Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Hadley

Elijah: I forgot your painting last night. I’ll give it to you when I’m back.

Hadley: Okay : )

Two days later…

Hadley: Are you busy? Lucy wants to call…

My phone rang two minutes later. I handed it to Lucy as she bounced up and down. “Elijah?” her blue eyes widened as she answered Elijah’s call. “Guess what I got! Mommy got me a shirt with a unicorn on it. When are you coming home? I want to show you.” She kept talking so fast that I wondered if she gave Elijah time to respond. “I’m going to school, Mommy said.” She giggled, clutching the phone as she walked around. “Yeah, I’m excited. No, I will have boy and girl friends. Nooo, boyfriends. I’m too young, Mommy said.” More giggling.

Her words made me think back to when Lucy was two. Olivia had her going on a boyfriend tirade for months when she brought her boyfriend home. It convinced Lucy that she needed one as well. Every guy she saw was her boyfriend. It was cute until it became embarrassing. Lucy turned every man she saw—young or old—into potential boyfriends for herself. Thankfully, it stopped. I would kill Elijah for bringing that word up.

“Okay. I miss you. I’m going to call Daddy now and tell him.” She hung up the phone.

“You didn’t say bye,” I told her.

I wondered how Elijah took her words. After getting my tattoo, I was curious how we fit into his life. I liked Elijah. Okay, I really, really liked him. Of course, I wondered if he felt the same about me—about all of us.

“Oops. I forgot. Will he be upset?” Lucy frowned. “Can you call him again? I don’t want him to be mad at me.”

I dropped to my knees. “Elijah won’t be mad. When he comes home, he wants to watch a movie with us.”

She walked up and hugged me. “Can Elijah give me a tattoo?”

“You already know the answer to that, and don’t think a hug will change anything. Tattoos hurt.” I tickled her sides, and she laughed. “Do you want to call Daddy now and tell him about your new clothes?”

She nodded. I dialed his number and handed the phone over to her. Things weren’t good between Scott and me, but Lucy seemed to have forgotten that outburst the last time he was over. I was glad but worried all the same. Scott still mentioned Elijah through text messages that I mostly ignored unless it was about Lucy and Eli. I hoped Scott didn’t start on Lucy again. Now that I was more aware of what I was feeling toward Elijah, I didn’t want my ex ruining the relationship between Lucy and Elijah—even if we were only friends.

“Daddy! Guess what! I got new clothes for school. Yeah, Mommy took me.” She looked up at me hesitantly. “Just me, Bubby, and Mom.” Crestfallen, Lucy handed the phone to me. “Here. Daddy wants to talk to you.”

Keeping my emotions in check, I grabbed the phone. “Yeah?”

“How about I come over tonight?” That was the first thing he said to me.

“Why?”

Long sigh. “I miss you. I miss us. This is ridiculous. You don’t really want to raise them this way, do you?”

“What way?”

“Apart. I fucked up, Hadley, but we can put it behind us.”

Stepping away from Lucy, I ventured into the bathroom and shut the door slightly. “Just stop. It’s been a year, and you still think what you did is something I’m going to forgive. We’re never getting back together. Please, I want to get along for Lucy and Eli’s sake.”

“Let’s get back together then. What are you going to do? Raise my kids with someone else? That neighbor is bad news.” The way he said neighbor implied he thought Elijah was more than that. He was, but that wasn’t Scott’s business. “I know what this is, though. You’ll get it out of your system and afterward, you won’t get to say shit to me for what I did.”

“Out of my system?” I whisper shouted. “First off, we’re not together. Second, you don’t know Elijah. He’s never once tried anything with me.”

He snorted. “Okay.”

“Listen to you.” Scott’s words angered me. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and told myself he wasn’t worth this aggravation. The only thing I ever had to speak to him about was our kids. He had no right to anything else. “Lucy called to talk to you. If you won’t talk to her, I have no reason to stay on the phone.”

“You’re being ridiculous,” he spat out.

“Will you please talk to Lucy? She’s excited about starting preschool and wanted to tell you about her clothes.”

“That’s what I’m saying. I can come over tonight. Imagine how excited she’d be for us to all be together.”

He scared me with words like that. If he talked to Lucy like that, he’d make things hard on me by planting ideas in her head.

“She’d be happy if you’d just call her every day.”

