Page 75 of Sweet Poison

I pulled my attention away from her father and looked at her without understanding why she was asking me such a strange question. “Yes, I think it is safe.”

"That’s good," she said. "Dad wants to keep us safe at all times. Sometimes though, I still feel as though nowhere is safe."

I watched the little girl curiously. "Why would you feel like nowhere is safe?"

My heart’s pace began to pick up. I felt anxious at what she would reveal. Maybe, I’d been waiting for the other shoe to drop because he just seemed too perfect, too good to be true. I wasn’t hoping for it to drop since I was still infatuated with him, but if there was something that could bring me back to my senses, I dreaded it and wished for it.

To my surprise, Cole didn’t try and stop her, instead watched her intently, as though he too was curious about what she wanted to say.

"Because there could be bad people coming. If you’re in danger, you can come here. Dad said this house is really safe.” She looked up at her father. “Dad, it will be okay, right? If Miss Moore feels scared, she can come over to the safe room, right? So that she can be safe?"

It would have been so easy for her words to fly over my head. They seemed like the normal chatter of children, but I was able to pick out the peculiarity in what she was saying. I turned towards her.

"There’s a safe room?"

"Yeah," she began, sitting up, excited to share this with me. "It has food in it and a lot of—" Suddenly, she stopped and slapped both her hands over her mouth guiltily and looked at her father as if she just remembered she was not supposed to tell anyone about this room. She had done what her father had told her not to do, though I couldn’t quite understand why the presence of this room needed to be a secret. Mischief rose in my heart. I turned to Cole, but he remained neutral and unfazed by what his daughter had revealed.

"Cole, what’s the room about? Could you show me?"

Anya’s head fell forward with shame, and instantly I regretted asking. It was obvious she felt bad about disappointing her father.

"It’s just a safety room in case there is an emergency of some sort," her father explained. “I hope to always be with her, but until I find a nanny I can trust, if for some reason I’m not home and she is, I made a room that she could run to, to feel safe in. She may never need it, but it’s just in case she ever felt worried for any reason."

This made total sense, and it was quite thoughtful and wonderful of him. I nodded, impressed at how caring he was as a father.

"That’s a very good idea." Then I went a little closer to Anya and whispered to her. “I’m also here if you ever feel worried. Never hesitate to reach out to me, alright?"

The excitement and smile came back to her face and she nodded eagerly. Impulsively, she reached forward to hug me. I hugged her back and felt I had started to truly care for this affectionate and loving child.

Chapter 45

Cole

The time for Montana to leave came much too soon.

Anya was seated on the couch, wide awake and watching a new animated movie she had selected for all of us, but neither Montana nor I had any interest in watching it.

“Anya, wave goodbye to Miss Moore,” I said.

Anya put her movie on hold and ran over to the front door. “Bye, Miss Moore. See you tomorrow at school.”

“Good night, Anya. Thank you for this evening. It was lovely, and I especially loved the cupcakes.

Anya went back to her movie and I closed the door and headed out with Montana.

“Thank you for a great evening. I really enjoyed being with you and Anya,” she said, nodding as we walked down the steps. We went over to where her old Volvo was parked. It was a charming green, though thoroughly scuffed and old. She stood against the door and it took everything in me to keep from kissing her.

“Was this your dad’s?” I asked, simply because I didn’t want to let her go yet.

“Yeah. When I turned sixteen, he wanted to get me something fancy, and I refused. I told him to hand this over to me while he got what he wanted, which was a newer truck. It was a whole battle, but eventually, he conceded. The main issue was that it wasn’t safe, so he worked on it for months and installed an airbag at least to the steering wheel.”

This immensely amused me. “So there’s only one airbag? The passenger's seat has none?”

“Absolutely none.”

“Do you tell your passengers that when they get into the front seat?”

“It depends on who the passenger is and how much I like or dislike them,” she replied.