8. Be On Track

8

BE ON TRACK

P hoenix was in bed with his laptop open trying to answer emails and not lose his shit over shipment deadlines and personnel issues five days later. Between dealing with product shipping and chemical supplies he needed to even produce the material to begin, then getting the shipments of plastics to his warehouse, not to mention a roof leaking and any other shit that could fall on his lap, sleep was the last thing he could do right now.

The pressure was mounting in his life and he wasn’t sure how much more he could handle before something broke.

When he heard a noise, he stopped typing and looked at the clock. It was a little after ten and the house was locked for the night. Elsie was in bed sleeping and had been for two hours. He’d put her there himself.

It felt like there was so much for him to catch up on now that Crystal was hired, but he didn’t want to come home late every night and make her regret the job.

Though he sure the hell didn’t regret anything.

Every day this week, Crystal was downstairs in the kitchen offering to get Elsie up for him before seven so he could leave, but he’d said no and went and got the little girl up himself. Gave her a kiss and rushed out the door.

He didn’t like asking anyone for anything and wouldn’t put more on her shoulders than what she was hired for.

Crystal took care of everything else though without him asking and it was a guilt he was carrying. She was even cleaning his damn house and doing Elsie’s laundry during the day before she picked her up in the afternoon.

He’d be home no later than six and dinner was on the table. He’d told Crystal that he’d never hold dinner up later than that, so she could feed Elsie if he wasn’t home and he’d find something else to eat.

He got home at five one day, and there was Crystal cooking. He wasn’t sure why and said she hadn’t needed to since he knew he’d be home.

She told him she liked doing it. Every day he made sure Crystal shared a meal with them too even though she’d offered to go upstairs.

It felt homey and reminded him of his days growing up and the family dinners debriefing their days over a meal.

Elsie was talking more about school with the urging and prompting of Crystal and life seemed to maybe be on track.

When he heard the noise again, a creaking in the house as if someone was moving around, he got up to go check on Elsie. He realized he only had his underwear on and grabbed shorts on the side of the bed to pull up quickly, then opened his door and stepped out.

The fridge door was open, and he could see the light from it, but not who was behind it.

“What’s wrong, honey?”

Crystal popped out from behind it wearing nothing more than a T-shirt that barely covered her upper thighs.

Her eyes landed on his bare chest and both of them were statues over the situation.

She spoke first. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you. I thought I could sneak down quietly. Had a chocolate craving and remembered the pudding I made with Elsie two days ago.”

She had the bowl in her hand and cool whip in the other.

“That looks good,” he said.

“Seriously?” she asked.

“Yeah. Get two bowls down. We can chat while we eat.”

She laughed. “I was going to bring it upstairs. You don’t need to keep me company.”

He found himself saying, “Maybe I want to.” She lifted one eyebrow at him and he realized that was a big mistake. He couldn’t risk putting her off when he was depending on her so much already. “Sorry. That came out wrong. I’m sleep deprived and overworked and now I want chocolate.”

“You sound like my sister Anne when it’s her time of the month,” she said, laughing.

Best way to turn a woman on. Not that he was trying to do that, but he blew it if he was.

“There you go,” he said. “I guess I’ve always been good at connecting that way with women. Might be why my best friend was a woman.”

She filled their two bowls with pudding and then added the Cool Whip and handed it over to him.

“Could be because the closest siblings to you were twin girls.”

“Maybe. Dallas and Bronx didn’t come along until I was five and then Siena with them. I spent more time helping out with London and Paris and making my own friends in school. But it wasn’t until college that I had the girl best friend.”

She hummed in her throat. “Can I ask something?”

“Anything,” he said.

“Maryn was gay, right?”

“Yes,” he said. “Or did you think it was me that was gay? I know it’s this assumption when a guy has a girl best friend.”

She laughed. “It crossed my mind for one brief second and then I realized there was no way. You’re most likely single because you’re a workaholic.”

“That about sums it up,” he said.

“Elsie let it slip the other day about her mother’s girlfriend.”

“Nora?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said. “Were they together long? I can tell by your tone you might not have cared for her.”

“Maryn decided she wanted a baby. She didn’t want to wait and then worried if she found a woman she wanted a serious relationship with, there’d be custody battles if they split and so on. This was going to be her child and hers only.”

“Smart,” she said.

“I was surprised but then not really. Maryn never had a great relationship with her mother or father. They were very religious and not approving of her life choices.”

“It’s not a choice,” she said. “At least I don’t think so. I mean I tried and realized it’s you or it’s not.”

He lifted his eyebrow over that, then coughed on the bite of pudding. “Tried?”

“You should see your face,” she said, laughing. “I went through a phase. I think I went through a lot of them. Early twenties and I had friends that were experimenting. I found them attractive. Just as I do men. I thought, why not see if I’m missing something in life I’m not sure of?”

“Oh,” he said. Damn. He wasn’t sure why he couldn’t get the picture of her out of his head and hoped his chest wasn’t turning as red as his face might be. He sure the hell felt the heat of it.

