Graham
It was a sunny fall morning, and I had been awake since 3:30 A.M., thinking about Elinora. She’d seemed to put on a good façade, acting like she was enraged to see me, but the way her gaze had angled to me when she hadn’t thought I was looking revealed how I was affecting her. She felt this magnetic pull, too. I was confident she still felt the chemistry. If I could only get her to trust me, she’d know that everything I’d done in the last decade was for us to have a better life.
In hindsight, I should have been honest right away, and maybe kept her in the loop, tried to be friends. My heart knew she wouldn’t have let me go through that alone, and I just didn't want to drag her through the years of poverty and single parenthood. My fight-and-flight response had been triggered when Hadley got sick, and I couldn’t fathom that she’d ever forgive me for missing the wedding. I hadn’t been thinking and I fled. Looking back, I understood it. I had always been in fight or flight mode, and it had taken years of therapy to climb out.
Now, I just want Elinora to look at me the way she used to.
When the clock finally read 5:30, I decided to get in my run. I had taken up running when I was at the boys’ ranch as a way to manage my rage, but now I did it to keep my body lithe. What I wouldn’t do for my seventeen-year-old metabolism, when the pounds had never even appeared. A clean diet, regular moving and weights kept my body leaner than most people who are in their middle thirties.
Thirty. That was a grave number. I used to think of thirty-year-olds and cringe, believing all their fun was behind them, but I had just gotten my life together. Once I win Elinora’s loyalty back, our lives together would just be starting.
I ran my three miles, timing myself the whole way. I made it in an even twenty-three minutes. Most people run to up tempo beats, but I used this time for my audio books. Today’s listen? The Hobbit. I’d read the book at least a dozen times, but this was the first time I’d heard a voice performance. I hated to turn it off when I reached for my phone at the end of my run.
I swiped away my audiobook, revealing the photo I had of Elinora and me as my screensaver. I had taken it on our first—and last—date. We’d been lying under the stars for an hour already, and I reached up and snapped an aerial-view selfie. It was funny how I’d thought I would have more time to get photos and document our relationship, but everything had imploded after that trip. This was the only thing I had from that whirlwind. That, and the memories pounding in my chest that echoed whenever I thought about how it had felt to kiss her.
There I was again.
I jogged right up to the garage entrance of the mansion, officially owned by my sperm donor, Jonathan Fox. The pad had been another hush present. But for me, it was a place to stay while I hunted for something better. I rushed up the stairs, hoping to beat Hadley before she locked herself in the bathroom.Not that I need to fight her for the bathroom. We had five of them. She was at that stage when once she went into the bathroom, it was impossible to talk to her.
Teenage girls were an enigma.
I wasn’t sure what had happened to the little girl she had been, but now when I looked at her, all I saw was someone who was annoyed about my entire existence. I passed through the front door. One look down the hall revealed her bedroom door wide open. I didn’t even need to turn my head the other way to know the bathroom was locked up tighter than Fort Knox. “Hey, Hads,” I hollered through the door. “I’ll start breakfast. Do you want eggs or French toast?”
“Neither.”
“You gotta eat something. Lunch is six hours from now.” Shifting my weight on my legs back and forth, I struggled to maintain my patience. I missed the days when she allowed me to make decisions for her. Everything felt like a bargaining game these days. “How about a smoothie? I bought some of that weird vegan rice milk you like.”
“Do we have any bananas?”
I rubbed my temples, struggling to maintain an even tone. “Frozen, but they should blend.”
“Can you add chocolate?”
“For breakfast?”
“Dad,” she hollered as if I’d forgotten who I was in this conversation.
“Hads.”
“It’ll be fine.”
“How much longer do you need in there?” I stared at the door, visualizing all the bottles of toiletries she’d amassed spread out over the entire bathroom counter. She was into this new skincare line she had seen on TikTok. Each bottle was like sixty bucks. It seemed absurd to me to pay that much for this stuff,but I let her get whatever she wanted because I could finally afford to spoil her. “I was hoping I could see your face this year.”
“Twenty more minutes.”
I flashed a look heavenward, as there was no way I could spend more than twenty minutes total getting ready. “I’ll make us a couple of smoothies. They’ll be ready when you’re done.”
Silence.
Not I-didn’t-hear-you silence, but the silence that was teenage code for parents are annoying. I got it. I’d gone through that phase too. Sometimes I thought I was still partially in it.
I sauntered down the hall, scrolling through the morning news on my phone. I wasn’t a huge news junkie—as none of the stuff that was public was ever good news. I allowed a solid five minutes of the morning headlines before forcing myself to think about positive things. It was another trick I’d learned in therapy. I’d spent so much time in therapy, you’d think I could be a therapist by now. It didn’t work like that, though.
I gathered ingredients for smoothies, blending everything together as I had done many times while working at the bookstore. Part of me would always miss that place. I’d never dreamed of working for a real estate giant, but the money was better. Partnering with my bio dad had gotten us out of poverty, and Hadley gained access to the best private school. For the first time ever, I felt like life wasn’t totally ruining her.
I still missed that bookstore.
Since I had become rich, I’d kept the little store and now paid a guy named Joe to run it. It didn’t make any profit, but I don’t care. It was a hobby I couldn’t let go. While I poured the smoothies into cups, Hadley padded into the kitchen. “I forgot I have drama practice before school. We’re going to run lines, and I need to go in early.”
