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The Community Center had its grand opening, and I watched her. I examined her every move as Jeffery fucking Akers flirted. I watched as she brushed him off, hating how relieved it felt to know that in the end she was still mine. Just frozen for now, like a time capsule I could bust open when we’d finally hit the right date.
Whenever that fucking was.
Haley never told me, not that I actually thought she had an exact timeline. She wanted a foundation with my kids, and since she was with them nearly every day, I assumed she had it.
But the last time I tried to kiss her, she turned me down telling me, “Not yet.”
I had to get some space, and I also needed to make some money, so this was going to be the best option for all of us.
Haley had just steppedinto the house, and I wasn’t supposed to be here.
“Hey,” I said, catching her off guard.
She spun and gasped.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Sorry.”
She slapped my arm, walking past me. “You’re not supposed to be here right now.”
“I know.” I followed her into the kitchen, where she began unloading groceries. Fuck if I knew what she ordered half the time. I didn’t fight her anymore about what she spent or got for the house.
“Listen…”
Her head popped up from digging into the paper bags.
“What’s up?”
“I have a gig that’s paying me…it will help take care of some of my debt, until I can research a new backer.”
She slid a tray of raspberries out and then another.
“Okay…what sort of gig?”
“Boxing. There’s some international circuits my agent told me about that’s doing a ‘retired heroes’ thing.” I cleared my throat. “The tour’s in Europe.”
The box of graham crackers slipped from her hands as she stared at me, mouth slack, her dark brows high on her forehead.
“Wait…Europe?” she shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
She did, though, she just hadn’t processed it.
So, I waited and drank in the sight of how beautiful she looked. Her hair, that small slice of skin showing near her stomach. That gloss on her lips.
“How long would you be gone?”
My chest might as well have cracked and revealed how deeply she’d embedded herself into me. Her voice was so full of worry and fear that I wanted to close the space between us and erase that line between her brows, smooth out the crinkles near her eyes.
Instead, I gripped the back of the chair and rasped, “Ten weeks.”
Haley fell into the nearest seat as if her legs wouldn’t hold her up anymore.
“Ten weeks?”
I ground my molars and nodded.
“What about the girls?” Her eyes watered but she quickly swiped at them.
I gestured toward her. “That’s where you come in. I was hoping you’d be able to stay here with them.”