She was smirking at him though. “It was never more than a kiss. I even told Taylor that recently. The truth is, two kisses in and I knew it wasn’t a choice. I couldn’t tell myself to be or feel something that others were to just try it. I didn’t feel it and wasn’t forcing it. It’s okay to be attracted to the opposite sex on looks alone and that is all it was. I’d much rather spend my physical time with a guy.”

“I understand,” he said. “Maryn went through this with her parents. I think because I had so many siblings, she and I just clicked our freshman year. She was beautiful and men were always hitting on her. They didn’t want to believe she was gay.”

“Did you play her make believe boyfriend?” she asked, her voice all soft.

Yeah, the heat filled his body again. “I did for a good year. Then we had a ‘breakup’ and just decided to be friends.”

“It’s hard to date yourself if your best friend is a woman. Or you’re even playing a make believe one.”

He grunted. “Tell me about it. Most times they didn’t believe she was gay. I gave up after a while.”

He was more focused on school anyway. It wasn’t worth it to chase someone down and force them to believe something they didn’t want to. In his eyes, if they didn’t believe or trust him, they didn’t need to be in his life.

“I don’t blame you,” she said. “Back to Maryn. You two are best friends and she gets pregnant and you are the guardian right away?”

“Yes,” he said. “She asked and I’d never say no. We went to college together and stayed in the area. She’s originally from Mississippi. You know I’m from Florida. We even shared an apartment together after we graduated.”

“Which would have made it hard to date too, right?”

“After college not so bad. Maryn had a girlfriend and the woman I was dating saw that. But nothing stuck. I didn’t have my business then. I was working in a lab and then testing things on my own outside of work. Eventually, Maryn bought a house and I stayed in the apartment alone until I bought this place.”

Experimenting on the side was how he discovered what he had, spent over a year getting his patent on it and then took the leap to get it to work.

Everything he had was tied up in this, even money borrowed from his father. More like shares in his father’s name, but not a ton. He’d said he’d pay the money back and had every intention of it. Hopefully not that long from now.

If he could get his shit together and not have so many problems at once falling into his lap.

“What about Nora?”

“Nora came into the picture when Elsie was a few months old. I think Nora wanted the baby more than she wanted Maryn, and Maryn realized that when Elsie was three and Nora was trying to parent as if it was her child.”

“So Maryn ended things with Nora?” she asked.

“Yes. It was messy. I had Elsie a lot back then because of the fighting and tension. Maryn was trying to get things set and Nora didn’t want to leave.”

He didn’t want to think back to the threats Nora made for custody. It’d never happen and Maryn got her attorneys quickly. Guardianship had been locked in place and legally there were no worries, but that didn’t stop the drama.

Maryn hadn’t brought anyone around Elsie again after that, even if she was dating. Uncle Nix ended up being the date night babysitter and he supposed it was a great thing since Elsie was so comfortable with him.

“Yikes,” she said. “That does explain things.”

“What did Elsie say about Nora? I didn’t think she even remembered her.”

“Nothing much. Just that there is some little girl named Nora in her class and that she remembered her mother had a girlfriend with that name. It could have been platonic, but I was guessing, all things considered, that it wasn’t.”

“Glad to know it wasn’t much more than that,” he said. He didn’t need to worry about anything else at this point. “Everything is going well? I know we haven’t talked much one on one.”

“Everything is great,” she said. “You’re around if I have questions, but we are getting things worked out. I did find some dance classes for Elsie if you’re willing.”

“Absolutely,” he said. “I had it on my list of things to look into.”

“They will start the first of the year. She missed the sign-ups for the other ones.”

“That’s fine. I want to get through the holidays first. I never asked—did you want to go home for Thanksgiving next week?”

“No,” she said. “I never do. It’s not much fun.”

He wouldn’t ask why. It wasn’t his business. “I won’t go home. I rarely do and my mother spent almost a month here with me. Not all my siblings will be home either. We are kind of scattered all over the place currently.”

“I can cook for us,” she said. “I’d love to do it. Just a small turkey breast and sides and desserts.”

“I’d love it,” he said. “Or I can take us out. Lots of people go out for Thanksgiving dinner.”

“Then you don’t get all those yummy leftovers. Really, I can cook if you want.”

“I think I’d like that,” he said. He scraped the rest of his bowl clean. “I can’t tell you the last time I had a snack this late and I already feel sleepy. Maybe that’s a good thing.”

“I’ve been sleeping like a baby upstairs,” she said. “If I haven’t thanked you again for this job, I will now. It’s the best.”

“You’re welcome,” he said. He grabbed her dish and brought it to the sink to rinse out and put in the dishwasher. He felt her eyes on his bare back, but he didn’t want to be the cad staring at her legs as she walked up the stairs and hoped for a glimpse of what might be under her T-shirt.

Looked like things just got even more complicated in his life when he didn’t think that was possible.