To Hate Adam Connor

Aiden visibly puffed out his chest and nodded. “I will. I’ll do a good job.”

With that promise, he pulled me into his room so we could choose from his favorite sheets.

After rummaging through various sets, we decided on two light blue ones, one green that almost matched his eye color, one red, and one white with red and black trains on it. We also stole a few pillows from his dad’s bed.

When we emerged with our loot, neither Adam nor Dan was in sight. Aiden dumped everything in his arms on the floor and helped me with mine.

“Can you get the cushions down? We’ll stack them on the couch so we can make it higher. I’ll go and check on your dad.”

“Lucy…do you think he’d let us have ice cream?”

“Hmmm.” I narrowed my eyes to appear like I was thinking very hard about it. “I’ll ask, but I think he’d say it’s a little late to have ice cream.”

Aiden crossed his arms over his chest, mimicking my stance, and tilted his head to the side. “Yeah, I think you’re right. But he wouldn’t say no if we asked him tomorrow! And maybe Mom can come with us, too.”

“Yes. You’re right. We’ll ask him tomorrow.”

I helped him climb onto the couch so he could throw the cushions on the floor and headed toward the front door where I could hear Adam’s voice slowly rising.

“Hey,” I hissed, grabbing the attention of two very angry men. “He is worried as it is; how about you keep it down a little?”

Dan’s scowl deepened, but he didn’t say anything. Adam was on his phone and looked seconds away from losing it.

“What’s going on?” I asked Dan quietly.

“Adeline,” he grumbled, his tone communicating his opinion of Adam’s ex quite clearly.

“Adeline, I’m not going to make a statement with you. I don’t care how this affects your career at all. You should’ve thought about that before you decided it would be a good idea to cheat on me with a director to get a role.”

I bugged my eyes out at Dan and swallowed the words threatening to spill out.

Oh, boy.

In the next breath, Adam’s entire body tensed. I could practically see the vein throbbing in his neck. He closed his eyes to take a deep breath that didn’t seem to relax him at all.

“You won’t do that to Aiden. You won’t make him go through that.”

“Lucy!” Aiden shouted my name, and Adam’s head snapped toward the noise.

“I’m sorry. I’ll go,” I murmured, and his eyes softened when they fell on me. I raced back to Aiden without saying anything else.

What the hell was going on?

Chapter Twenty-Five

Adam

“You either come tonight so they can get a shot of you entering my house with a smile or the statement I make tomorrow will be a different one, Adam.”

Those were Adeline’s last words as she hung up on me.

“What’s going on?” Dan asked, trying to keep his voice down. I could hear Lucy’s murmurings to Aiden as they started on the fort Lucy had promised. I checked the time: ten o’clock, way past Aiden’s bedtime.

“She wants me to make a statement with her and basically hint that we are getting back together.”

Dan’s face hardened. “And if you don’t?”

“If I don’t, she’ll talk about Aiden.”

“Even she wouldn’t do that,” Dan countered as a frown appeared on his face. “Does she think it wouldn’t backfire on her?”

My throat tightened as I tried my best to swallow down my anger when all I wanted to do was smash my phone against the wall and just go be with my son and Lucy.

I heard Lucy release a mock growl then Aiden’s laugh filled the house. “I have to go,” I said gruffly, looking into Dan’s eyes as Lucy and Aiden’s laughter rang in my ears. “She is trapped. She isn’t thinking clearly, and I can’t risk her making a mistake like that.”

“I’ll take you to her.”

I nodded as Dan opened the door and stepped outside. “You start the car; I’ll be right there.”

I found Aiden standing in front of the TV and laughing at Lucy as she tried to save herself from the attack of the sheet over her head.

“I will get you, little human.” She growled and moved toward Aiden, and he squealed and ran to hide behind my legs.

“Aiden, why don’t you get the pillows in my bedroom, too?”

He tilted his head to look up at me. “We can take them all?”

“Of course. If we’re gonna make a fort, it better be a comfortable one, don’t you think?”

He nodded enthusiastically and ran away, and I turned to find Lucy staring at me with knowing eyes as she pulled Aiden’s train sheet over her shoulders.

“You have to go.”

I closed the distance between us and pulled her into my arms, breathing in her soft scent to calm myself down. The sheet slid down her shoulders, fluttering to the floor as she moved her hands over my chest, instinctively understanding what I needed from her.

“I have to talk to her. She is…if I don’t, she’s going to make a big mistake.”

She pulled back and looked into my eyes for a few seconds. “I understand.”

I smiled. She couldn’t understand this. She couldn’t understand how much it’d hurt Aiden if Adeline said something stupid in front of the cameras just to get the attention off herself.

“You can’t, but I promise to explain everything one day.”

The second the words left my mouth, I knew I’d said the wrong thing, even before I saw the small flinch. She pulled back completely. “You said we’ll talk, right. We’ll do that one day.”

“Lucy, no.” I touched her face and took comfort in the fact that she didn’t pull away. “This…whatever it is that’s going on in Adeline’s life changes nothing for us. You still don’t get to run away from me.”

Aiden came out with two pillows hugged to his chest, both of them larger than his small body, and I had to let go of Lucy.

Taking the pillows away from Aiden, I lifted him up in my arms and pressed a kiss on his forehead. “I have to go and check on your mom, but I’ll be back as soon as I can. Would that be okay with you?”

“Lucy gets to stay?” His eyes flitted between me and Lucy.

“Yes. Lucy gets to stay with you. You two start the movie and I’ll catch up with you, okay?”

“You’ll take care of Mom so she won’t cry anymore? I tried to give her a hug, but she didn’t want it.”

I hugged him a little tighter to myself. “I’ll take care of your mom. You don’t have to worry about a thing, buddy. Do we have a deal?”

He hugged my neck and nodded.

I mouthed a quick thank you to Lucy and lowered Aiden down so he could get back to building a fort with his friend.

Before she could turn away, I stole a quick kiss from Lucy that didn’t last long enough and got out.

***

Adeline was pacing in her living room where all the drapes had been pulled closed when her assistant let us in through the front door. I had been right: the street was littered with paparazzi that came to life as soon as they saw my car come around the corner.

“Leave us alone,” Adeline ordered her assistant and Dan.

Even though Dan already knew everything there was to know about us, I preferred to have this conversation with Adeline alone.