How sweet is she?

I shake my head. “No, sweet girl, you didn’t hurt my heart, but it’s very nice of you to ask.”

She smiles, looks to her dad who has the gentlest of expressions pointed right at her. He gives a proud little nod, and her eyes light up as she turns back to me. “My name is Zoey... but I’m not supposed to tell people my last name.”

Captain sighs, Royce chuckles, and I pull in my lips to hide my smile.

“Guess what, Zoey?” I pretend to whisper. “My name is Brielle, and I don’t tell people my last name either.”

She grins, her hand lifting to cover her lips as if we now share the world’s largest secret.

I laugh and glance behind her.

All eyes on me.

Shit.

“Well, Zoey.” I look back to her. “It was nice to meet you, but I should get back before Miss Maybell comes searching.”

“But the zoo.” Her smile falls and she turns away from me. “Rora, the zoo.”

A small frown forms when it’s Victoria who steps forward at ‘Rora’.

Victoria picks her up, and they drop their foreheads to each other’s at the same exact time. “We’re going, ZoZo.” Her eyes flick my way. “Uncle Bro forgot to tell his friend, that’s all. Let’s get buckled up, okay?”

Zoey smiles and the two head for Captain’s SUV.

I look to the others and it’s Maddoc who discovers and lifts the wrapped item into the air with a dark brow raised.

Embarrassing.

“It’s... just some fun.”

Royce looks from me to it with a curious grin, snags it from his brother and shakes it. “What is it?”

Embarrassing, that’s what!

“Open it.” Or you know, don’t.

He opens it, and my stupid heart beats harder when a slow smile spreads along his lips.

He laughs, but his eyes fall fast, and I know he’s thinking about his hot and cold antics the last few days. I don’t blame him for it. I know it’s simply him, but still. It’s funny and proves my point wasn’t all crazy talk.

He shakes the empty pizza pocket box in the air, tosses it behind him, and takes the stairs two at a time.

He places himself right in front of me. “Little Bishop.”

“Playboy.”

“I’m a fucking pizza pocket.”

I laugh, and his eyes roam my face. “But when you’re hot...” I tease.

His tongue touches the lifted corner of his lips and shifts closer. “Hop in my ride, we’re going to the zoo.”

“Not going to ask me if I have plans or even want to go?”

His frown is instant, and I laugh.

“I’m kidding.”

“Wouldn’t matter if you weren’t.” He glares at my shirt. “You’re mine today.”

With a hint of haughtiness, he smirks and steps around me.

All I can think is... how about tomorrow?

We make it through the exotic birds, monkeys, and the butterfly room when Zoey decides she’s ready to play at the playground, so we head for the center of the place, where a large open playzone is. The entire park is animal themed. The slide is the giraffe bent to eat, the spinning saucer in the center a turtle’s shell, and monkey bars that are, well, not monkeys, but designed to look like bamboo and straw and have little stone monkeys at the edges. Zoey, though, she went down each slide exactly one time, and has been sitting in front of the garden, watching the groundskeepers as they plant a brand-new row not far from where she is, Victoria at her back, running her fingers through her hair. Neither of them have yet to look away.

“Cutest fuckin’ thing you’ve ever seen, yeah?” Royce looks to me.

I grin, nodding. “She calls you Uncle Bro?”

His smile grows wide at that, a softness in his eyes that’s new to me.

It’s calm and gentle. I’d like to see it more often.

“Maddoc’s Uncle D, I’m Uncle Bro, RaeRae is... well, RaeRae.” He chuckles. “She picked up on my nickname for Raven and it stuck.”

I grin, look to Victoria and Zoey again and chance asking, “And her mom, she calls her Rora?”

The gentleness is gone in a flash, and his eyes snap to mine. They’re guarded and unsure, but then he blinks, his features smooth and he makes a decision.

Whatever it was though, he isn’t forced to share it. Captain comes out of nowhere and does first.

“Victoria isn’t her birth mother,” he shares as he watches them, a tenderness in his tone that can’t be described it’s so raw. So real.

Royce clamps a hand on his shoulder and walks away, but I keep my focus on Captain.

Not her birth mother?

“Her mom is gone, not dead, but she might as well be. She never wanted Zoey, and maybe one day I think she’ll regret her choices. It will be too late when or if she does.” His eyes flick to mine and back.

“Zoey is too much like us, loyal to a fault. Honest. She doesn’t realize it yet because she’s not around anyone to hear the word mom, we have no mothers, but she’ll see it soon, with Raven, and then who knows what will follow. But it’s just a word.” He shakes his head fiercely. “That girl right there.” He speaks of Victoria. “She’s the reason Zoey was born.”

I expect him to stop there, but Captain opens himself up a little more.

“It doesn’t matter what she calls her, what that little girl feels is the love of a mother. Victoria is her mother, in every way that counts, and more.” Captain looks my way.

The corner of my mouth lifts, and my nostrils flare so I don’t tear up in front of him. “She’s very lucky.”

“I’m lucky,” he replies instantly. “We’re lucky. She’s just a child, getting what every child should. There should be no luck in that.” The despondency in his tone is easily deciphered.

“And yet places like Brayshaw, and the Brayshaw group home exists. Because even though no child should be raised in hate or anger or pain... we are.” I don’t realize I was whispering until the last word leaves and I force a laugh.

I stand, but Captain doesn’t let me pass. I look up and he gives a small smile.

“You’ve been through some shit, more than I know, but you’re not hardened or bitter.” He shakes his head, true, honest perplexity clear in his tone. “How?”

“If you’re worried your little girl will grow and—”

“I’m not,” he cuts me off. “I know she’ll be okay, better than. I want to know about you. How are you... you? Caring and gentle. Good.”

My lips pinch into a tight smile as my shoulders lift and hold. “I had a brother who loved me, who I loved back. He told me our life was not what life was about, that we’d have more. I don’t think he believed it, but I believed him, and when things were dark, his words gave me light,” I share.

“That’s not all,” he guesses.

I hesitate at first, and then decide I want to share. He cares enough to ask, so that’s something.

“It would have been easy to fall into the ugly surrounding us, and sometimes it took a lot of self-convincing to remember my brother’s promises, but living with what we did, it made the world around me so much clearer. It only took one glance or one nervous conversation of no importance with kids at school or wherever, to know they lived with darkness, too.” I look off. “Their eyes were a little dead, and I realized they didn’t have a brother like mine, someone to give them hope... a North Star to believe in, to... seek out for guidance when they felt lost.”