“Yes,” I said, because Sloane and I had always aligned our schedules. We hadn’t changed that yet.
“Can you take Harper to your apartment?” she asked, eyes fixed on me. “Or... you could bring her here. I want to meet her.”
I stared at her, anger rising. “Tell me you’re not fucking serious, Evie.”
She crawled across the bed toward me, looking up, pleading. “You said you’re with me, Cam. You said you told her about us. That you’re getting a divorce.”
“And now you expect me to do what with Harper? Drop the news on her like, ‘Hey, this is your dad’s girlfriend’?”
“She’s got to find out about me sometime, right?”
“She doesn’t even know her parents are separated, Evie. These things can’t be rushed. It takes time.”
“But I’m still not okay with you being at her house all day with her there.” She scowled.
“Sometimes Harper asks to go out.”
“Then take her somewhere, spend the whole day there.”
My brows drew together, jaw tightening. “It still can’t be the whole day, Evie. She’s five. She’ll get tired.”
She paused, eyes searching mine as if weighing something, then said softly, “Then does it have to be the entire day?”
A quiver ran through my hands. I was barely holding it together. Through gritted teeth, I said,
“I’m going to spend the entire day with my daughter. Even an entire week if I want to, if Sloane lets me. And if you’re trying to stop me, Evie, then you’ve seriously misunderstood your place in all of this.”
I stormed into the living room, grabbed my shoes, slipped them on hastily, and searched for my car keys. When I found them, Evie was standing in front of her bedroom door.
“I’ve been patient, Cam,” she said sharply. “Patient, because even when you left home for the past month, you never really left. You were always there, at her place early in the morning and again until late at night. You spend more time with her. You work with her. She’s in every part of your day.”
She stepped closer, and I could see the fury burning in her eyes.
“When she had a problem with her house alarm, you ran over like a madman. When she needed something from the store, you dropped everything. Even in the middle of the night.”
“She asked me to get paracetamol for Harper. Of course, I ran there instantly.”
Evie’s voice rose, cracking with emotion. “You’re here, but you’re not really here, Cam. I accepted you spending all your days off at her place before because I knew I was a secret. But now you said you told her, and nothing has changed.”
We stood face-to-face, locked in a standoff. My hands went to my waist. “What do you want from me, Evie?”
Her voice dropped, trembling slightly. “You said you’re with me. You chose me.” She took a breath. “Prove it.”
“I am here with you. Isn’t that proof enough?”
She shook her head.
“Not when she’s always on your mind. Not when I catch you staring into space, lost in thoughts far away. I know you’re thinking of her. You still love her, Cam. I know you tried with me, but you can’t. You just can’t let go.”
Her hands shot up in anger. “Hell, you said her name when we were fucking, Cam!”
Yeah, that was... I didn’t even know what that was. But one thing I was sure of: I was tired of this conversation.
With a weary shake of my head, I headed for the door before I said, “I can’t deal with this right now. You’re asking for something I can’t give. My time with my daughter is non-negotiable. My days off are for Harper, as much as Sloane allows, and I will keep picking her up and driving her to my mom’s and back.”
I pressed down on the door handle and pushed it open.
“You’re the one who needs to rethink this, Evie.”
