“Yeah, we’re okay. I did see you kiss. I didn’t mean to, but I saw it,” Addison said. Sloan knew that tone and her heart broke. At some point during this whole ordeal, Drew had called her a liar.
Sloan was hoping to get them home and fed, but apparently they were having this conversation now. Rafe knew it too. He turned in his seat to face the girls.
“We didn’t mean for you to see that, sweetie,” Sloan said. “That was a mistake.”
Avery threw up her hands. “I don’t get it. If Rafe can’t be our daddy, then why were you kissing?”
Well, she’d failed the honesty portion and the whole not confusing your kid part too. Sloan might as well come clean.
“Sometimes adults aren’t sure what they want. When you asked if Rafe could be your daddy, we weren’t sure if we were more than friends yet and we didn’t want to tell you until we knew.”
“Do you know now?” Avery asked.
Sloan glanced at Rafe. His stressed look matched hers.
“Yeah, we do. Rafe’s my boyfriend now.”
“And I’m still your nanny.”
“That’s right. He’s still going to take care of you. That won’t change. But we just aren’t at the daddy phase of things yet, okay babies? We’re still getting to know each other and it takes time before two people decide to get married. Does that make sense?”
“Yes,” Avery said. Addison just nodded.
“We messed up and we’re sorry,” Rafe said.
“And it’s okay if you don’t want to forgive us right now,” Sloan added. “We made things confusing for you and your dad didn’t make things any better.”
“I hate him,” Addison said. Tears started welling in her eyes again.
“Daddy said Addison was bullshit. And then he said he was gonna get Rafe fired and make us live with him.”
“Please don’t make us go back. I don’t want to go back,” Addison said, the tears flowing freely again. Sloan’s heart split in two when Avery reached over and started wiping her sister’s cheeks. Sloan was gonna kill Drew.
“You won’t have to,” she said. “I promise.”
16
After a quick trip to the McDonald’s drive-thru to ease the tension with nuggets and Happy Meal toys, they took the girls straight home. They were pretty jazzed to see the mountain of cinnamon sugar cookies waiting for them, but they were only momentarily distracted. They had more questions about their dad and what was going to happen next. Sloan told them the truth. She didn’t know, but she would handle it.
She tried to distract them, asking more questions about the Under the Sea unit they would be continuing this week with Mrs. Brown. By the time they finished their dinner, Sloan could tell they were completely wrung out. Aside from the shit Drew had just pulled, they’d been running around since Friday. They had to be exhausted.
“Why don’t we do bath time a little early and then we can just veg out and watch a movie. How does that sound?”
Avery hopped off her stool “Yeah, okay.” Addison didn’t say anything. She just followed, her eyes down.
“Do you mind?” she asked Rafe. “I’m gonna call my mom.”
“Yeah, sure. Take as much time as you need.” He kissed her on the forehead and followed the girls upstairs.
Her mom was just about to leave her sister’s house for the night when she answered. She put the call on speaker, and Sloan told them both everything. She managed to hold back the tears, but as she recounted the whole incident at the airport, she started shaking. The adrenaline in her system wasn’t quite done with her yet.
“I might have to challenge his custody, Mom. I can’t—this can’t happen again and I definitely don’t want to risk something even worse happening.”
“Well, you know how I felt when you left him. There are mistakes and there are major red flags. This a red flag the size of a football field—”
“And you know what comes after a red flag?” Lauryn suddenly said into the phone. “An ejection. Kick him all the way to the curb, girl.”
Sloan burst out laughing. A few tears came with it. “I think you’re talking about a red card. But thanks, Laur.”
