After the Storm(64)
“I don’t have much of an appetite,” she admitted.
“And it’s equally clear that you’ve missed far too many meals already,” Joe said pointedly. “Eat, Eve. Nothing will hurt you here. You have to stay strong for yourself and your brother and sister.”
Knowing he was right, she made an effort to eat more of the food Swanny had prepared. And it was delicious. It didn’t taste like something out of a can. It was rich and flavorful and it warmed her from the inside out. She savored each bite and checked occasionally to see that Travis and Cammie were also eating. They were. Much more than she herself was, so she dug in to catch up. It was important that they all ate and regained their strength, because as soon as they were able, they had to leave. They’d already been here too long and it was making her twitch. Sitting ducks. They couldn’t run forever. She acknowledged this. Knew it for the truth it was. But she could at least buy them more time. Running from place to place until she could figure out what to do. How to confront Walt and the future.
The doorbell rang and Eve immediately froze. Travis dropped his half-eaten sandwich—his third—on his plate and looked uneasily in Eve’s direction. Cammie burrowed deeper into Donovan’s embrace, ignoring the nearly finished sandwich Donovan had been feeding her, her eyes wide and fearful.
Their reactions didn’t go unnoticed by the others. Swanny’s lips turned down into a grim frown and Joe looked . . . pissed. Not at them. But he seemed angry over their fear. Of what they had to fear.
“Get the door, Joe,” Donovan said calmly. “That will be Steele and Maren. Show them into the living room. When Eve, Cammie and Travis are finished eating, Maren can examine them.”
Though it was said to Joe, Eve knew the last was directed at her and her siblings. A command for them to finish eating and reassurance that there was nothing to fear. If only it were that simple.
Joe got up and returned a moment later with a smiling blond woman, glasses perched on her nose, her hair pulled back in a neat ponytail. On her heels was a tall, completely fierce-looking man holding a . . . baby. Somehow the two seemed incongruous, but then Donovan had told her that Maren had recently had a child and had been cutting back on her patient load while she was on maternity leave. This must be her husband. The man Donovan had said was his friend. But now she realized that this man must work with Donovan—and the others—because he screamed badass from head to toe.
Donovan didn’t move from his perch on the couch, where Cammie was doing her best to burrow underneath him.
“Thanks for coming, Maren. We could use you,” Donovan said by way of greeting.
“Hello,” Maren said in a warm voice as she took in the occupants of the room.
She turned to the man holding the baby. “I’m Maren, and this is my husband, Steele, and our daughter, Olivia.”
Joe gestured toward Eve. “This is Eve and this is her brother, Travis, and her little sister, Cammie.”
“Hello,” Eve managed to stammer around the knot in her throat.
“Smile, Steele,” Maren admonished. “You’re scaring the children!”
Steele rolled his eyes but offered a sincere smile first to Eve and then to Travis. When his gaze lighted on Cammie clinging to Donovan’s neck, his expression softened and genuine compassion filled his eyes.
“You’re in good hands,” he said gruffly. “Van will take good care of you and my wife is a doctor, the best. She’ll have you all right as rain in no time.”
Maren smiled, her cheeks coloring at her husband’s praise. But then her expression turned serious. “Whom shall I start with?”
Donovan rose, lifting Cammie with him and then turning to deposit her on Swanny’s lap. Cammie didn’t look thrilled, but neither did she protest. But she didn’t wrap herself around Swanny as she had with Donovan. She stared up at him from underneath her lashes, watching him cautiously. She seemed fascinated with the scar on his face, and then to Eve’s surprise she reached up to touch the puckered skin.