Page 97 of Mimic

She allowed me to hold her innocent baby, not in the least bit afraid that I might hurt her. She trusted me.

“It’s okay, Indie. You’re safe here. No one will ever hurt you again.” She whispered those words over and over as I clung to her.

“I’m so sorry,” I said, sitting up and wiping my eyes.

“There is nothing for you to feel sorry about.”

“She got you too, huh?”

“Kytten, hush,” Sam scolded, but the smile on her face said she didn’t really mean it.

“She’s dangerous you know. Let her too close and she’ll have you believing you’re worth more than you think,” Kytten said, winking at Sam as she sat beside me on the couch.

I chuckled at Kytten’s words.

“Because you are worth more than you believe.”

“You don’t know my story,” I muttered.

“I don’t need to know your story. You were put on this Earth for a purpose. Not the one you’ve been living. The one you’re meant to live from this point forward.”

“See what I mean? Give up now; once Sam claims you, you’ll never be the same. She did the same thing to me, by the way. That arm is lethal. The minute she puts it around you, you’re agoner. Tears you can’t control and haven’t shed for a decade just start to flow.”

Sam just smiled at Kytten’s banter.

“Where is my namesake, by the way?”

“Your brother took her from Indie and walked away.”

“I’ll never get her from him.” Kytten pouted, crossing her arms over her chest like a toddler.

Mimic sat across the room holding the tiny baby in his arms. Charlie, Sam’s oldest, sat next to him, talking his ear off. He might appear to be ignoring Charlie, but every time she stopped talking, he’d look right at her and say something.

He’d be a good father one day. Did he want children? Did I? I knew nothing about being a mom. The few memories I had of my mother were solid, but they weren’t many. I was so young when they took me away from her.

She would have been a wonderful grandmother, though. The kind who baked cookies and babysat without complaint. I looked at Sam. She was a wonderful mom. She’d be a wonderful grandmother one day.

Kytten’s phone rang, and she jumped up to answer it. “I need to take care of something, since Thorne has Rosie and Romeo has Josie. Neither of them are giving them up anytime soon.”

I followed her gaze to Romeo, who sat on the other couch, Josie propped on his chest sleeping. He had a hand on her back, holding her in place, and a phone in his other hand, texting. He glared at anyone who came near him.

“That’s unexpected.”

“It is,” Sam observed. “Romeo, who are you texting and sending pictures of my daughter to?”

He looked up and smiled at Sam. “My old lady.”

“Your what?” Jack asked as he entered the room. “You don’t have an old lady.”

“Sure, I do. She just doesn’t know it yet.” He smiled, and I wondered what type of woman could rein in the manwhore of Diamond Creek. She had to be pretty damn special.

“MIMIC! Get your ass in here!”

“Uh-oh.” I jumped up from the couch and headed toward Mimic. Whatever it was, I would stand by his side. The way an old lady should. He handed the baby off to Aspen, and when he reached me, I grabbed his hand. Together we walked into church.

“What?”

“Drop your pants.”