LITMIR.BIZ

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already left her shift at the restaurant early to help with Trina. Now she was going to be late to open the library to help with Gran. And it was Western Wednesday, which meant that she only had thirty minutes before the Louis L’Amour book club arrived for their monthly meeting in the reading room.

      At this rate, Monica was going to lose both of her jobs. And then where would she and Gran be?

      * * *

      Trina came out of the bathroom as soon as Monica and Carmen left. Ethan thought about offering to show her around the small apartment, but honestly, there wasn’t much need for a tour at this point. Besides the kitchen and combination living room–dining room, there were only two bedrooms and she’d probably already seen those on her way down the hall.

      Plus, she still hadn’t said much directly to him and he didn’t really know what to say either.

      He tried to remember what he’d been like at that age. Sullen and defiant and lonely because his dad was often out of town working for days at a time, leaving Ethan alone to fend for himself. Swallowing down his own feelings of resentment, he decided to try a different tactic.

      “So, you have a caseworker back home?” he asked. She’d casually mentioned as much back in the kitchen at the Cowgirl Up as though it were no big deal. As though every eleven-year-old had one of those. If she was anything like him, she would try to put on a tough front to cover how scared she was.

      Trina shrugged, but at least it was a response.

      So much for the small talk. Ethan took a deep breath, steeling himself for the tougher questions he knew he needed to ask. But before he could, she turned to face him, her eyes narrowed with doubt.

      “Were you really a Navy SEAL?”

      Okay, so if she wasn’t going to talk about herself, maybe he could lure her into a conversation by letting down his own guard. “How did you know that?”

      “I’m not blind.” She pointed to a class picture in a frame on his fireplace mantel. Besides the small, fake plant he’d inherited from his dad, it was the only personal item in the room. “It says ‘Basic Underwater Demolition/SEALS Training.’ Plus, Chantal already told me you were in the Navy.”

      A jolt of surprise caught him, and not just because the girl referred to her mother by first name. “What else did your mom tell you about me?”

      “That you got her pregnant and then took off.”

      “Trina...” Ethan took a cautious step forward, dipping his chin so he could catch her eyes. “I want you to understand that I never would’ve left if I’d known about you.” If she didn’t believe anything else about him, he needed her to know that he’d never intentionally abandoned anyone.

      Instead of giving any indication that she heard his words, Trina pivoted as she studied everything else in the living room but him. “She once told me that you dated anyone in a skirt.”

      Ethan’s throat tightened. Was this how eleven-year-olds talked nowadays? He didn’t want to call her mother’s honesty into question, but he also didn’t like the idea that the deck of lies was already stacked against him. “That’s not exactly a fair assessment, considering we only knew each other for a couple of months and we both were in a rush to act like grownups. I was barely eighteen at the time.”

      “That’s how old I’ll be in seven years,” Trina said without looking at him.

      Whoa. He did a double take as he realized she was right. He’d already missed more than half of her childhood, more than eleven birthday parties according to the birth certificate in her bag. “So, you just had a birthday, huh?”

      “I guess. You know, this apartment is a total dump.”

      He followed her gaze down the hall to the second bedroom, which held a creaky twin bed, a cheap dresser and all the cardboard boxes he’d had shipped from his storage unit in San Diego and never got around to unpacking. “Well, it came furnished and I only moved here six months ago. Speaking of which, how did your mom know where to find me?”

      That got her attention and her lips went from a pout to a half smirk. “She didn’t. I did.”

      Her admission floored him, but before he could ask how, a knock sounded at the door. If Ethan hadn’t already been studying Trina, he would’ve missed the apprehension flashing through her eyes before she hung her head and focused on the toe of her canvas sneaker again.

      When he peeked through the peephole, he recognized Kylie Gregson, Kane’s sister, and Mia McCormick. Not only was Kylie related to his boss, she was also the sister-in-law of Ethan’s best friend Luke. Kylie and her best friend Mia wouldn’t come to his house unless it was for a good reason. A knot formed in his stomach and he glanced back to where Trina was standing. He wanted to communicate to her that he couldn’t not answer, but his daughter wouldn’t lift her face.

      Daughter. He was still getting used to that word.

      The knock sounded again, this time right against his temple which was resting against the door.

      Smothering a groan, Ethan twisted the knob and let the women in.

      “We can’t stay,” Kylie explained, passing him two paper shopping bags with handles. “But we wanted to drop off some stuff for Sugar Falls’ newest resident.”

      If it had been anyone else, Ethan might’ve thought they were looking for an inside scoop. But he played poker on Thursday nights with both of their husbands and knew the women were sincere.

      “What is it?” he asked.

      “Mostly a hodgepodge of things a girl might need,” Kylie said. Trina must’ve shown some interest from behind him because one of their unexpected visitors looked past Ethan and spoke to his daughter. “Hi. I’m Kylie Gregson. This is Mia McCormick. She owns the dance studio in town.”

      Mia lifted up a pink duffel bag. “I know these probably aren’t your style, but there aren’t a ton of shopping options in Sugar Falls besides the sporting goods store and Designs by Doris, which tends to only carry stuff for the...uh...senior generation, shall we say? Anyway, it was the best we could do on short notice.”

      The women held up their offerings, but Trina didn’t make a move to take anything. She just stood there in her oversize T-shirt and jeans, her blue eyes were fixated on the bags as if they contained explosives. Ethan should’ve probably accepted them on her behalf, but his brain was still trying to catch up and process how the women not only knew that his daughter needed new stuff, but had gotten everything together so quickly.

      “Anyway, I’ll be going into Boise this weekend,” Kylie said, setting the bags inside the entryway, before she took a retreating step onto the landing outside his front door. “So let me know if you want to pick out some different stuff. I’d be happy to take you shopping, if your dad is okay with that.”

      With a wink at Ethan, she and Mia were out the door and making their way down the stairs before Ethan could even offer so much as a thanks. He’d yet to think about where he would get suitable clothes for a girl. But apparently, word had already spread about his daughter’s unexpected arrival and her meager possessions. For the second time today, he was the last to figure things out and the feeling left him hollow and powerless.

      “I guess my mom was right about women wanting to throw themselves at you,” Trina finally said before slowly approaching the bags Kylie and Mia had left behind.

      The back of his neck prickled in defense. “Those ladies are married to some of my good friends.”

      Trina shrugged a shoulder, then used a toe to nudge the duffel as though she was looking for a hidden booby trap before she picked it up. Ethan scooped up the bags and carried them the few feet to the ugly orange sofa.

      “What about that lady Monica?” Trina asked as she looked longingly at the bags. “Was she just being nice to me because she’s married to one of your friends, too?”

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