Elsie’s eyebrows dip together and she hugs him. “Good luck.”
“Safe travels.” Grey’s voice strains ever so slightly.
With a wave at Sonny, who chomps on his last carrot, she leaves us with this little kid. For the record, he’s adorable, but not someone I was expecting.
Neither is Grey, who seems to come alive around him. Having moved on from the puzzle, Grey bounces him on his shoulders as they parade down the hallway, singing a nursery rhyme in what I’m guessing is Norwegian.
I trail behind, following Grey’s echoing voice as he shows Sonny his new room.
Remaining in the doorway while the two of them play on the floor, I say, “You didn’t show me this room during the hometour.” Accusation contrasts with the smile I can’t help at the sight of father and son, heads bent together in concentration, as they untie a knot on the string that holds together a rubber mat printed with roads for the little guy’s toy cars.
Grey glances up at me and gestures for me to come over. “Can you help us untie this?”
“If you help me make sense of this,” I say softly because I don’t want to make a scene or upset Sonny.
After I loosen the knot, Grey smooths the mat and sets up the cars for Sonny and gestures that we go into the hall.
“I’ll be right back and then we’ll go look for bunnies,” he says to his son.
Preoccupied with his fleet of miniature four-wheeled vehicles, the little boy says, “Okay.”
In the hall, Grey lets out a breath. “It’s a part of my life that I don’t really like to talk about.”
Aghast, I say, “That you’re a dad?”
“Unexpectedly.”
I incline my head. “Cateline warned us about you footballplayers.”
Grey’s expression hardens. “I didn’t?—”
“But you’re an adult, you know how that works, right?” I realize I’m waving my finger between us because if this guy needs the birds and the bees talk, we have more work to do than I thought.
“It wasn’t like that.”
I roll my eyes. “No, of course not.”
“A few years ago, I decided it was time to settle down. I was dating Sonny’s mother, a performer from Norway. She was popular on the cruise lines. Thought we could make it work. She had him, but then our relationship unraveled. She was happy enough to get child support, but then started to restrict my timewith him. I was busy. Selfish, I guess.” Grey scrubs his hand across his forehead.
My eyebrows lift because that sounds like a knot that’s not so easily untied, but I’m not sure I’m ready to travel down this road with him. “I’d like to remind you that I already have a job, teaching you etiquette, so if you want me to take over Elsie’s job as the nanny around here, then we’re going to have to backtrack. Lesson one, tell the woman you married that you have a kid.”
“It’s a difficult subject.”
“Maybe so, but it’s one that’s your responsibility. So, do you expect me to be a nanny?” I imagine my life like the second run of a movie in a warped sort of way, with Grey playing my cold, distant father, Sonny depicting me, and my role as the nanny instead of the invisible child.
“Not a nanny. My wife.”
“Wifey? Wanny? Nifey.” I wince. “That sounds aggressive. I’m not going to knife you over this, but is there anything else I should know?”
This time Grey inhales. “I wasn’t a good father. Wasn’t around as much as I should’ve been after my ex and I broke up. Then she pulled an ‘ole splitsville from Sonny’s life and left him with her mother. Last month, Sonny’s grandmother passed away, leaving Sonny with the state. I wasn’t aware of that until I’d been trying to reach my ex to arrange a visit. She wouldn’t respond, so I got the police involved. Found out she abandoned our kid.”
My heart breaks in two and I grip his arm. “I am so sorry, Grey.”
He grunts. “Everly, I essentially did the same thing. Traded my family for my football career.”
“But you’re here now.”
He swallows thickly as though struggling with guilt and regret. “Yeah. I am. But that’s why I didn’t tell you. I’m notproud of the man I was, and had my brother been around, he’d have whooped me good for being such an idiot.” He turns to the little boy. The love in his eyes when he looks at Sonny puts those broken pieces in my chest back together.
