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Chapter Seventeen
Hadley
“I haven’t seen you with makeup on in a long time,” Mom noticed with a smile.
“Yeah…” I touched my cheek. “I feel like being pretty again.”
She smirked. “Well, whatever the reason is, I’m glad to see you taking care of yourself again. Nothing wrong with wanting to feel pretty although you’re beautiful no matter what.”
I recalled Mom’s words from earlier as I sat in my comfy pj’s and spaghetti strap top. Eli snuggled in my lap while Lucy colored next to me. Out of the blue, I recalled Scott’s words after taking Lucy and Eli to see him.
He did a double take as he stepped out of his Dad’s car and smiled. “You look good. Did you dress up for me?”
Not once since Eli was born had Scott kept his son overnight. The more he changed his mind about taking the kids, the more reluctant I was about Eli staying with his dad. At this rate, Eli wouldn’t know his father. It was bad enough that Lucy became less and less enthusiastic about seeing or talking to Scott on the phone.
Was I supposed to force them to see their father? Scott was supposed to take the kids to his parents’ house that night. Once again, he changed his mind at the last second. Lucy wasn’t even disappointed.
Neither was I after Elijah texted me and asked if he could come and finish the cars with Lucy. It dumbfounded me how a man who disliked kids could befriend Lucy while their own dad couldn’t care less about them. For Scott, it was less about Lucy and Eli and more about getting back with me. That day he even suggested we sleep together.
What the fudge?
I was so mad that by the time Elijah knocked on the door around nine, I was suspicious and irritated. What if he was being nice to Lucy just to get in my pants? Why the fudge would he want in my pants when he looked like he could get whoever he wanted confounded me. But why else befriend a kid? Scott tried to use his own kids to get his way with me. Why wouldn’t I suspect anything different from a crabby guy like Elijah?
I placed Eli in his bassinet and went to the door.
Elijah immediately frowned as he shut the door. “Is everything all right?”
Why did he always smell so good? For a moment, I thought maybe I wouldn’t mind if Elijah tried anything with me and that startled me. Taking advantage of Lucy’s goodness wasn’t the way to get to me, though.
“Yeah, let me get the paint and cars,” I mumbled as I turned.
“Elijah!” Lucy rushed to him. I glimpsed over my shoulder and caught his smile. “I just got out of the bath.”
He said, “I see that.”
I didn’t trust myself because his smiles seemed genuine. I hated that Scott zapped my confidence.
“Do you have Funyuns for us?” Elijah asked her.
“Yeah,” she screeched, and I went to my room for the cars. When I returned to the kitchen, Eli was crying.
“Do you want me to help you with it? Or do you want to do it yourself?” Elijah said to Lucy as I went to get Eli.
I carried him into the kitchen and held him up so that he could see what Sissy was doing as I sat down. Eli’s giant eyes blinked, and he grinned. He’d been able to hold his head up like a champ since before he was even two months old.
“I want to paint mine.” Lucy grabbed a car and studied the colors. “Can you draw a horsey on mine after I finish it?”
“Yeah. What color are you going to use?”
She frowned. “What color are we painting Bubby’s?”
“How about blue or black? Something manly.”
Lucy giggled. It even made me snort, but when Elijah’s dark eyes flicked over me, I stopped smiling and glanced down at Eli instead.
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“She gets bored quick.” Elijah’s deep voice made me jump. I’d been watching him draw on the car for so long in a comfortable silence. He raised a brow.
