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“I’d love that too,” I admitted.
I made my escape back upstairs with Emma in tow. We spent the afternoon together, eating lunch, playing Candy Land, and watching a movie, but my mind was elsewhere for most of it.
I was thinking of Kieran.
The first man I’d ever called Daddy.
* * *
That night, I put Emma to bed, set up my nanny cam, and headed to Sean’s Pub to work my next shift. The hours passed by quickly as I served drink after drink. It was a weekday, so it wasn’t particularly busy, but the company was good and the patrons friendly. Sean was in good spirits and even threw a few extra tips my way, telling me that he’d only gotten them because he’d hired such a pretty girl to man his bar.
I shook my head with a chuckle, but I couldn’t turn cash like that away. At the end of the night, a man with eyes much like Kieran’s left me a hundred-dollar bill as a tip. He’d been sitting there quietly all night and I didn’t notice until he was just leaving, and I called out, offering to get his change right away.
“Keep it,” he murmured with a wink.
I stood there dumbfounded. I had a feeling that he was related to Kieran in some way.
When it came time to close up the bar, Sean and I worked as quickly as we could to clean up for the night. He was wiping down the bar while I collected a few bags of trash. I walked to the back entrance, pushing the door open with my hip. I pushed it far enough so that it could lock into place. Then I could carry the rest of the garbage out and load it in the dumpster.
I had just turned my back to the building and thrown the bag away when a brute force knocked me against the brick wall so hard that it knocked the breath straight from my lungs. I was just about to scream when a strong hand whirled me around and clapped over my mouth.
It was Trevor.
“Shhh… It’s just me. Please don’t scream. I just want to talk.”
I breathed hard for a minute. He wasn’t drunk and his eyes were soft like they used to be, like the Trevor who had taken me on a date to the apple orchard years ago before asking me to prom. I searched his gaze as my heart pounded in my chest.
He pulled his hands away and held them up as if he was showing that he wasn’t a threat. I wanted to scream, but I held back.
“I’m sorry, Leah. Listen, I’ve changed. I haven’t picked up a drink since the day you left. I’m in AA now. I’ve got a sponsor and everything. I’ve got more than six months clean now,” he tried.
Quickly, he dug his hand in his pocket and I flinched, only to see him pull out a coin.
“See? This proves it,” he said excitedly.
“What do you want, Trevor?”
“I miss you, babe. Come back home with me,” he began.
My chin ached where the brick had scratched it. I wanted to believe he was capable of change, but I knew better than that. I hadn’t forgotten the look in his eyes that night, the sheer murder brewing there when he’d thrown that glass at me and Emma.
I couldn’t put her back in danger like that.
“I can’t, Trevor. Please go.”
“What if I move here to be with you? I can make it work. I’ll find a job and help you with Emma,” he continued.
“No. We’re better off on our own,” I said quickly. His eyes narrowed and he slapped his hand beside the wall next to my head. I could feel the fury radiating off him. It could explode at any given moment, and I would be caught in the fallout.
“I’ve been searching for you for a long fucking time, bitch. I’m your husband and you will come back with me where you belong,” he yelled.
He surrounded me, his body language promising violence if I didn’t do what he said. He’d hit me several times in the past and I trembled, waiting for the blow. As he pulled his arm back to do just that, another shadow passed behind him and grabbed his wrist.
“The lady said no, asshole,” Sean yelled.
“She’s my fucking wife, you dick,” Trevor roared, pulling back with the full intention of hitting Sean instead of me.
Trevor opened his mouth to argue, but Sean cut him off.