“Hadley…”

“You’re not coming over. If you want to spend time with Lucy and Eli, I can meet you somewhere or they can spend the night with you.”

“Why? Do you have something to hide?” He swore under his breath. “Not tried anything my ass.”

Tears pricked my eyes. He mentally drained me. How could I have ever loved that man? “It’s because I don’t trust you. You take advantage of Lucy and use her to get to me.”

“I do not—”

“Yes, you do, Scott. Instead of talking to me, you should be listening to your daughter who asked to call you.”

“Put her on the phone,” he hissed, anger laced in his tone.

My heart dropped. “Not if you’ll upset her. Just be happy—”

“You should have thought of that before.”

His words frosted my heart. I didn’t doubt for a second that he’d hurt his own daughter’s feelings to hurt me. I hung up and dropped to my knees, shutting the bathroom door the rest of the way as I did. I didn’t want Lucy to hear me cry.

Just like that, all those good feelings I’d had lately broke into pieces.

_____

“That’s not your house!” Lucy yelled the next day. I glimpsed over to Elijah’s where Lucy was staring and saw a very tall, sturdy-built woman on his porch. She had dark hair and eyes and they were focused on us at Lucy’s declaration. “That’s Elijah’s house!’

The older woman tilted her head at her, eyes brightening like someone just told her she won the lottery. “Lucy?”

Lucy placed her hands on her hips, an intimidating glower that wasn’t very effective slashed across her tiny features. “How do you know me?”

“Elijah talks about you. I’m his momma.”

Lucy and I both took her in at the same time.

“And you two must be Hadley and Eli!” She was extremely excited and before I knew it, she was making her way down the steps toward us. “Oh, goodness you’re even cuter in person.” She stopped in front of Lucy.

Lucy peered around her back toward Elijah’s. “Is Elijah home now?”

“He’ll be home tomorrow.” She beamed down at Lucy, then glanced at me. “Beautiful daughter for a beautiful mother.” I blushed at her compliment. “Would you guys like to come in? Elijah doesn’t know that I stopped by. I wanted to do a little cleaning while he was away.” She winked at me. “He’s not a duster, not much of cleaner or cook either.”

Lucy covered her mouth, giggling like the idea of Elijah being that way was funny. “I got called into work on my day off.” She frowned, so I quickly added. “But maybe just until my dad shows up.”

_____

One second inside Elijah’s home, and I knew his one weak point. He was bad at adulting. Or maybe just picking up after himself. Or simply just bad at living alone.

His house wasn’t filthy, just lacking. The two-story home didn’t have much in it. His living room was covered in papers, pencils, and all the things I associated with his drawings and paints. They were scattered chaotically over his table and couch. There wasn’t much in his kitchen either. I spotted takeout in his trash can.

“Okay, I’ll admit it. My son isn’t very dirty. Just unorganized.” His mother placed her hands on her hips and smiled down thoughtfully at his mess of papers. “You know, I used to worry about him.” She picked up this creepy drawing and tapped it with amusement. “Odd sort. He has a strange way with art, and it honestly scared me. I thought he was missing something.”

“Missing something?” I frowned, bouncing Eli on my hip.

“Missing an emotion that made him compassionate and caring. Don’t get me wrong, I know my boy can love because he loves me but as for the rest of the world…” She threw her hand up. “He never showed the slightest interest. I honestly thought he’d never feel fondness for anything or anyone, but now I know I shouldn’t have worried. It’s not that he couldn’t feel, it’s just he never found anyone worth caring for.”

I grabbed one of his sketches and held it up. Like most of them, it was dark and strange. I tilted my head thoughtfully. “I like his illustrations. I’m looking forward to learning more about this part of him.” I cocked my head the opposite way, still inspecting the paper. “I think Elijah likes what he likes is all. Your description of him surprises me. I’ve only known him as a caring man.” I chuckled, realizing that all of our new encounters with him replaced the awful first impression. “Well, except for maybe the first few times we saw him.”

When I glanced over at her, she had a wide grin on her face.

“Elijah really likes demons, doesn’t he, Mommy?” Lucy said out of nowhere.

“Your children are beautiful.” Elijah’s mom grabbed Eli’s hand and played with him. “It would be a shame for you not to have more one day. That’s what I think.”