To Hate Adam Connor

“I live next door,” Lucy piped in. “Temporarily,” she added. “I’m Olive’s friend. Olive Thorn? Jason Thorn’s wife? I’m sure you’ve heard of her.” Lucy’s eyes slid to me.

You’re on your own, sweetheart.

Adeline’s face lit up as I watched the awkward interaction between them. I could’ve helped, I suppose, but where was the fun in that?

“The writer? That’s the Olive Aiden keeps mentioning?” Adeline turned to me. “I knew they were your neighbors, but I didn’t think they were your next-door neighbors.”

“What difference does it make?”

Adeline rolled her eyes and pulled Lucy farther into the living room. “Come on, we need to sit down for this.”

Lucy’s confused eyes met mine as they passed me, and I smiled down at her.

“I adored her book, and I heard the opening numbers for the movie were huge. I’d love to meet her too,” Adeline continued as soon as they were sitting down.

“She’ll be happy to hear that,” Lucy replied.

“I hope you don’t think this is awkward, Lucy. Since you’re spending time with Aiden, I’d like to get to know you a little more. I know he loves you, but…”

I shook my head. So that’s where she is going.

“Aiden,” I yelled, and a few seconds later we all heard his running feet coming toward us. When he saw Lucy, he changed course and ran toward her. Lucy got up, and Aiden threw himself to her and hugged her legs. She grunted with the force, and the laugh that came after the grunt was beautiful.

“Hey, little human,” she said affectionately.

Aiden tilted his head back and looked up at her with such pleasure.

“You came!”

“Of course I did. How could I miss seeing you?”

“You were almost late, though, so you’ll have to stay longer.”

Aiden dropped his arms down and waited for her answer, his eyes scheming.

Seeing him so happy eased the worry in my chest. Maybe he wasn’t that scared anymore, now that he had his Lucy. For a brief second I wondered what Lucy would’ve done if she had been in that car with him. Would she have left him behind and trusted the assistants to take care of him? Or would she have even forgotten about him in the first place?

I seriously doubted it.

Lucy made a show of checking her nonexistent watch. “Ah, I can’t tell, how late was I?”

Aiden grabbed her wrist and stared at it for a while. “You were an hour late, Lucy! Now you’ll have to stay for an hour.”

“Huh, look at that. And here I thought it was only five minutes. I guess I’m staying for an hour then.”

Aiden jumped up and raised his fist. “Yes!”

“Aiden,” I called to get his attention, and he looked at me. He had that sweet smile only a child can have when they’ve tricked their favorite person into spending time with them. “I still have to talk to your mom, so maybe you can take Lucy into the backyard and tell her what you were up to in New York?”

“Okay,” he answered readily, his eyes still shining with excitement. Grabbing Lucy’s hand, he dragged her out to the backyard.

“Ah, Adam,” Lucy mumbled before I could slide the door closed. Aiden let go of her hand and raced toward the pool.

“Aiden, slow down,” I yelled after him.

After shooting a quick glance at Adeline, Lucy smiled and quietly whispered, “She doesn’t know why you fired the nanny?”

“She does.”

“Then she doesn’t know you had me arrested?”

“She knows that, too.”

Her brows drew together, and she gave me a long look before walking away to join Aiden as she muttered under her breath, her voice too low for me to hear.

Adeline’s eyes were following them as Aiden ran back to meet Lucy so he could drag her again.

“She is babysitting him?”

“If she isn’t busy, she comes over for a few hours until I come back. Or Dan watches him.”

“You trust her after the Anne incident?”

“You mean the incident where our son almost drowned?”

Adeline knew about the ‘pool’ incident, but not so surprisingly she showed no signs of worry for Aiden.

She rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to say it like that. We wouldn’t want anyone to hear what happened.”

Of course she wouldn’t. I shook my head and tried to let it go.

“So you trust her? How about Jason and Olive?”

I didn’t even need to think about the answer to that question. “I wouldn’t leave him with her if I didn’t. Plus, he enjoys spending time with Jason and Olive, too.” I glanced outside and saw the duo sitting on the lounge chairs as Aiden chatted animatedly. “From what I can see and hear from Jason, so do they.” She wasn’t asking about Jason and Olive for Aiden’s sake.

I didn’t feel the need to mention to her that we had put a listening device on Aiden’s toy to make sure everything was okay. Come to think of it, I didn’t feel the need to explain anything to Adeline anymore.

Sitting across from her, I let go of her a bit more. A bit more of what she was to me. What she’d been to me.

“How are you doing?” she asked when I stayed silent.

“Good, Adeline.”

“Are you sure? I know you took a break with Michel, too. I’m here if you want to talk, Adam.”

I raised my brows, and she had the decency to look away from me.

“I never meant to mess up your life, Adam.”

“My life is not messed up, Adeline. In fact, I’m very happy with how things turned out, and I didn’t take a break with Michel, I fired him. You and me…we are not heading in the same direction anymore. It didn’t make sense to keep him on.”

“It doesn’t have to be that way, you know that.”

I shook my head and relaxed into my seat. “I don’t have a problem with how things are with you and me, Adeline. You made your choice, and I’m okay with that. I moved on. You moved on. Our problem right now, and what I would like to talk about, is Aiden.”

“I don’t see him as a problem, Adam.”

“Oh, but you do, Adeline. He was the reason you wanted a divorce, remember?”

She sighed and got up from her seat to stare outside into the yard where Lucy and Aiden were in sight. “Do you think we made a mistake?”

“A mistake?” I asked, not following her.

She turned to face me, clutched her hands at her back, and leaned against the window. Looking at her, I searched for the feelings I’d had for a girl who was nothing but pure sweetness, but I couldn’t find what I was looking for. It was truly over for us. And not only that Adeline, the Adeline I’d known, was nowhere to be found either. Sure, she was still sweet and considerate when she wanted to be, but she wasn’t the same girl I’d met on set and fallen for.

Maybe she had adapted to Hollywood, and I was the one who had changed—drastically.

“With Aiden. Do you think it was a mistake?”

Shocked at the question, I just stared at her. “How can you say that, Adeline?” I managed to force out after some time. Thinking back on it, I thought that was the moment that solidified my decision about taking Aiden away from her.

“I’m not saying having him was a mistake, Adam. Don’t take it like that. I love him.”