Page 47 of Madam Temptress
Keira leans over to hug me, and I sure as hell don’t miss the look on Mount’s face when she touches me. “Thank you for being there for Mags. She needs you more than you realize. And thank you for this too.”
“It’s a privilege,” I reply as she steps away, shocked that I still have two working kneecaps.
That man is a goner, I think with a smile.And I am too.
* * *
“How in the hell does she move so fast?” I spin around to catch Rory darting across the room, blocks in both hands, which are flailing above her head. My heart is in my fucking throat at the thought of her face-planting on the carpet. “Slow down, little girl. There’s nowhere to go in such a hurry.”
Magnolia’s laughter mixes with Rory’s as she cuts to the side to scoop her up. “That’s because Princess Aurora has so much to do. Isn’t that right,bébé?”
Rory unleashes a wave of chatter that’s barely intelligible to those of us who don’t spend all day around her. I catch a few words, but I still have absolutely no idea what she’s talking about. Frankly, she doesn’t seem to mind.
Magnolia giggles and smiles, and Rory claps the blocks together.
“Let’s see if you can fit them in the holes, smarty-pants.”
Magnolia carries the dainty girl to a table covered with small stations for kids to learn shapes. Rory knows exactly what to do, shoving the blocks in the plastic holders where they fit before using the table to scramble around the other side, stopping only to spin a wheel, and then grabs more blocks. These she doesn’t try to put in the holes. They go straight to her mouth, where she starts gumming them to death.
I gawk and jerk my gaze to Magnolia. “Is she supposed to do that?”
“She won’t choke, and Mount won’t kill us, if that’s what you’re wondering,” she says with a grin.
“Are you sure? Because I’m one hundred percent sure that he meant what he said. And I wouldn’t blame him either.”
Magnolia beams as I crouch beside her and Rory on the floor. “You’ll be just as fierce with our baby,” she says with a twinkle in her eye.
“You’re damn—shit—dang right.”
Magnolia’s joy-filled chuckles float through the room. She needed this today.
“It’s okay, Moby. She won’t pick up bad language from you if she hasn’t picked it up from her mom and dad yet. At least, that’s what Keira tells me when I curse.”
Rory turns around, smiling with drool dripping down her chin, and shoves a block at me. “You!” she orders plainly. So I take the block from her, not thinking twice about how she just gnawed on it.
I point to the hole where it goes. “You want me to put it in here?”
She lifts her narrow chin—which she inherited from her mother—and nods slowly and sagely. “You.”
“Okay.” I slide the block into the hole, and Rory screeches with excitement, clapping her hands. Then she rushes toward me and hurls herself into my arms.
As her miniature body collides with mine, I reach out to steady her. She looks up into my eyes and squeals. “Mo! Mo! Up! Up!”
I melt. There’s just no fucking other way to describe it.
Now Mount’s death threats make perfect sense.
Twenty-Seven
Magnolia
Moses freezes as he stares down at Rory, who’s clapping her hands and demanding to be picked up. I see the charmed expression on his face. It’s obvious he didn’t realize how fast this child could steal her way into his heart.
The only reason I recognize the look is because I’ve been there too. I didn’t grasp how badly I wanted this for myself until I saw Keira go through all of it. And, of course, Rory ran away with my heart too.
Moses reaches out to carefully lift the princess in the air as she shrieks with glee. The smile spreading across his face is nothing short of beatific.
Then, as if on cue ... she pukes all over him. In slow motion. I have no idea how so much projectile vomit could come out of such a small body, but it does.
