“You need to go, probably. Don’t give Miller any excuses to dock your pay. And stop smoking.”

“What would I do without you, Jane?”

I hang up, my heart still beating fast from the echo. What would he do without me? He’d get along fine if I never came back. Or maybe he’d be better off.

Sometimes I think it’s better if you don’t come back.

I already know Mr. Rochester and Paige would get along fine. Maybe not right away. Eventually, after some fights about Pop-Tarts and Monopoly.

Which leaves me to wonder where I really belong.

My chest squeezes.

It’s only here, with the breeze floating through my hair, a submarine rising at my back, that I realize why I actually took this day off.

Not because I wanted to get away from Mr. Rochester or Paige. Because I wanted to know who I was without them. As I sit here alone and slightly afraid, I know the answer.

I belong nowhere.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Jane Mendoza

When I get back to the house, it’s past dinner time. From the foyer I can hear the strains of the sea shanty. Instead of the haunting lullaby, it’s coming out bright and sunny from a six-year-old’s mouth. “There was a light far away,” she sings off key, “I followed the water’s gift. But when the night turned to day, I ended up adrift.”

I find them in the kitchen, dancing around the table. Paige waves a dish towel like a flag while Beau makes grave ballroom steps around the kitchen. They stop when they see me.

Paige grins. “You missed spaghetti.”

“Oh no,” I say lightly, ignoring the squeeze in my heart. Imagine coming to this every night. Imagine belonging in this scene. I don’t, I don’t. “And I’m so hungry.”

“There’s leftovers in the fridge.” Beau sounds sardonic. “Compliments of the chef.”

I glance at the clock on the oven. “It’s time for bedtime.”

“Ah ah,” he says. “Not on your day off.”

“We have plans,” Paige says, very serious. “Bedtime stories.”

Another compression in the vicinity of my chest. It’s a good thing they’re spending time together. A good thing they’re getting along. They may not need me, after all. “Okay.”

Paige prances out of the room, waving her dish towel in precise movements only she understands. That leaves me alone with Beau. The day yawns between us, only a few hours apart. They felt like days. Weeks. Months. I’m getting too attached to him.

It makes me want to back away. For my own safety. My own protection.

Too late. I’m already in too deep.

“What’s wrong?” he murmurs.

This family has so many secrets, Noah. “Nothing.”

He shakes his head, a ghost of a smile still on his lips. “You make me insane, you know that? You make me want impossible things.”