She untwisted her mouth and whispered, “What?”

I lifted both my hands and framed her face. “When Billy gets out here, I need you and him to talk to Mitch about the bad man that scares you. Can you do that for me?”

She twisted her mouth again but I saw her little body get tight right along with the rest of her face. That was also when I felt Mitch’s heat close to my back then he leaned into me, putting his hands where mine had been on the counter.

“It’ll be okay, Billie,” he said gently over my shoulder and I twisted my neck to look at him to see his eyes were on Billie. “You’re safe, gorgeous. But Mara and I need to know so we can make you and Billy even more safe.”

I looked back to Billie to see her twist her mouth the other way before she asked, “Will you make Daddy safe?”

I felt Mitch’s body tense against mine. This meant he couldn’t and it also meant he didn’t want to tell Billie that or lie to her and say he could.

Therefore, I stepped in. “Let’s worry about you and your brother now and we’ll worry about your Daddy later. Does that sound like a plan?”

Her big blue eyes looked into mine and she whispered, “Where is Daddy?”

Oh crap. I knew this was going to happen just as I knew I wouldn’t be prepared for it. And I was right, it was happening and I wasn’t prepared for it.

“Uh…” I started and then Mitch butted right in and answered and when he did this, for some reason he did it truthfully.

“Jail, Billie,” Mitch said carefully and Billie’s eyes got big and not in an “isn’t life wondrous” way.

Incidentally, so did mine.

“Dad’s in jail?” We heard from behind us, I let Billie’s head go and both Mitch and I twisted to see Billy, hair wet, clothes on, standing in Mitch’s cool-as-hell living room.

Oh boy. I’d been avoiding this and life being crazy and the kids adjusting to their new routine had allowed me to do it. They hadn’t asked and I hadn’t offered up the information.

Now what did I do?

I stood uncertain but Mitch didn’t.

I knew this because instantly he called, “Bud, come here.”

Billy looked at Mitch for several long seconds, his face hard and blank then he walked into the kitchen. When he made it close enough, Mitch put a hand in my belly and pushed me back a couple of feet. Then he bent over, linked his hands and twisted his neck to look at Billy.

“Foot in my hands, Bud, I’ll give you a leg up,” he ordered quietly.

Billy again hesitated for several seconds then he put his foot in Mitch’s hand, his hands on Mitch’s shoulders and Mitch hefted him up to sit on the counter by his sister. Then Mitch reached out a hand to me, he tagged my shirt and pulled, necessitating me moving toward him. When I got close enough, he slid his arm along my waist, curling his hand around my hip and he pulled me tight to his side.

Then he spoke.

“You remember a while ago we all went over to your Dad’s and he wasn’t feelin’ too good?” he asked.

Billie bit her lip.

Billy stated in a tight, angry voice, “No. I remember he was feelin’ just fine seein’ as he was drunk, as usual, and shootin’ up, as usual.”

I sucked in breath. Billie quit biting her lip and it started trembling.

“Buddy –” I started on a whisper.

“Yeah,” Mitch said over me and I tipped my head back to look at him as he carried on. “It isn’t illegal to drink alcohol but it is illegal to take drugs. That’s bad enough but what makes it worse is doin’ either of those in front of kids.”

“Mitch,” I whispered my warning but it went unheeded and Mitch kept talking.

“You do bad things, doesn’t matter if you’re a kid or a grown up, you get punished. Your Dad has done bad and he’s gettin’ punished.”

“Mitch,” I repeated, this time in a little above a whisper and my hand automatically went to his abs to give him a warning “shut up!” press which, by the way, he totally ignored.

“So he’s in jail because he does drugs?” Billy asked in a tone that sounded vaguely curious and not much else.

“That and other stuff that isn’t too good,” Mitch answered. “And you both should know, it’s likely he’ll be there awhile.”

Oh my God! What was he doing?

I watched tears fill Billie’s eyes and therefore snapped, “Mitch!”

Mitch looked down at me and stated, “They should know.”

“We need to discuss this elsewhere,” I informed him.

“No you don’t, Auntie Mara,” Billy put in and I looked at him. “Mitch’s right. We should know.”

My eyes moved to Billie and I opened my mouth to speak. Then I saw the tears that were threatening were now trailing down her cheeks so I closed my mouth but Mitch moved. He let me go, plucked Billy off the counter and attached the six year old girl to his hip with one arm like she was a toddler and weighed no more than a large doll.

Then he tucked her hair behind her ear and dipped his face close to hers before he said gently, “I know that makes you sad, gorgeous. It makes you sad because it is sad. But maybe your Daddy will take this time to sort himself out so, if he gets out, he can take better care of you because the bottom line is you deserve someone who’ll take good care of you.”

Billie looked into Mitch’s eyes and the tears kept falling.

At the same time, Billy muttered, “Yeah, like that’ll happen.”

I put my hand on my cousin’s knee to give a warning squeeze and Billie hiccupped as her tears flowed faster.

“Bud, I get you’re ticked and I get why and you’ve got a right to be ticked but you’re not helping,” Mitch said softly and Billy pressed his lips together. Mitch went back to Billie. “But right now, honey, you’re in a good place. You’re where you need to be with people who care about you and you can help Mara, me and your Daddy by telling us about the bad man that scared you last night.”

“What bad man that scared her last night?” Billy asked and I looked at him.

“Billie had a rough night, buddy,” I explained. “She woke up scared and she told Mitch and me she’s worried about a bad man hurting you, your Dad and her.”

“She should be, seein’ as we can’t go to your place because Dad’s a dick,” Billy returned stating, as usual with Billy, that he knew exactly what was going on.