Undeniably Yours by Heather Webber Page B

a damn fool.
    It was then that I noticed Sean sitting up in bed, staring at me, a soft glint in his eyes.
    “What?” I asked him.
    “Nothing.” But his grin told me otherwise.
    I waved him off and popped back into the other room. “Peekaboo!”
    Ava threw her head back and laughed.
    It might have been the sweetest sound I’d ever heard.
    “Good morning,” I said, limping over to her.
    Reaching into the crib, I lifted her out. I racked my brain for any kind of morning lullaby but couldn’t think of one.
    Another reason my job at the daycare had been appropriately short-lived.
    Softly, I began singing about my man taking a morning train. I clumsily danced around the living room as Thoreau ran circles around my feet, barking sharply.
    He hated my singing.
    Sean appeared in the bedroom doorway still wearing that bemused smile. “Sheena Easton?”
    “Raphael’s influence.” His love of eighties music had rubbed off on me. I started singing again.
    Ava’s face crumpled and she let out a wail.
    “What? What?” I asked her. “What’s wrong?”
    “It’s probably your singing,” Sean said.
    I made a face at him.
    He came over and held out his arms. Ava went willingly into them and immediately stopped crying.
    My jaw dropped. “How—”
    Smiling, he said, “I have a way with women.”
    I rolled my eyes and went to brush my teeth, wash up, and pull my hair back.
    His laughter echoed through the cottage and soon Ava was giggling with him. It did my heart good.
    By the time I emerged from the bathroom, Sean had a mug of coffee ready for me. A freshly-diapered Ava was sitting with a pile of blocks, carefully stacking them. I saw Ebbie eyeing the tower and had the feeling she was plotting to knock it down. Ebbie as King Kong versus toy skyscrapers. I took a picture of Ava with my cell phone and messaged it to Aiden—it was my way of showing him that Ava was perfectly fine.
    A moment later, my cell phone rang, and I saw it was Em calling. I quickly answered.
    After a minute of catching up on Aiden’s condition (nothing’s changed), and how she was doing (tired but fine and she didn’t want to talk about school), she said, “Aiden wants to talk to you.”
    “Why does that sound like a warning?”
    With a question in his eyes Sean glanced at me, and I shrugged.
    “He’s grumpy,” Em said. “Brace yourself.”
    I mouthed, “Aiden’s grumpy” to Sean, who was going about making breakfast. He nodded. I supposed Aiden had reason to be. Someone had almost blown him to bits. “I’m braced.”
    “I’ll talk to you later,” she said.
    I heard a lot of static—probably the shuffling of the phone—and then Aiden’s voice came on the line.
    “How’s Ava?”
    I wanted to tease him about his manners and not saying hello, but I gave him a pass this time. “She’s fine. Didn’t you get the picture I sent?”
    “Are those non-toxic blocks?”
    “Nope. Full of arsenic.”
    There was silence on the line.
    Finally, I thought I heard him mumble, “I need to get out of this place.”
    Then I thought I heard Em say, “Not until the doctor says so.”
    Then I definitely heard Aiden let loose a few choice swear words.
    “Hello?” I said. “I’m still here.”
    Aiden’s voice was tight, maybe from pain, maybe from anger. Maybe both. “Early report is in about the blast at Kira’s house. Amateurish homemade bomb rigged to the front door. House doused with gasoline.”
    “Thank goodness it was amateurish,” I heard Em say, “or we’d still be picking pieces of you off that lawn. Don’t look at me like that, Aiden Holliday. You know it’s true.”
    I could easily imagine the stern look she was giving him, and also the clenching of Aiden’s jaw.
    But Em was probably right. If that blast had been stronger or if he hadn’t turned to face me at the last moment… I shook my head. I didn’t want to think about it.
    He said, “There’s a team putting the pieces of the bomb back together to try and get