Reckless (The Mason Family Series Book 3), Adriana Locke [affordable ebook reader txt] 📗

“I’m terribly sorry to hear about your sister.”

A lump prickles against my throat. Instead of fighting it, I lean into it and acknowledge that it’s there. It helps it ease a little.

“Thank you,” I tell her. “We weren’t close so it’s not like that. But it still hurts. It’s still … sad.”

She nods. “Of course, it is. Do you have any family to help you at all?”

I glance around the room full of Masons. They laugh at and with each other. They show up to help each other. They bring what must be the entire children’s section of the local department store with them because their brother called needing help this morning.

“It’s just me,” I say, pulling my gaze back to her. “I have a cousin, but she’s … going through a lot right now. I haven’t even told her about Rosie.”

The prickling starts again in my throat as I look around the room for my niece. I can’t see her but hear her laughter coming from the kitchen.

I smile.

“Well, you have all of us,” Siggy says, returning my smile.

My body fills with an unimaginable warmth that starts in my toes and gets hotter as it floods my chest.

She winks. “We can be an overbearing brood, but our intentions are good.”

“I honestly can’t thank you enough. All of this is just …”

“You’re welcome. And if we miss anything, please let me know. I love shopping, and the only son of mine out of five to have a child is Coy, and it’s not here yet. And he and Bellamy—you haven’t met her, have you?”

I shake my head.

“She’s Coy’s wife. A complete and utter doll. You’ll love her. Anyway, they’ve put me on a spending cap, and it’s making me twitchy.”

I laugh. “That sounds terrible.”

“It is.” She gestures for me to follow her to the kitchen. “I’ll survive, I’m sure, but I would like a little freedom. It’s hard when your children start giving you boundaries. I’m not good with them. So, if you don’t mind, please use me. I’m a mom. That’s what my job is.”

“I appreciate you, Siggy, I do. And while I’m here, I’ll remember that.”

She looks at me over her shoulder. “Are you going somewhere?”

We stop in the doorway. The refrigerator is propped open while Blaire fills the void with milk, eggs, fruit, cheeses, meats, and piles of other food items. Boone and his brothers argue about jets over large pans of steak and gravy, mashed potatoes, and the yellowest corn I’ve ever seen. Rosie sits on top of the counter right in the middle of it all. I don’t know her well yet, of course, but the look on her face seems like contentment. Even though her whole life has been turned upside down, there’s a tiny smile on her adorable, sweet face, and it brings tears to my eyes.

She’s calm.

She might even be happy.

I sniffle and turn my attention back to Siggy’s questioning gaze.

“Well, yes, eventually,” I tell her. “I mean, I’m sure Boone doesn’t want a woman and her niece living with him for the rest of his life.”

“Hmm.”

I have no idea what that means, so I smile.

“Can I do anything to pay you back for all of this?” I ask her. “I can—”

“You can keep this child of mine fed so he stops coming to my house and raiding my refrigerator.” She grins. “Now let’s eat. Coy, get your finger out of the potatoes. Were you raised in a barn?”

“It was my plate, Mom.”

“I don’t care.”

I laugh as the Masons continue razzing each other. Oliver wraps his arm around Siggy and kisses her cheek.

The vibe in this room is what I want in life.

My gaze falls to Rosie. Someday, little girl, I’ll find this for us.

As if she can hear my thoughts, she looks up at me. “’Mere.”

I walk over to her. “How are you doing?”

“Good. They’re loud,” Rosie says.

“Yes, they are.”

Rosie scoots around and rests the back of her head on my chest. I swipe the hair off her forehead and kiss the top of her head.

 “Jaxi,” Siggy says, coming around the counter. “While they’re occupied, could I show you what we brought? Just in case you don’t want something or have questions?”

“Sure.”

“Can I come?” Rosie asks.

“You sure can,” I say, picking her up and putting her on the floor.

Rosie takes my hand immediately. It causes the breath in my chest to hold.

I normally feel really alone in situations like this. I think I stick out like a sore thumb. But having a child need me, be mine, is something that I always expected would be a joy.

I never realized just how different it would really make things.

When the house empties this evening, Rosie will be here. If Boone tells us we’re screwing up his life, Rosie and I will leave. If I find myself in another shitty apartment in the city with a douchebag of a landlord, I won’t sit alone at night while I cry into my ramen. And while I don’t know what Rosie has been through in her life, she’ll always have me.

She looks up at me and smiles.

That feels really, really nice.

The three of us walk down the hallway and into a bedroom on the right. I helped Boone carry a bunch of boxes and suitcases and totes from this room into the garage earlier. It’s a decent-sized room with a big window overlooking the driveway. Once we opened the blinds, the room was bathed in sunlight.

“That box is a toddler bed with removable rails so you can still use it as she gets older,” she says, pointing at a long box against the back wall. “There’s a dresser to match.” She moves into the room and looks around. “We got a couple of lamps and a bookcase. And books, of course. And a few stuffed animals because I wasn’t sure what she loved.”

“Is this for me?” Rosie looks up at Siggy. “Will this be where I sleep?”

Siggy kneels. “Do you like it