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“We didn’t either,” Em tells me with a placating smile. “He explained that it was the song his wife used to sing to Aria.”
“And he doesn’t have a good relationship with her?”
I can understand them no longer being together if the man treats everyone the way he just treated me.
“She passed away in January.”
My stomach drops to my knees, guilt roaring into me for thinking such horrible thoughts.
“That’s awful,” I tell her, adjusting little Nate in my arms.
“It was a car accident, and he’s still struggling.”
“Understandably,” I say, having my own trauma still fresh from around that same time. “I won’t sing that song any longer.”
She gives me a quick smile, lifting her hand to pat my shoulder, but she drops it back to her side before touching me. It’s not that I hate human touch, I’m just no longer comfortable with it. The kids are fine because they can’t hurt me, but I still struggle with anyone else. I’m grateful Em has some understanding of how I’m feeling. She doesn’t want me to be uncomfortable.
“I feel bad that you took him out there to get on to him.” I could see it in her eyes that she wasn’t happy with his reaction to walking into the room and hearing me sing his wife’s song.
“He apologized, but that wasn’t the only reason I wanted to talk to him. He’s staying here at the clubhouse with Aria. He doesn’t want to go back to his house.”
That I can understand as well. I don’t know how I’d manage in the same situation. His loss makes my abduction seem less powerful. I wasn’t held very long before being rescued, and Karen Bishop made sure in the end that Ronald Higgle couldn’t hurt me past the initial abduction. My trauma was mostly emotional. Harley, as he was introduced, suffers from a staggering loss every single day.
“I can understand not wanting to be in the home he had with her.”
“I think you should stay there.”
I take an immediate step back, rejecting the idea. I couldn’t be in their space. If the man hates me now for singing a song, I can’t imagine how he’d feel about me living in the home they had together.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Surely, he—”
“He’s fine with it,” Em says. “Very quick to agree. They—he has a guest bedroom that is all yours. We’ve been keeping the house fresh and clean these last couple of months in case he wants to return, and it will help us out immensely if you stay there and take over those duties.”
She must see the doubt on my face because she quickly continues.
“There are several houses still being built as we spoke of earlier. Once someone moves out of the clubhouse, you’re very welcome to come back and stay here. I have an empty room at my house in the back and so does Misty if you’re just completely opposed to the idea, but as I said, it would really help us if you’re there to keep everything in order.”
I’m not ignorant to the fact that she’s asking this of me to make me feel useful and to also kind of push me out of the nest I expected to be living in here. I’m about to speak and tell her that I can keep the house clean, but I’d prefer to stay with one of them when one of the muscled men from earlier enters the room.
“Okay,” I tell her, inching back, more on instinct than substantiated fear, as he approaches.
At some point, I may grow more comfortable around the people here, but today is not that day.
“Hi,” the man says as he walks up. “Has he been giving you trouble?”
I blink at him in confusion until he points to little Nate.
I smile down at the sleeping baby, resisting the urge to nuzzle his chubby little neck.
“Ali, this is Apollo. He’s one of the members that works for Cerberus. That’s his son,” Em explains.
I look back up at him, swallowing the lump forming in my throat. “He’s a precious angel.”
“I see he’s already got you wrapped around his finger,” Apollo says with a grin before reaching out for his child. “Come here, ladies’ man.”
The baby grunts in his slumber but doesn’t wake as Apollo cradles him in his arms. Little Nate is so tiny compared to his dad, but the man holds him with ease and affection.
“Thank you for caring for him today,” Apollo says, his eyes on mine.
“You’re very welcome.”
He nods before turning and leaving the room. There’s something about seeing a man so gentle with a baby that makes me trust him a little more. Too bad Harley was so grouchy and mean. If he would be nicer, it would make it less awkward living in his house. At least he’ll be here and I’ll be there. If I had to actually live with the guy, I’d be on the first bus back to Nebraska.
