Again, I’m in utter shock as my daughter stands without an argument, puts her plate in the sink, and heads for her room. I’m still watching her retreating back when Hallie’s soft voice knocks me out of it.
“Hey. I know this was a surprise, but I hope you know you can trust me to take care of Emma, no matter what happened between us. I may make the occasional questionable decision, but I’d never let anything happen to her.”
With her words, her lips tip up with a soft, rueful smile, and my eyes dip there.
For a brief moment, a flash of memory hits me, sending me backward ten months.
The bitter cold of February in Vermont and the contrasting warmth of her soft hand on my cheek. Her body pressed to mine, my arm wrapped around her waist after having caught her when she slipped.
Her soft, full lips moving against mine.
Fuck.
I shake my head to knock the memory away, not needing that, especially not now. Her brow furrows in confusion, interpreting my head shake as a dismissal, but I can’t focus on that.
All I can think is that I need to get out of here and away from her presence.
Now.
“Okay, well, I guess you’ve got this covered. Are you sure you’re good with her? I’ll probably be out until about five, once it starts getting dark.”
Hallie nods. “No problem at all. I have nowhere to be today, so if you’re later, it’ll be fine.”
I stare for another moment before the phone in my pocket buzzes, probably a text from my dad asking when I’ll be at the main house to get started, and I make my decision.
“Fine,” I say, then turn in the direction of where my daughter walked off to. “Be good, Emma!”
She shouts something indecipherable from her room, but I have to get out of here, so without another word, I head for the door and away from Hallie Young.
TWO
The house rattles as Jesse slams the door behind him, and finally, I let the facade drop, if only for a moment. I allow the easy friendliness I’d put on my face to make him feel slightly more confident to slip away, and I take in a deep breath. The air doesn’t get to where I need it the most, to the bottom of my lungs, which feel like they haven’t felt fresh air in a decade, anxiety tightening my chest to stop it.
It’s been sitting there ever since Adam asked me to help take over Wren’s responsibilities while he took her on a trip, and I realized one of those would be watching Emma. IknewJesse wouldn’t be happy to see me today, but I think in some delusional part of my mind, I had convinced myself it would be fine. At some point during my drive over here, I’d told myself he would welcome me in happily, and we could go on with our lives.
Maybe we could go back to the way things were before that trip.
Clearly, the delusion wasverystrong this morning. Thank goodness I can always count on reality to knock me down a peg or four.
“Hallie! Come here! I want to show you something!” Emma’s voice calls from down the hall, knocking me from my thoughts.
With the reminder that Emma deserves the most fun week ever, and I’m here to make that happen, I take in another deep breath that doesn’t make me feel any better, brush my sour thoughts aside, put on a happy, animated look, and make my way to her room.
Two hours later, my phone rings, and the nameMadd Dawg, accompanied by the world’s worst photo of Madden King, lights up the screen. Madden added the name when he was going through a phase where he was trying to convince everyone to call him that (thankfully, the phase only lasted a few weeks, but I’ve never had the heart to change it), but the photo is all me, and something he complains about regularly. His eyes are bugged out, his lips curled back in the most alarming, horror movie-worthy grimace, and his chin is deep into his neck, looking more like a meme than my friend and pseudo-boss.
“Is that Uncle Madden?” Emma asks with wide, horrified eyes when she catches sight of my screen, and I nod, letting out a laugh.
“Yeah, he’s a big goofball. I’m gonna take this, are you good in here?”
“Yeah, I’m going to keep organizing my clothes,” she says, and I try not to look too self-satisfied, though I’m loving that my plan is falling into place, before walking through her room and into the now-clean living room.
What Emma wanted to show me earlier this morning was all the new clothes she’d gotten the day before as gifts. As she was flipping through them, I told her we could totally do a fashion show in the living room, if only it were clean. I added a bit of dramatic disappointment to the words, which had the exactreaction I had hoped for, and put a fire under her ass to get the living room cleaned up.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my best friend, it’s that you can convince kids to do just about anything you need them to, so long as you give them the proper motivation. Together, we cleaned up piles of her things strewn around the house, making sure they were all put away and not just thrown into a closet, and then put on music for her fashion show. Once she showed me her new clothes, I told her we should put them away and sort out any clothes that don’t fit, which is where we’re at now. I don’t know if I’ll be able to convince her to completely clean her room before Jesse gets home, but it’s a start.
Once I’m out of earshot of Emma, I hit accept and put the phone to my ear. “Hey, Madd?—”
“What the fuck did you do to my brother?” he asks before I can finish my greeting, and my entire body seizes up.
