CHAPTER 12

It was late when Fabien eased the front door open. He paused on the threshold, listening. The apartment was silent. Blaze had gone to bed.

Good!

He carried the foldaway camp bed his sister had loaned him inside and propped it against the wall. Willow had raised an eyebrow when he’d asked if he could borrow it. His explanation was that he had an old friend staying for a few days but that hadn’t gone far toward satisfying her curiosity. She kept asking questions until he left her apartment.

As Fabien suspected, Willow’s crisis was about the latest babysitter the agency had sent and that problem had been resolved in the first hour. Willow had really only wanted a stand-in for her absent husband, a shoulder to cry on while she expressed her fury and disappointment that her little girl had once more, been let down and misunderstood.

Her gratitude had slowly turned to curiosity as the hours wore on and he’d stayed to help bathe Timéo and Mar