“Thanks again for watching them. I’ll Venmo you.” Adam nodded towards her.
“Awesome!” Carly beamed, then before heading back inside, shouted a loud. “Thanks!”
“You promised we’d have pizza night, but you were late.” Joey’s voice had the gravitas of a judge pronouncing sentence.
“I know. I’m sorry,” Adam apologized. “I was hoping maybe some ice cream would make up for it.”
“Yes!” Joey cheered.
Andi only smiled but looked equally appeased.
Adam set the girls down and opened the hatch, pulling out my duffel and garment bag. He slung them both over oneshoulder and started toward Bailey’s porch without missing a beat. The man’s stubbornness had always been as reliable as gravity.
“You don’t have to play butler, Adam,” I called after him, trying to inject some lightness into my tone.
He didn’t even turn around. “Consider this bodyguard duties.”
He placed my bags neatly by the door, then wiped his hands on his jeans as if the action could erase all the things he wanted to say but couldn’t. I wanted to thank him again, or hit him, or kiss him, or cry or all of the above.
“You want to come over for pizza?” he asked with a lopsided grin that did very funny things to my insides.
“If I eat pizza two nights in a row I won’t be able to fit into any of my clothes.”
His eyes flickered with amusement. “Great! Then it’s settled. Pizza night it is.”
He bent down and picked me up just like he used to when we were kids, throwing me over his shoulder and started carrying me over to his house. I laughed but was hitting his back and telling him to put me down.
The girls started jumping up and down asking for him to carry them. He took me across the yard but then brought me back to my porch and set me down. The girls chased after us asking for rides.
“Anyone who wants a ride, go wait on that rock.” He pointed to a rock in his yard that was far enough away they couldn’t hear us talking.
Both girls dissolved into fits of laughter and raced each other to the rock.
Adam turned back to me, his eyes turning serious. “You should stay with me.”
“I’m not staying with you.”
“You should come have pizza.”
“I’m not having pizza with you.”
“I remember you being a lot more agreeable.”
I grinned. “Yeah, I was.”
“I am sorry,” he apologized, again, and I knew he meant it.
“I know.”
With that he turned, walked over, picked up both girls, one on each shoulder, and pretended he was an airplane flying them through the air to their home. He made all the noises and sound effects. They were giggling like I’d never heard them giggle before.
To see those girls, you would never have guessed a traumatic event had happened only a couple of weeks ago. They looked happy and carefree, like children should be. Of course, I knew this was just a snapshot of time and their situation was complex, but the fact that he’d facilitated so much joy in such difficult circumstances was remarkable. A true testament to the man he was.
He set the girls down and walked up onto the porch and didn’t look back, not once, before he went inside and closed the door. I couldn’t decide if that made me angry or relieved.
I remembered watching him walk away from me the first day we met. I felt the same way about him now as I did then, I wanted to see him the next day and the day after that and the day after that… and that was the problem.
20
