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Chapter Twenty-Three
Elijah
“Lance, quick, come look!” Waldo yelled the moment he stepped through the doors of the parlor. I didn’t bother to glance up from the sketch I was drawing for a customer.
A second later, they barreled through the door laughing. “Dude, there are car seats in your truck.”
I had to lift my head. “Don’t start. You already know.” I resumed drawing again.
“Yeah, but why are they still in your truck?” Lance sounded dubious, but I didn’t stop drawing.
“What’s the point of getting them out when she has no car to put them in?” Everyone was so damn nosy around here. “Besides, it’s just easier for us in the morning when she works. There’s no loading and unloading them every time.”
Hadley had tried to take them the first day I drove her and the kids to the apartment, but I told her it was pointless until she got a new car. Hers couldn’t be repaired, I could tell just by looking at it. The other day she had her dad take her to get the police report for the insurance company, and it bummed me out. I wanted to take her, but this wasn’t so bad. I’d taken her to work three times this week and picked her up. Sadly, she was off the next few days. Despite telling her I didn’t care, I knew she wouldn’t ask me to take her anywhere when she wasn’t working. She’d likely ask her parents.
A stool scraped the floor as it was scooted across the linoleum. It rolled to a stop on the other side of the counter where I was drawing. From the corner of my eye, I saw Wendy plop down and cross her arms. “We hardly recognize you around here, anymore.”
Humming in my throat, I asked, “What do you mean?”
“You’re not known to be sweet, Elijah. It’s a good look on you.”
Glancing up, I saw her smirking. “Don’t you have a tattoo to do or something?”
“Not for another thirty minutes,” she told me, leaning forward. “Hadley is sweet, lovable, and beautiful. The complete opposite of you.”
I dropped my pencil. “And?”
“We just want to know if you like her. You’re going out of your way to help her, and you’ve left work early three nights this week. You never leave early!”
“Of course, I like her. What’s not to like?” When her eyes sparkled mischievously, I groaned and wiped my hand over my face. “Not like that.”
That was a lie. I really, really liked Hadley more than our friendship deemed appropriate, no matter how much I pretended otherwise. I agreed with Wendy—I barely recognized myself. It wasn’t a bad or even a strange feeling. It was welcoming, so I didn’t question it. Almost. My getting a boner every time I thought of Hadley was a bit much, but I’d ignore it since I liked my friendship with her. There was nothing physical about us. I’d never felt as content with someone as I did with Hadley by just being around her.
It was natural.
Fucking perfect if I were honest about it.
Hadley’s features gave away how much younger she was to me, but she was far more mature than most women her age. It was why I didn’t mind her and her little family.
I never questioned what I wanted to do. I just did it and being around them was just gravitational. I was drawn there.
It got me thinking lately that maybe I had it wrong about a life with kids and a family being mundane. Maybe the hardships were worth it, then I’d see a screaming toddler in the store and the discourage to never procreate came back. Then I remembered Lucy’s little tantrum with her mom last evening. I had driven them home. Lucy wanted something, and Hadley wouldn’t let her have it. Her outburst wasn’t annoying because the kid was normally loud, but she could be worse when trying to get her way. Strangely, it slightly amused me how the four-year-old terror tried to bend Hadley to her will. I was ashamed to admit that for some unknown reason Lucy had bent mine in half. If she yelled for something, I got it. That was why there was a bag of Funyuns sitting in my truck. Hadley wouldn’t let me get them because Lucy acted out.
My ex would have loved to ask Lucy how she bossed me around. God knew I’d never do for anyone else what I did for Lucy and Hadley.
Discovering how I felt about Hadley and her family didn’t scare me. In fact, it put a smile on face. Despite how I misjudged her on that first day, it had always been easy to be around them. It worried me, though, that I wanted to protect the mom and her kids, especially since I didn’t know them well enough. I thought maybe it was because Ma was a single mother before Hank. Honestly, that wasn’t it either.
No matter how I tried, I couldn’t control my feelings.
“Are you sure? Or are you lying?” Wendy’s voice grabbed my attention.
I blinked. “We’re friends… If given the chance, I’d take them into my home and keep them there.” I murmured, hunched over the counter, and picked back up the pencil.
Wendy gasped. “You really like them, don’t you? Even her kids?”
Drawing in a deep breath, I glanced up and said, “I do.”
“I never thought I’d live to see the day that you cared more about someone else than yourself. You’re so sincere when you speak about them that it’s frightening. Look! I’ve got goose bumps. I can’t wait to tell Cheryl about this.”
