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Maya bent to meet her. “Well, hello, beautiful girl. How are you?”
“I’m good. Who are you again?” Saylor asked.
“I’m your daddy’s friend.”
“Oh.”
“Were you playing with Billie?” Maya asked.
The sound of my name coming out of her mouth was grating.
“Yup. We had a tea party.”
“That’s so much fun. I used to love to do that when I was young.”
Several awkward seconds of silence passed as Maya just stared at Saylor’s face. Poor little girl had no clue what was really happening.
“Well…” Maya’s eyes started to water. “I just wanted to say hello to you before I left.”
“Hello,” Saylor said innocently. She apparently hadn’t picked up on the fact that Maya was about to cry; I knew Saylor would have said something if she’d noticed.
Then Maya pulled Saylor in for a hug. Colby’s face was beet red. He looked like he was ready to lose it. She finally let Saylor go and turned to us. “Well, goodnight.”
Colby nor I said anything as she left.
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Thankfully, Saylor didn’t question us any further about Maya or anything else that had happened. She was just happy to have her daddy home and cooking her favorite meal.
Colby ended up making a huge batch of that mac and cheese for all three of us. It wasn’t the dinner we’d imagined, but then again, this entire evening had been flipped on its axis. I only hoped it had been worth it.
Because we ate later than expected, we opted to let Saylor pick an episode of a Disney show on demand instead of watching a full movie. Colby and I mostly stared at each other, still in disbelief as Saylor watched TV.
After the show ended, I offered to put her to bed.
When Colby and I were finally alone for the first time since this ordeal began, he wrapped his arms around me and let out a long breath into my neck. “You were a fucking rockstar today. I can’t thank you enough for putting up with that and for saving the whole situation. It could have been a huge disaster.”
“I didn’t do much.”
“Are you kidding? You handled it like a champ. You could’ve sent him away, but you knew facing the fire would be best. And it worked, I think. She and I didn’t fuck up because we’d had a chance to talk about what we were going to say.”
“I wasn’t sure if you were going to come back.”
“I probably wouldn’t have come back if I hadn’t located her in time.”
“How did you know that detail about the Tom Cruise movie?” I asked.
“I Googled spoilers on the way here.”
“Smart.”
He shook his head. “This whole thing is like a mind game, isn’t it? Like how fast can you absorb information?”
Colby’s phone rang, and he picked it up immediately. “Hello?” He turned to me and whispered, “It’s the attorney.”
Once again on edge, I watched as Colby spoke to him.
He pulled his hair in frustration as he listened. “Okay. Well, it’s unavoidable, so at least it’s set.” He stood up and paced. “Yup. Okay. That sounds good. I’ll see you next week on Thursday then. Thank you.”
After he hung up, he let out a long breath. “They set a date for the Stokes hearing. The attorney wants Maya and me to come in and meet with him this week so we can discuss a strategic plan.”
“Well, at least it’s progress.”
“Exactly. It’s like we have to go through hell to get to the other side,” he said.
“That’s a good way to describe it.”
A dark expression suddenly came over his face.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I feel like today is hitting me in waves,” he said. “I’m so ashamed to have put you through that.”
I shook my head. “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. Truly.”
“Well, I’m not. You’re the most important thing in my life besides Saylor, and to have to reduce you to a babysitter? That just felt so damn wrong.”
“Please don’t expend any more energy worrying about my feelings. It was all an act. I know that. I handled it. It’s all good, Colby. Get out of your head tonight and come back to me instead.”
I tried my best to reassure him, but I knew with the hearing looming, the coming weeks were going to be the beginning of a new and very difficult chapter in our lives. For tonight, I just wanted to make him feel good again. Make us feel good again.
There was only one thing I could think of that might make that happen. “Hey, I have an idea,” I said.
“What?”
“Let’s go to bed early and play Mr. Lennon fucks the babysitter.”
CHAPTER 27
Colby
“I spoke to Richard Weber a little while ago,” my attorney told Maya and me as we sat in his office the following week. “I usually give the investigator a courtesy call to let them know if I’ll be joining a client at a Stokes hearing.”
