Safe with Me

***

“Look, Mom! It’s Jules and Nate’s building!” Josie is pointing eagerly out the window of the duck boat, her yellow duckbill whistle in her mouth. When you get on the amphibious truck, you get a yellow duck whistle that makes quacking sounds.

It’s incredibly annoying, and they will be “lost” by morning.

The truck drives all through downtown Seattle, by the famous Pike’s Place market, through old Bell Town and then it drives right into the water of Lake Washington, and takes a tour about the lake, giving us a fantastic view of the Seattle skyline.

The girls are loving it.

“Yes, it is,” I agree and smile at Josie. “But how do you know?”

“Because it’s by the really good donut place,” she grins. “I like the glazed ones.”

“Ah, that’s right,” I nod and have a sudden craving for glazed donuts myself. “We went there the last time we stopped by to see Jules and Nate.”

Josie giggles as I tug on one of her long pony-tails and I glance over at Caleb, who hasn’t paid attention to one word the tour guide has said, but instead watches every person on the truck intently, his eyes narrowed. He and I are both seated on the aisle, giving the girls the window seats so they can see everything the tour guide is describing.

“Relax,” I murmur over at him.

He doesn’t even look my way.

I purse my duck call between my lips and blow it in his face.

He whips his head around and glares at me.

“Relax,” I tell him again, with a grin. “This is fun.”

His body is tense, every muscle flexed and ready to jump into action. His phone rings and he reaches for it and has it pressed to his ear before the second ring.

“Montgomery.”

And suddenly, like magic, it’s as though his body deflates like a balloon. “Thank God.”

He listens and then chuckles. “Yeah, well, that’s one less thing we need to worry about, but we’re not out of the woods. Okay, later.”

He hangs up and exhales, pushes his hand through his hair and finally glances down at me. “I’ll tell you when we get back to my place.”

“Good news?” I ask.

“Yeah.” He nods and scans the group again.

“They’re the same people that were there twenty seconds ago. They haven’t changed, Caleb.”

“I don’t like crowds,” he murmurs as he shakes his head, his eyes trained on the exits, body still alert. I reach over and lace my fingers through his, anchoring him to me. I can’t imagine what’s going through his head right now. The girls are oblivious, loving the sights and sounds of the city, dancing along with the music and blowing into their duck calls.

“Thank you for this,” I murmur to him and he nods once then breathes a sigh of relief when the vehicle stops back where we started and the passengers begin to dismount.

“Now what?” Maddie asks with a wide grin.

“Let’s get ice cream!” Josie exclaims as we stand to be the last ones to leave.

“Let’s go to the movies!” Maddie joins in.

Caleb swears under his breath and tugs one of each of the girls hands into his own as we walk past the Experience Music Project toward the parking garage.

We lucked out on the weather today. For February, it’s relatively warm, and rain-free.

Thank God.

“Caleb! Look! Cotton candy!” Josie points at a red and white cart, laden with clouds of cotton candy in plastic bags, popcorn and slushy’s.

“Okay, we can do cotton candy,” Caleb grins down at the girls and leads us to the cart.

“I want pink!” Maddie and Josie exclaim at the same time.

“Two pink cotton candies,” Caleb chuckles at the older woman working inside the cart. She smiles widely and hands them over, then collects the money for them from Caleb.

“Your family is beautiful,” she winks. “And your girls clearly have you wrapped around their little fingers.”

I tense for a moment, my eyes glued to Caleb’s face. He continues to stare down at his wallet, a smile tugging on his lips, but then he frowns almost regretfully. Finally, he glances back up to the kind woman, offering her a fake smile.

“Thank you,” he replies simply, accepts his change and hands the girls their sweets.

“What do you say?” I remind my girls.

“Thank you!” Their voice is a chorus of excitement as they dive into the sweet confection and nibble their treat.

“Thank you,” I mutter to Caleb who meets my gaze with sad blue eyes.

“You’re welcome.”

***

“I want to stay here, Brynna.” Caleb’s hands are braced on the countertop at his hips as he leans against it and glares at me in exasperation.

“Absolutely not,” I shake my head furiously, fold the dish towel in half length-wise and drape it over the cabinet door beneath the sink. “We have a life to get back to.”

“Brynna, listen to me…”

“Caleb,” I interrupt him, my voice calm and quiet and he stops talking and watches me carefully. “No. My girls need to go to school. I have a job. Yes, Levi is creepy, but…”

“Levi is no longer an issue.” Caleb crosses his arms over his chest, drawing my gaze to his rippled biceps and I have to press my knees together from the zing of electricity that zooms through my pussy.

“What do you mean?” I ask.