To Hate Adam Connor

It was fun. The little human was fun, cute, and smart—everything his father wasn’t, and I was maybe a tad bit in love with him. The son. Not the father.

Definitely not the father.

Because who’d want to fall in love with a bastard who had a voice that could give you orgasms, right?

Right.

Anyway, I’d given up on love completely, hadn’t I? Better to stay away from the curse at all costs.

So, it was all great until he came to pick up a sleepy Aiden. We barely said two words to each other, but he made sure I signed his stupid NDA and told me he had a room ready for me to stay in. He said the next day I should spend my time with Aiden at their place instead of at Olive’s. I just nodded and disappeared from sight as he chatted with Jason in hushed tones, and Aiden promptly fell asleep on his shoulder.

The second day, I got a call from an unknown number as I was emailing Tom, Jason’s agent, to get his opinion on something. It was Dan the Man giving me a particularly sharp order to come next door. Ticked off because he had hung up on me before I could open my mouth, I marched over to their place, only to find he’d already left. I let it go. Barely.

Seeing Aiden’s happy face helped too. It was going to be my first day spending the night at his place and when I told him about it, Aiden seemed to be the happiest person about my sleeping arrangements because according to him, I was going to be his first sleepover, and we were going to have loads of fun.

Again, everything was perfect until Adam showed up. As he listened to his son chatter about our day, he carried the little human to bed. Thinking he wouldn’t be back any time soon, he found me just as I was climbing up the ladder I’d secured against his side of the wall earlier that day.

“What the hell are you doing?” he asked, almost startling me off the ladder.

“Singing ‘Hakuna Matata’,” I replied without looking down at him. You never look the devil in the eye. I could already feel him shaking his head in disapproval anyway. Judgy bastard. “You don’t expect me to walk in and out of the gates every time I want to go next door, do you?”

“That would be what a normal person would do.”

“Normal is boring. You’re welcome to do so. This…” Reaching the top, I straddled the wall and finally looked down at him—not his eyes, though; that was too much. “…is much faster and easier.”

“If you wanna break your neck, be my guest,” he said, crossing his arms. He looked so majestic, the ugly douche.

I gave him a big, fake smile, showing all my teeth. “How thoughtful of you. I’m touched.” As I was about to climb down, he called my name, so I looked back at him.

“At least be considerate enough to break your neck while you’re on the other side of this wall.”

I gave him the finger with a sweet smile and ignored the faint twitch of his mouth.

Just as my feet hit the ground on the other side of the wall and the stupid bush grazed my arm yet again, I heard his voice.

“If you want to sleep over here, be back in an hour or I’m activating the alarm.”

“Give me the code,” I said, raising my voice so he could hear me.

“No.”

Then I heard his retreating footsteps on the stone pathway. By the time I had climbed up to say I don’t even know what—maybe yell at him for a yet to be determined reason—he was already back in the house.

I trash-talked him to Olive the whole hour I had, had a late dinner with her and her cheeky husband, and went over the wall again.

When I knocked on the glass door, Dan let me in with a barely held back frown. I marched right into the room the last nanny had slept in and went to sleep grumbling to myself. To say that I wasn’t welcome was an understatement. He wasn’t welcome in my heart either…not that he was interested in my heart, but…

Let’s just move on.

The third day was a Wednesday, and it was a happy day. Adam wasn’t coming home from the set, and the bodyguard had actually talked to me in sentences. Exactly three sentences, but who was counting, right? I could’ve sworn I saw a smile, too, but then again maybe that was just wishful thinking. Around that time, Aiden learned that his father wasn’t coming home, and he started crying. It must’ve been my off day or something because when I saw him crying so earnestly without even making a sound, my heart broke a little, and I shed some tears with him.

So, yeah, Adam Connor not coming home…didn’t mean a happy day. It was a sad, sad day.

The fourth day was a mellow day. Olive joined us again, and I briefly mentioned the deals I’d rounded up, not going into the details. The rest of the day, I spent an awful lot of time watching SpongeBob SquarePants and making sure Aiden was smiling. Avoiding Catherine’s calls was also one of my major achievements of the day.

I fell asleep while we were watching The Lion King in the living room. When I woke up, Aiden was no longer lounging on the carpet, kicking his feet up as he kept his focus on the humongous flat screen. I was snuggled comfortably under a thin blanket that hadn’t been there when I’d first closed my eyes. Shrugging it off, I got up and went to bed. I told myself Adam Connor wasn’t thoughtful enough or kind enough to cover me up.

I didn’t see him at all that day.

It was kind of a sad day.

The jerk.

The fifth day…

The fifth day, Adeline Young, Adam’s ex, Aiden’s mom, took his son from school. Adam called me to let me know I wouldn’t have to look after him that day. He sounded angry, so I didn’t push for answers.

The sixth day, I didn’t see any of the Connor boys. I was only supposed to look after Aiden for a week, so it was my last day with him. With them.

It was…it was a…normal day, I guess.

Chapter Eight

Adam

Despite Dan’s objections, I felt I’d made the right choice asking for Lucy’s help. Yes, as far as we knew, she didn’t have any kind of background with kids, but I’d watched her with Aiden, and I’d heard plenty about her from Aiden. He was happy around her, and I wanted him happy. All of that aside, I knew she would keep him safe. She’d already done that once. Besides, Dan had done a background check on her the minute she’d left the house with the cops that day.

She was clean as a whistle.

The first day she was supposed to look after Aiden, Dan had insisted we put a small listening device on one of Aiden’s toys and make sure everything was okay throughout the day. I didn’t object; it was the safety of my son. Overkill? Who cares; my mind was at ease.

When I was over at Jason’s place to pick up Aiden, I was running on three hours of sleep. I had a grumbling Lucy sign the damn NDA then grumble some more, and I got out of there as soon as possible.

The second day, after I spent some time with Aiden, I found Lucy’s very firm ass climbing up the wall that separated Jason’s property from mine.

Apart from being a pain in the ass, she was doing her best to stay out of my way, which was a surprise for me considering she’d watched me and my son without our knowledge for God knew how long.

It was going to be the first night she’d spend in my house, and I preferred her to keep her distance as much as possible. I’d accepted her request only because I was out of options. Aiden had a tendency to disappear into himself when he wasn’t happy, and taking him to the set with me was out of the question. I would never forget how much I’d hated it when my parents took Vicky and me with them, only to forget about us for hours while they were lost in their own world. Sure, they had their assistants check up on us to make sure we were still breathing and behaving, but some days we barely even saw their faces. However, we made good props. Vicky, with her golden hair and big green eyes, was my mother’s choice of accessory. She used to dress her up and make sure she was seen, just so the paparazzi would get shots of them and talk about their fashion choices.