9. Nelly

Chapter 9

Nelly

M atty sat on the carpeted floor with his legs crossed, his little eyes staring straight ahead at the giant pane of glass that separated us from the largest tank of water I’d ever seen in my life.

He’d finished school roughly thirty minutes ago, and after our day had gone so well yesterday without a single issue, I wanted to reward him for being a trouper during the awkward phase of getting to know the new person who’d be taking care of him. So, I’d decided a trip to the Georgia Aquarium was top of the list, and considering Sebastian wouldn’t be home for another hour, it wasn’t like I was keeping him from his dad.

“This is amazing,” he said quietly, his eyes traveling along with the giant whale shark that passed by the glass.

A manta ray floated happily somewhere higher up, and I tried to keep my attention split between Matty and the ray, not wanting to miss anything but not wanting to risk Matty sprinting off in an unknown direction. I sat down on the floor beside him.

“This is where I like to come when a lot is going on, and I need to make sense of it,” I explained. “I think a lot is going on for both of us. Right?”

He nodded his little head. “Mhm. We should bring Daddy here. He likes those ones,” he said, pointing vaguely toward one of the hundreds of fish behind the glass.

“Which ones?”

“ Those ones,” he clarified, but all he did was point a little harder.

“Oh, right, of course,” I relented, knowing damn well there was almost no chance I’d know exactly which ones he was talking about unless one came right up to the glass and he showed me directly. “We can check in the gift shop on our way out. Maybe they’ll have something with one of those fish on it!”

Matty’s eyes lit up as he turned to look up at me. “There’s a gift shop?”

I nodded. “There is. And you know what I have?” I smirked, slipping the little card out of my front pocket. “Daddy’s credit card.”

Matty burst into a fit of giggles as he leaned in toward me. “We can buy everything !”

“Within reason,” I chuckled.

In truth, Sebastian had given it to me the day before he’d left for practice, ensuring that I understood that I could use it for anything and everything related to Matty. But I wasn’t about to spend thousands buying out the entire aquarium.

“I’m surprised your daddy hasn’t brought you here before,” I said, rubbing his little shoulder as he leaned his weight against my side.

“We do lots of things together! Maybe he doesn’t know about it,” he pondered, tapping his chin like they do in cartoons. Everything that kid did was adorable, but I loved when he emulated what he saw on TV, tapping the side of his head or his chin when he was thinking and doing the whole lightbulb moment pantomime. “Or maybe he was saving it for when I’m older!”

“What kinds of things do you guys do together?”

“Sometimes he takes me to the rink and lets me skate around when no one’s there,” he beamed. “Or we’ll go out for ice cream, or to the park, or to Six Flags. My favorite, though, is when I get to see him play.”

I thought about it for a moment, considering my options when it came to Sunday’s game. Matty would have school the following day, but maybe there was something we could do, maybe an exception that Sebastian could make. “I’ll talk to your dad about Sunday’s game,” I said. “Don’t get your hopes up, but maybe he’ll let you come even though it’s a school night.”

Matty’s little mouth popped open in an O, his hands squeezing tight and shaking in front of his chest. “Yes, please!”

We sat in fairly comfortable silence in front of the glass for a few moments, watching as the fish and rays and sharks swam in circles and came back across time and time again. It was surprisingly easy, being with Matty — I’d dealt with problem cases before, dealt with babies and pre-teens. But Matty was just… easy. He was easy to excite, easy to please, and easy to care for.

“What kind of things does your dad like?” I found myself asking, the thought falling out of my mouth before I could think better of it. I told myself it was because I could appeal to those things to get him to loosen up around me, but I knew, I knew it wasn’t.

“Hockey,” he chirped. “And me!”

“Obviously,” I chuckled. “What else? ”

“Peanut butter ice cream, but I’m not allowed to have that,” he pouted. “And old episodes of some boring show with people on an island where they vote each other off. He likes those fish. He likes coffee, Girl Scout cookies, cleaning spray, and his Porsche.”

His Porsche. The one he was letting me, or rather making me, drive. “Oh, is the show Survivor ? I like Survivor , too.”

Matty shrugged. Fair enough, I wouldn’t have cared about Survivor at his age, either.

“Does your daddy ever bring people over to your house?” I asked, secretly wondering if maybe, just maybe, Sebastian had a girlfriend. I dreaded the idea of it — mostly because I wasn’t the kind of person who could just keep my mouth shut if I knew he’d cheated on someone. But a part of me was curious if he was even the type of person who could commit to anything.

Matty shrugged. “Sometimes his teammates come over. And Aunt Dani. That’s it.”

It shouldn’t have surprised me. The man was clearly a player, and I’d fallen into a trap.

“Is it just your daddy who takes care of you?” I asked, trying to raise the question in the softest way I could manage. I’d considered asking Sebastian about it, but I didn’t want to cross any lines with him, especially not this early on.

“Mhm. Daddy says mommy is on a journey of self-discovery ,” he said, putting on a thick, deep voice for the last few words that had me trying desperately to stifle a laugh, but when he spoke again, it shut me up entirely. “I haven’t seen her in a while.”

Shit .

“Daddy doesn’t really talk about her anymore.” Despite the heavy topic, he kept his eyes glued on the whale shark, watching as it swam past the back of the tank.

“How long has it been since you saw her?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t really remember her.”

An ache blossomed across my chest, and I rubbed his shoulder a little more, wishing I hadn’t brought it up. But he seemed unfazed for the most part, and all I could think to do was buy him as many things as I could that could be sold as reasonable purchases to Sebastian.

I hoped they had something with Sebastian’s favorite fish on it. Whatever it was since I still didn’t know.