw their hands up at me as they walk by, and Paul asks me silently with his eyes if everything is okay. I nod to reassure him, but in truth I’m not completely sure.

Star gets up and walks down the hallway.

“Well, that went well,” Wren says as she flops into a chair. She points to the guy beside her. “Oh, this is our brother, Tag. Tag, this is Josh. He works at the tattoo shop I was telling you about, with the Reeds.”

Tag sticks out his hand and I take it. He looks me in the eye and I like that. His grip is firm, and I like that even more. What I don’t like is how much Star doesn’t seem to like him. “Nice to meet you,” I say. I look at Wren. “Are you going to see the baby?”

“Is it here?” she cries.

I nod and smile. She shrieks and gets to her feet, then runs down the hallway.

I sit silently with Tag for a minute. But curiosity is killing me. “Where are you from, man?” I ask.

“From the past,” he says. He makes a face. “And apparently I should have stayed there.”

“What brings you to New York?”

He shrugs. “I needed a change.”

Something is off with this guy, but I can’t put my finger on it. “So, you thought looking up long lost sisters was the way to go?”

He chuckles. “It was now or never, you know? I needed to be in the city. I just didn’t expect to walk into a mess.”

“Some call it a mess. Some call it a baby.” I hold my hands up like I’m weighing two things, lowering one and raising the other.