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“Have you seen Hawk?” His voice was hoarse, and that somehow just made him look even worse.
“They’re letting him go home today. Kalini’s taking care of him.” I crossed to the chair next to his bed. “I think they’re finally going to move past friendship.”
“About time.”
I nodded in agreement. “I won’t bother to ask how you’re feeling because you look like shit.”
“Thanks. You’re too kind.”
I kept up small talk for a bit, neither of us talking about Bair. Since Otis hadn’t asked about him, I was going with the assumption that someone had already told him what’d happened. Maybe I was being a coward, but I didn’t want to have to tell him. Making that call to Bair’s dad yesterday would haunt me for the rest of my life. I didn’t need to add telling Otis to my nightmares.
It wasn’t long before he started nodding off. After he’d jerked awake for the second time, I stood up.
“I’m going to head out. Kalini and Hawk plan on stopping in before they leave, but don’t force yourself to stay awake. I’ll check in tomorrow, but call me whenever you want, even if it’s just to talk because you’re bored.”
“Like I’d ever be that bored,” he mumbled, already half-asleep before he finished the sentence.
I checked my phone as I rode the elevator down to the lobby and saw that it was a little past twelve. My stomach growled, alerting me to the fact that I was hungry. I’d grabbed a protein bar when I’d gone home this morning, but I’d long since burned away those calories. It wasn’t until I reached into my pocket and got my car keys that I realized something was off. By the time I reached my car, I’d figured out what it was.
I didn’t have my wallet.
I sat in my car, running through my morning until I realized that the last time I’d seen it hadn’t been this morning, but last night. In Jae’s bedroom.
She’d said she was going to work, but I didn’t know if she came home for lunch, or if she had a babysitter watching her son, so it made sense to stop by the apartment first rather than the store. Besides, I was too restless to do anything else at the moment.
Luck, it seemed, was with me since a minute after I knocked, the door opened partway. The woman looking at me with suspicion had curls and was slender where Jae was curvy, but the resemblance was unmistakable. Before I could say anything, her light blue eyes widened, and recognition dawned.
“You’re Damon Holden.”
I smiled. “I am. I was here last night, with Jae.”
“Shit.” The curse was low, but then she glanced behind her, guilt flashing across her face.
“Mommy!”
A little boy’s voice came from behind her, changing my assumptions from this morning. The kid had called this young womanmommy. Her, not Jae.
“I don’t want to bother you,” I said, pushing aside the other thoughts. Jae’s personal life wasn’t any of my business. “I left my wallet here.”
The young woman gave me a hard look, then seemed to come to a decision. A moment later, she unhooked the chain lock and opened the door. “Come in. I’m Jamie, Jae’s sister.”
Jamie. Sister and nephew to Jae, who lived here with her. That’d teach me to make assumptions.
“I’m guessing it’s in her bedroom since I haven’t seen it out here.” Jamie went over to where a dark-haired boy sat at the same kitchen table I’d sat at last night. “Kevin, you wait here. I’ve got to get something from Aunt Jae’s room.”
I grinned at the kid, and he beamed back. He was going to be a heartbreaker when he got older. I’d never seriously thought about having kids, but every once in a while, when I saw one like him, I wondered what it would be like to be a dad.
Jamie returned from the bedroom after only a few seconds and came over to hand me the wallet. When I went to take it, she kept her hold on the other side, her eyes narrowing.
“I’m hoping this means you used protection.”
She wasn’t talking loud enough for the kid to hear, but there was no mistaking the intensity in her voice.
“We did.”
“If you hurt my sister, I’ll cut off your balls and hang them on our Christmas tree.”
“Noted.” She let go of my wallet, and I put it in my pocket. “Jae is an amazing woman.”