“You’re right. We have a future to focus on, right?” He agreed.
“Right! Now please can we start dinner? I’m starving.” I whined a little, just to make him smile, and was rewarded with that sexy half smile only he could do.
“After you, Cariña.” He waved an arm to the door, then followed me out to the kitchen.
We set to making dinner, and he seemed better, happier and more laid back, but I could still see the tension around his eyes, the worry he was making a mistake and I hated it. If I ever came face to face with his harpy of a mother, I was going to claw her eyes out for hurting him.
“You want to set the table for me?” Matt asked as he put the finishing touches to the salad and fresh bread we had made to go with the mousaka Matt had prepared for dinner.
“Sure.” I agreed. I liked cooking, but I wasn’t that great at it. Table setting was much more my kind of job.
I was just laying the last of the cutlery in the eight places, when the front door banged. I wasn't sure if it would be Cole or Kade, but I was excited to see either after the strange day we had.
“Livy?” It was Kade, and I couldn’t contain my smile when I heard his voice.
“In here!” I called back as I stood and started toward the hall to meet him.
He strode toward me, today in a white button down with his dark jeans. He smiled when I neared him and it made the whole day feel that little bit better.
“Hey you.” I moved into his outstretched arms, and breathed his fresh scent in deeply as he held me.
“Hey Love. You ok?”
“Yep. Are you? Good day?” I stepped back and looked him over more closely. He looked tired, but that was my fault, since he’d been with me the night before, and I’d been restless with nightmares all night.
“Productive. Is Kyle around?” He asked, lowering his voice.
“He’s upstairs sleeping, He worked all night. Did you find the woman?” I asked excitedly.
“I did. I got a number for her, and I called to see if she would be willing to meet with us. I told her who we are, and she was really nice, thrilled to hear how well Kyle was doing.”
“Is she going to meet with us then?”
“Better,” Kade said with a grin. He looked around, then finding no one listening, he pulled an envelope from his pocket and handed it to me.
“What’s this?” I asked, confused.
“Take a look.” I nervously opened the envelope and pulled out two photographs. The first was of a young, red headed boy, with pudgy cheeks, playing in a grassy yard. He looked about four or five and had a huge grin on his face. I was confused, until I looked past the boy and realised, behind him, in the background, sat a little blonde girl in the sandbox. She was younger, two or three. She was looking right at the camera, and had the most beautiful smile on her face.
“Oh my God Kade!” I gasped. “Is that her?”
“Yes. I took it straight to the photo studio, and had them blow it up as much as they could without losing the quality. That was the best they could get.” Kade explained, as I looked to the next photo, a zoomed in version of part of the image with Reece in. It was only about four inches square, but it was clear and so beautiful.
“She looked like him.” I whispered, seeing Kyle’s eyes in hers too.
“She did. I checked all of the albums with the neighbour, Rita, but this was the only image of Reece. She happily let me take it.”
“Kade, this is amazing. I’ll still make it into a sketch, but I’ll include this picture in the frame too now. Do you think he’ll like it? It won’t be too hard will it? For him to see her again?” I asked as the thought occurred to me.
“It’s going to be emotional for him, but he will love it. I know how much he has wanted a photo of her. This is going to help heal him, Livy.”
“Thank you so much for doing this Kade.”
“I’d do anything for you Love, and for my brothers. I can’t wait for you to give him this gift.” He leant in and kissed me briefly.
“I need to go and hide these somewhere safe. I’ll start on the sketch tomorrow when he’s at work.” I was excited as I ran to my room to hide the photos deep in my closet. It was going to be a great present for Kyle.
I had already made pictures for each of them, turning photos of me with each of them individually into sketches and framing them in beautiful heavy dark oak frames. I had even done one of me and Evie cuddling together, and found a pink sparkly frame for her room. I also copied a photo of Simon and Xander for them, and a photo of the whole family, taken at thanksgiving, for Keira and Grant. I was pretty happy with all of them, having spent hours on each one, getting it as close to the photo as possible. I had been excited to give them all out on Christmas morning, but this special present for Kyle had me even more amped up. I could not wait for Christmas day to come around now!
CHAPTER 6
I was shocked awake by shrill screaming. For the first second as I came around, I worried it was me, but I quickly realised it wasn’t, it was Evie. She was screaming for everyone to wake up, and to my sleep addled brain, it instantly sounded like she was scared.
“Cole!” I cried as I jumped to my feet, needing to get to her, and see she was safe. It was completely irrational, but all I could think was that The Shadow had come for me, and found Evie
