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“That’s what I’m saying. I can come over tonight. Imagine how excited she’d be for us to all be together.”
He scared me with words like that. If he talked to Lucy like that, he’d make things hard on me by planting ideas in her head.
“She’d be happy if you’d just call her every day.”
“Hadley…”
“You’re not coming over. If you want to spend time with Lucy and Eli, I can meet you somewhere or they can spend the night with you.”
“Why? Do you have something to hide?” He swore under his breath. “Not tried anything my ass.”
Tears pricked my eyes. He mentally drained me. How could I have ever loved that man? “It’s because I don’t trust you. You take advantage of Lucy and use her to get to me.”
“I do not—”
“Yes, you do, Scott. Instead of talking to me, you should be listening to your daughter who asked to call you.”
“Put her on the phone,” he hissed, anger laced in his tone.
My heart dropped. “Not if you’ll upset her. Just be happy—”
“You should have thought of that before.”
His words frosted my heart. I didn’t doubt for a second that he’d hurt his own daughter’s feelings to hurt me. I hung up and dropped to my knees, shutting the bathroom door the rest of the way as I did. I didn’t want Lucy to hear me cry.
Just like that, all those good feelings I’d had lately broke into pieces.
_____
“That’s not your house!” Lucy yelled the next day. I glimpsed over to Elijah’s where Lucy was staring and saw a very tall, sturdy-built woman on his porch. She had dark hair and eyes and they were focused on us at Lucy’s declaration. “That’s Elijah’s house!’
The older woman tilted her head at her, eyes brightening like someone just told her she won the lottery. “Lucy?”
Lucy placed her hands on her hips, an intimidating glower that wasn’t very effective slashed across her tiny features. “How do you know me?”
“Elijah talks about you. I’m his momma.”
Lucy and I both took her in at the same time.
“And you two must be Hadley and Eli!” She was extremely excited and before I knew it, she was making her way down the steps toward us. “Oh, goodness you’re even cuter in person.” She stopped in front of Lucy.
Lucy peered around her back toward Elijah’s. “Is Elijah home now?”
“He’ll be home tomorrow.” She beamed down at Lucy, then glanced at me. “Beautiful daughter for a beautiful mother.” I blushed at her compliment. “Would you guys like to come in? Elijah doesn’t know that I stopped by. I wanted to do a little cleaning while he was away.” She winked at me. “He’s not a duster, not much of cleaner or cook either.”
Lucy covered her mouth, giggling like the idea of Elijah being that way was funny. “I got called into work on my day off.” She frowned, so I quickly added. “But maybe just until my dad shows up.”
_____
One second inside Elijah’s home, and I knew his one weak point. He was bad at adulting. Or maybe just picking up after himself. Or simply just bad at living alone.
His house wasn’t filthy, just lacking. The two-story home didn’t have much in it. His living room was covered in papers, pencils, and all the things I associated with his drawings and paints. They were scattered chaotically over his table and couch. There wasn’t much in his kitchen either. I spotted takeout in his trash can.
“Okay, I’ll admit it. My son isn’t very dirty. Just unorganized.” His mother placed her hands on her hips and smiled down thoughtfully at his mess of papers. “You know, I used to worry about him.” She picked up this creepy drawing and tapped it with amusement. “Odd sort. He has a strange way with art, and it honestly scared me. I thought he was missing something.”
“Missing something?” I frowned, bouncing Eli on my hip.
“Missing an emotion that made him compassionate and caring. Don’t get me wrong, I know my boy can love because he loves me but as for the rest of the world…” She threw her hand up. “He never showed the slightest interest. I honestly thought he’d never feel fondness for anything or anyone, but now I know I shouldn’t have worried. It’s not that he couldn’t feel, it’s just he never found anyone worth caring for.”
I grabbed one of his sketches and held it up. Like most of them, it was dark and strange. I tilted my head thoughtfully. “I like his illustrations. I’m looking forward to learning more about this part of him.” I cocked my head the opposite way, still inspecting the paper. “I think Elijah likes what he likes is all. Your description of him surprises me. I’ve only known him as a caring man.” I chuckled, realizing that all of our new encounters with him replaced the awful first impression. “Well, except for maybe the first few times we saw him.”
When I glanced over at her, she had a wide grin on her face.
“Elijah really likes demons, doesn’t he, Mommy?” Lucy said out of nowhere.
“Your children are beautiful.” Elijah’s mom grabbed Eli’s hand and played with him. “It would be a shame for you not to have more one day. That’s what I think.”
