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“Was it early on in your marriage?”
She looked away from me and out the window. “Yes, it was.”
I closed my eyes and cursed at myself internally.
When I talked to Rose initially about Emma, she told me she’d already run a background check on her like she did for every client who comes through her office, and nothing criminal came up. I wanted to find out the bastard ex’s last name and run a background check onhim. It was abundantly clear he’d broken her down, that he was the reason she was starting over.
When Tammy had called me after the circle meeting and confirmed Emma’s ex was a Marine, the incident in the kitchen made sense. I wanted to pound the guy’s face in. It killed me not knowing what he’d done to her.
The rest of the drive back home was silent. Emma carried in the picnic items while I carried Hadley up to her room. I didn’t even bother changing her out of her clothes, I just let her crawl under the covers.
She only woke up long enough to tell me she loved me and asked me to tell Emma that she loved her too. The moment she said that, I panicked.
Then Hadley rolled over, grabbed her stuffed animal and whispered, “Good night, Mommy. I love you.”
The tension in my chest eased. She wasn’t going to forget her mother. I wouldn’t let it happen, and I knew Emma wouldn’t either. I needed to stop worrying so much about it.
When I shut Hadley’s door, I leaned against it and tried to even out my breathing. Emma walked upstairs, heading for the balcony doors. She stopped in the middle of the loft when she saw me.
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
Swallowing hard, I nodded. “Yes. Hadley said goodnight…and that she…she loves you.”
Tears filled Emma’s eyes, then she quickly looked away. “Would you like for me to spend less time with Hadley?”
I pushed off the door with a frown. “What?”
“It’s just, I know your fear of her becoming too close to me and…”
Making my way over, I stopped in front of her. Damn it all to hell if I didn’t want to pull her into my arms and tell hereverything was going to be okay. Or maybe I neededherto do that forme. I wasn’t sure.
“Don’t stop what you’re doing, Emma. You were right. Hadley won’t forget her mom. She needs you, and so do?—”
I caught the last word before it was out of my mouth.
Emma took a step back, and I did as well.
With that sweet smile of hers, Emma softly said, “Thank you for a lovely afternoon. I enjoyed it. Good night, Aiden.”
“Good night, Emma.”
She walked out to the elevated deck as I followed behind her to lock the door. I watched as she crossed the deck and went into her apartment.
I wasn’t sure how long I stood there before I finally made my way downstairs to my own room. I took a shower and climbed into bed and willed myself to stop thinking about Emma.
Almost two weeks had passed since the hike. The pattern we’d fallen into with Emma being here came so easily and seemed so natural, I kept waiting for the sky to fall. Hadley was thriving. I had gained six pounds from all the good food she’d made…and Emma seemed to be avoiding me ever since she’d told me about her miscarriage. Well, not really avoiding me. She avoided us being alone.
Stepping into the house after work, I headed straight to my bedroom and removed all of my work gear, putting the gun and taser in my safe. It was a rare occasion that I worked on Fridays, but when we got the call about a missing couple, I prepared myself for a possible long weekend of work. I’d called Emma and told her I most likely wouldn’t be home for dinner. By a stroke of sheer luck, we stumbled onto the couple within an hour.
That meant I could now surprise Hadley and Emma with dinner. I quickly changed into jeans and a long-sleeve T-shirt, knowing they’d be home soon. It was Hadley’s second day at swim practice and so far, she was loving it.
As I made my way out of the bedroom, I heard Hadley and Emma coming in from the garage.
“I don’t know why he’d say such a mean thing, Emma.”
I stopped short of the kitchen and stepped back into the hall.
“Well, for starters, some people just have meanness in their hearts, Hadley. For whatever reason, they’re hurting, and they think it’s okay to hurt other people to make themselves feel better.”
