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But then, the school bell rang, and I realized there wasn’t time to talk my way out of it. And then they began to scream and screech. The kids.
They poured out of the school. I’d never been fond of children, but at this point, my ears were deafened. It was an odd and incongruous place for me to be. How many of the parents who’d arrived to pick up their kids and drive them home would have guessed that a billionaire entrepreneur had just flown in by helicopter to help with the pickup? It was comical, and I couldn’t help laughing, even if the noise of a few hundred screaming children should have been more than enough to kill my good mood.
Somehow it felt right to be here, even if I was a little uncomfortable about the whole thing. And I started to wonder about thoughts I hadn’t let myself feel over the last few weeks. I pondered the question of how things could have been different. How I could have been there for Jamie during her pregnancy. How I could have been around for Cassie. And how my one decision—to leave Jamie and not speak to her after our first night together. It led my life down a completely different road.
If that was true, then it might, just might have been the case that the two people standing here at the school gates weren’t two secret lovers who happened to work together, but instead two parents.
“Momma!” said a little voice. A voice I knew almost by instinct. I looked up and saw her jogging out of the crowd of kids to meet Jamie. Jamie lifted the little girl into her arms and kissed her.
“Hey, pumpkin. Where’s Kyle?”
“He’s in the back. Kyle got a B in math today.”
“They give four-year-olds grades?” I asked, confused. Then Cassie looked up at me.
“Look momma!” she said. “It’s Mister Grumpy!”
Jamie looked at me, a little embarrassed. “I guess it is, kiddo,” she said, ruffling Cassie’s hair. “Go fetch Kyle, wouldya?”
Cassie ran off, and I raised an eyebrow. “Mr. Grumpy?” I said.
“It’s uh—it’s my name at home for you. When she asked who the man was on the doorstep the other day.”
I felt a little pained when I heard it, even if it was funny. And accurate. Was that really how she saw me? Was that how Cassie—my flesh and blood, my daughter — saw me?
“I’m feeling pretty cheerful today,” I told her.
“I can see,” she said and smiled. “Look, about Cassie—”
“It’s fine,” I said, raising a hand. “I promise.”
“Yeah?” said Jamie. She looked a little nervous. I knew that she must be wondering if I’d call her when I got back. She must be wondering if I’d be true to my word.
“Jamie Reed,” I said. “I promise you now. I will not let you down. You hear me? So, stop worrying so much.”
Jamie grinned, and her face cracked into a smile. I patted her awkwardly on the shoulder and began to walk away.
But before I rounded the block to the building where we landed the chopper, I turned and stared at her, watching her chatting to the two little kids around her knees. And I knew that I was lying. I wasn’t lying about coming back—I knew what Jamie meant to me now and what I meant to her.
But when she finds out how I came to know about Cassie, she is going to regret letting me back into her life at all.
Chapter Nineteen
Jamie
“WheredidMr.Grumpygo?”
I smiled, but then I felt a stab of guilt. “Mr. Slade had to go back to his helicopter.”
“I want a helicopter,” said Kyle.
“Well, you’d better keep doing your math, I guess,” I said to him. “How was school, kids?”
“Good,” said Cassie.
“Good-ish,” said Kyle.
“That’s what we like to hear. I guess I always thought school was goodish too,” I laughed and pulled out my phone. I just remembered I needed to post the picture to the Slade Diamonds account. It was going to be our second post—a huge milestone, and I knew that posting at rush hour, as people are busy picking up kids and heading home from work, the lovelorn brides and jewelry enthusiasts would see the photo of the ring on my finger charming. A little ray of sunshine at the end of a long day. I pressed the Switch Account button on the app and slid my finger over to select the Slade Account, instead of my personal one.
