To Hate Adam Connor

Sliding my eyes to Lucy, I raised my brow.

She murmured something inaudible, and I could’ve sworn her pink lips mouthed asshole.

“Whatever happened to the attentive nanny?” she asked before I could figure out something to say in response to that uncalled for remark.

I looked away from her lips. “Got fired.”

“At least you’ve done something right,” she mumbled.

“She was supposed to be out there with him. Contrary to what you believe, I didn’t leave him alone out there.”

“Oh, right. The nanny. Does she wipe your precious ass too?”

“What is your problem with me?” I asked, taking a step toward her. She was a short thing compared to me, and I easily towered over her.

Did she back up like any other sane female would? Of course not. Not this one.

“I could ask you the same question! What the hell is your problem with me? I even offered you coffee after you had me thrown in jail! What more should I do?”

“That’s called a holding cell. As much as I wish you would have, you didn’t make it that far. You weren’t even processed.”

“And I’m sure you tried your best to make that happen. I spent five hours behind those bars, thanks to you. And that’s what I got for saving your son’s life!”

Grinding my teeth, I got closer to her. “I told you I didn’t know Aiden was in trouble.” I glared down at her, and she glared right back at me. Oh, if I could just grab hold of her and shake some sense into her. Maybe that way her presence wouldn’t aggravate me anymore.

Her eyes dropped to my lips for a brief moment, and I realized how hard my breathing was.

Noticing the thick silence, I looked over her head and saw Aiden watching us with great attention.

“That escalated rather quickly,” Olive said to no one in particular.

I shot a look at Lucy, frowning when I realized how close we were standing, then addressed Jason. “I’m sorry for interrupting your day, Jason, but I think it’s time for us to leave.”

Giving Lucy a wide berth, I helped Aiden down.

“Goodbye, Olive,” he said shyly and waved at her. When Olive leaned down to give him a kiss on his cheek and invite him over again, he gave her a tight hug and thanked her.

“They want me to stay, Daddy. Can I stay?”

“They didn’t say that, Aiden. They invited you over for another time. I have to go to work, so we need to leave.”

“But you said Anne is gone, so who’ll stay with me?”

“I have to drop you off at your mom’s, Aiden. We already talked about it this morning, remember? She is meeting with her people at the house so she’ll look after you today.”

We’d almost made it to the door as Aiden chattered next to me, but when I mentioned his mom, he pulled me to a stop.

“Please, Daddy. Please.”

I looked back at everyone behind us and then got on one knee in front of him. “What’s happening here, Aiden?” While it was obvious he liked everyone in the room, the way he was acting wasn’t his usual behavior. He wasn’t a spoiled kid at all; something was wrong.

As soon as I was down on his level, he wrapped his arms around my neck and held on. “I don’t wanna leave you. Please. Can’t Dan stay with me?”

“Aiden, Dan has the day off.” I unwrapped his arms from my neck and looked at his red eyes. Shit. “You can’t do this to me, Aiden. I have no one to take care of you when I’m on set until I find someone new, little man.”

He wiped at his dry eyes and nodded. “I’m gonna miss you again.”

Lucy broke into our conversation by saying, “My heart is breaking.”

Right, because her fucking heart was so high on my list of things about which I gave a fuck. My jaw ticked. “Can you give us a moment?”

She talked right over me. “Since your heart is probably carved from stone, you can’t understand how that feels, but I just wanted to let you know that multiple hearts are breaking right now—not that it looks like you care about that.”

“Lucy!” Olive whispered heatedly from behind her.

“What?” she asked her friend as if she were as innocent as an angel. In my eyes she was more like the devil reincarnated. “I’m just telling the truth. Look,” she began, getting closer. “Olive and Jason have to leave for a meeting in an hour or so, but I don’t have any job interviews today. Why don’t you leave Aiden here with me? You’ll pick him up as soon as you get back from wherever it is that you have to go, and since we established the fact that I mean no harm to your son, seeing as how I already saved his life once…”

No. That was my immediate answer, but before I could voice my opinion, Aiden ran to Lucy and gave her a hug—or more like gave her legs a hug. Her naked legs. Her smooth, toned legs. I looked up and met her eyes, already shaking my head.

“I wanna stay,” Aiden repeated for the tenth time.

“She is right, Adam,” Jason agreed. “Olive and I will be back here in two hours tops. It’ll be fun. We’ll take care of him until you come back, don’t worry.”

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. “I don’t like this, Aiden. You can’t get your way every time.”

“But I like it here, Daddy, and if I stay here I can stay with you. You’ll have to come back to pick me up.”

“I always come back to pick you up, Aiden. And you’ve only been here for ten minutes.”

Since his play wasn’t working, he tried a different tactic. “I like Lucy.”

“And Lucy likes you, little human,” Lucy interjected into our back and forth and pointed at something I couldn’t see on the other side of the kitchen as she whispered something in his ear. When Aiden went off to check it out, Lucy walked toward me.

“Clearly he doesn’t want to go.”

“Clearly.”

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath, and I watched her lips press into a straight line.

“I’m sorry for watching you, okay,” she grumbled. “It was the biggest mistake of my life. You’re not even that hot from this close. If I could take it back, trust me, I would. You are nothing like what I thought you’d be.”

“Thanks,” I drawled. “And here I was hoping you were in love with me.”

Another fake smile. “I don’t do love, and you’re not my type anyway, sorry.”

Like I’d believe that after I saw the pictures she’d taken of me half-naked. “My heart is fucking broken, sweetheart.”

“As it should be, and don’t call me sweetheart.”

I chuckled and shook my head. The nerve.

“Anyway,” she continued. “How long will you be gone?”

I ran a hand through my hair, thinking. “At least six hours.”

“And you can’t pick him up from his mother?”

“She is leaving the city tonight. We already talked; if I drop him off, she’s not gonna wait around for me to pick him up again.” And why was I so willingly giving her all this information again?

“There you go. He’ll stay here until you come back.”

My eyes found Aiden, and I caught him showing Jason his arm muscles. I smiled. I couldn’t leave him there, could I? I knew Jason from the few times we had talked, and I definitely didn’t know this mess of a woman who was standing in front of me with an impatient look. But, if I gave him back to Adeline, I wouldn’t get to see him for another whole week. I was already missing him too much, and sending him away with Adeline so he could miss school and sleep in trailers…well, it didn’t seem like the better choice at that moment.