17: Ramsy.

It's very odd carrying a child, but I'm not a moron, so I manage to make it to the room beneath the stairs without incident, shouldering open the door and stepping inside.

"I'm very sorry to inform you, Curtis, your sister isn't going to be sleeping in here with you tonight," I say, knowing he can't hear me in his unconscious state. "If you need her for anything, she'll be upstairs in the master suite."

"Where is that?" he asks, an eyelid cracking open.

I blink down at him. "Were you fake sleeping?"

He shrugs. "Julia was tired."

A smile stretches my mouth before I can stop it. "So you pretended to be asleep so she wouldn't have to read anymore? That's pretty considerate of you, Curtis."

"Is considerate good?"

"Yes."

His grin is white in the dark room.

Realizing I've stopped in the middle of the floor with the child still in my arms, I take two strides and lay him in the center of the bed. "Well, then. You'll just...drift off now?"

"Yup." He nestles into the bedding, looping a sheet ar