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“Maybe so, but shouldn’t you be one hundred percent sure? Lilah isn’t exactly known for her honesty. She’s pulled a lot of shit on you, you’ve said so yourself.”
An exasperated breath leaves my lips. “She’s not like that anymore.”
“Well…” She brings her hand to the side of my face and runs her fingers through my hair above my ear. “Get the test done so you can be sure, but also to protect your rights in the event that Lilah won't let you see her.”
Once again, she doesn’t refer to Monica by her name, as though saying her name makes her real. Adelaide does have a point though. I don’t believe Lilah would try anything like that, but a little insurance can’t hurt.
“I’ll talk to her about it this week,” I say.
“Wonderful.” Adelaide kisses me, her tongue snaking through the seam of my lips.
My hand winds to the back of her head, holding her to me. Our kiss lasts until the flight attendant interrupts to see if we’d like any drinks or a snack. Adelaide stays seated next to me and I link our hands, waiting for our drinks. I have to figure out how to bring up the DNA test without upsetting Lilah. I mistakenly trusted her completely before. This time, I’ll cover my ass.
* * *
Later in the week,Tripp and I are relaxing with a few beers on my patio. Adelaide is off doing press interviews purposely scheduled before the wedding.
Tripp entertains me with tales from the tour, but my phone rings on the table and I glance down to see it’s a FaceTime call from Lilah. I love the fact we no longer schedule our FaceTime calls. Lilah lets Monica decide when she wants to talk and makes it happen. Our conversations don’t always last long—she is five. Sometimes it’s a good night, or a good morning, or guess what happened at school call, but they aren’t forced.
“Want to say hello to my daughter?” I ask.
“No shit?” Tripp’s eyebrows rise and he sets his beer on the table.
“No cursing.” I hit the screen to accept the call and hold the phone away from me. Monica’s face comes into view. Lilah must be holding the phone for her because whenever Monica holds it, I get a great visual of her nose. “Hey, sweetie. How are you?”
“Hi, Jimmy! I’m good. I want to tell you what happened at school today. Mommy said you would think it was funny.”
I chuckle. “Okay, let’s hear it.”
“There’s this boy in my class named Sidney, and when we were all sitting down so the teacher could read to us, he kept moving around, and when the teacher asked if he had ants in his pants, he said no and then he pulled a frog out of his pocket!”
“He did not!”
She nods frantically. “He did! He did! And then it jumped off his hand and the teacher screamed, and all the kids screamed! Mr. Craig had to come in and find the frog.”
I laugh, picturing the scene. “What an exciting day.”
“Okay I have to go now. My princess Barbie needs a new dress to wear. Bye. Here’s Mommy.”
Before I can say goodbye or introduce her to Tripp, she’s gone and the image on the screen is moving around Lilah’s kitchen. Her face fills the screen.
“Hey, sorry about that. We’re still working on phone etiquette,” she says, humor in her tone.
“Don’t worry about it. Listen, there’s something I need to talk to you about though. Is Monica in earshot?”
She turns her gaze from the camera, and I see she’s walking down the hallway and out to the front porch. “What’s up?”
I push a hand through my hair.
With the scrape of his chair, Tripp stands from the table. “I’m gonna grab us a couple more beers,” he whispers.
I nod my thanks. He must sense the change in my demeanor.
“Who’s that?” Lilah asks.
“Tripp. He’s back from tour and filling me in on all the trouble he got into.”
“Oh,” she says and looks away from the screen. “What did you want to discuss?”
