Page 131 of Reaper and Ruin

I gave a small laugh. “That obvious, huh?”

“The vomiting and hovering man kind of gave it away.”

“It’s really new, so we haven’t told anyone yet.”

Francine nodded like she understood. And I realized I’d never even asked her if she had children of her own.

“Do you have kids, Francine?”

“No. I was never blessed with any. You’re a lucky woman, Violet. Two kids practically delivered to your doorstep. A third growing inside you. You’re clearly someone’s favorite.”

I found myself bristling at the odd description. After everything I’d been through with Toby and Nyah, and my foster parents and Travis, the idea I was one of God’s favorites felt ludicrous. And yet I could see how someone might think that, if she was a middle-aged woman with no life partner and had never had the opportunity to have kids.

There was definitely a hint of bitterness in Francine’s tone, but I had sympathy for her.

I looked at her and saw the path I could have so easily walked, if X and Levi and Whip hadn’t come into my life when they had. They’d changed me. Changed my future. And though I knew that family wasn’t everything for a lot of women, and that thousands of them were happily single and childless by choice, that wasn’t what I wanted.

Judging from the expression of jealousy on Francine’s face, it wasn’t what she had wanted either.

The joy of my life wasn’t ever going to be my shitty paying cleaning job.

It was in the people waiting at home for me after a shift.

My heart broke for Francine that she didn’t have what she so clearly needed.

I tried to be friendly. “How’s your new boyfriend going?”

Francine shook her head. “It didn’t work out. He didn’t want kids.”

I grimaced on the inside, wishing I could pull my big foot out of my mouth. I shouldn’t have said anything, I was clearly just making her feel worse.

I was surprised Francine still wanted children though. Maybe she wasn’t as old as I’d thought. I’d assumed her to be in her fifties, but maybe she was late forties? I supposed that wasn’t too late to adopt. Whip was mid-forties, and it hadn’t even crossed my mind that he was too old.

But Francine seemed much older than Whip, even if his hair was completely silver.

“Are the others coming in for the meeting this morning?” I asked, trying to change the subject to anything but our personal lives.

“No. I already sent them out to their jobs.” She plucked her keys from the desk. “Come on, I’ll drive you to yours.”

“Oh!” I peered at her. “I thought we were having a meeting?”

She pointed at my employee photo on the wall, next to Nyah’s and the woman who trained me, Elizabeth. “No, I just wanted you to see your photo up there.”

“I really appreciate you choosing me. That means a lot. I take so much pride in my work, so it’s lovely to be recognized.” I did feel a bit bad for the guys though. They had worked for Francine longer than either me or Nyah had, and neither of them had their photos up there.

But I wasn’t going to question it. That would seem ungrateful.

“You really don’t need to drive me though. I’m fine to walk or hop on the bus if you give me the address.”

Francine collected her purse and shooed me toward the door. “Nonsense. You’re pregnant now, Violet. You need to take better care of yourself. The house I have you scheduled for is big and I’ll need to help you with it. I would have scheduled someone else to go with you if I’d known about your condition—”

There it was again, the hint of bitterness.

Awkward embarrassment crept up my neck. “I can handle it.”

But she just picked up her cleaning caddy and nudged me out the door so she could lock it behind us.

Well, this was going to be a fun day.