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Before I closed the door, she asked, “Do I have to go to Meme’s?”
“Only when you want to.”
“I don’t want to.”
Kissing her forehead, I shut her door and climbed into the passenger seat. It didn’t take the A/C long to cool us as we waited. A few minutes later, Elijah placed the groceries in the bed of the truck. When he sat in the driver’s seat, I peered out my window instead of looking at him. “Hey…” he murmured.
“How much was it so I can pay you back?” I asked, still not turning in his direction. I knew I was being unreasonable and grumpy. No one despised me more than me. But my mind was in absolute turmoil. Eli and Lucy were my everything, and the fact that someone just threatened to take my world from me haunted every molecule in me. I hated confrontation more than anything and didn’t like people talking the way Lilly and Elijah had in front of my kids. I also didn’t like how he disregarded me when I tried to get his attention.
It scared Lucy when people yelled, and I didn’t like her feeling afraid. So, yes, I was angry.
“That’s a dumb-ass question when you know I’m not letting you pay me back.”
I whipped my head around and glared. “Fine. It can go to your house.”
“Hadley,” he groaned, closing his eyes. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
“You shouldn’t have yelled at her. She’ll try something just because of you.”
“I don’t care who it is. You’ll never see me stand back and watch as someone talks to you that way. I’ll never be okay with that shit. Never.”
Tears filled my eyes, so I faced forward. I didn’t want to be this way in front of Lucy. My cell phone started going off. My heart dropped when I saw that it was Scott. When I ignored it, I knew Elijah was watching. The rest of the drive was spent in uncomfortable silence with my phone going off every minute. Neither of us even thought to put music on to fill the tension.
All I could think about was what Lilly planned to do. It filled me with nausea. I unbuckled my belt and hopped out of the truck the second he parked. He went to grab Eli, but I mumbled, “I’ll get him since we’re going to head to the apartment.”
“I thought we were going to Elijah’s?” Lucy said still in her car seat.
“Not tonight,” I replied.
Elijah’s hawk eyes were on me. “Hadley…”
My phone started going off again. “Later. I need to deal with this mess.”
He sighed. “At least let me carry the groceries to your apartment.”
“No. Take them to your house.”
“Lucy, do you want your chips?” Elijah helped her out.
“Yeah, will you eat all the food without me?” She asked him just as a text message came through my phone.
Scott: Answer your phone!!!
Scott: I swear to god, Hadley, I’ll never let you see your kids if you keep that man around.
Scott: He fucking yelled at mom!
Elijah’s soft, deep chuckle pulled me away from the text messages. “No, goofy. We’ll eat together. It ain’t going to all disappear within a day.”
“I want to go to your house,” she whispered.
I closed my eyes, tears threatening to spill. Scott yelled at me all the time, so how was his reasoning fair? It was okay for him to yell at me but not for anyone to do it to his mother?
“Maybe she’ll change her mind later,” Elijah whispered to her.
“Come on, Lucy.” I hefted Eli into my arms and watched as Elijah handed Lucy two bags loaded down with what she quickly picked out to take to the apartment.
It only made me feel distressed. I hated being upset with Elijah of all people. It hurt my soul, but I was scared and frustrated about Lilly and Scott. I didn’t know what they would do.
“Bye, Elijah…” There was a sadness in Lucy’s tone as she said it.
“Hey…” I ignored him, walking faster. His footsteps grew louder as he ran. “You’re that upset with me?” I peeked down at Lucy who was keeping close to him and he sighed. “Will you talk to me later?” Like clockwork, my phone started going off, and Elijah glared at it. “Just tell him to fuck off.”
“See, it’s not that easy,” I muttered as I resumed walking. “Come on, Lucy.”
She took my hand as we walked away from Elijah. With every small step she took, she glanced back.
