Whatever happened with me and Adeline, I didn’t want to do anything that could make things even remotely worse for them. Which included blaming their mother to kingdom come for something I knew hadn’t been entirely her fault.
Back when I’d deleted her number, I hadn’t been able to bring myself to block her forever, and strangely, I was happy about that now. I typed out a response but reread it before I sent it.
Me: Glad they’re enjoying the money they pilfered from my brother.
No. God no.
I deleted that response, then quickly typed out another.
Me: Lu looks thrilled
When I reread it, that didn’t feel right either. Nothing I thought of did. After deleting that message too, I glanced back at what she’d sent. It was so simple and so casual, like maybe we could just start here.
I blew out a slow breath and ran a hand through my hair, then picked up my phone again. Overthinking it wasn’t helping, and maybe she was right. Maybe wecouldjust start here.
Finally, I stopped trying to find the perfect response and just answered.
Me: Theo will survive. He’s been financially reckless for years.
I stared at it for a second, then hit send before I could change my mind. The three dots appeared almost immediately and my pulse ticked up in response.
Adeline: Let him know he has a reputation to maintain now as the sponsor of ice cream.
A small smile pulled at the corner of my mouth.She’s still her, isn’t she?
Somehow, that was a relief. I hadn’t expected the girl I used to know to still be in there somewhere, even though I’d seen her in this version of Adeline’s eyes that very first time we’d run into each other again at the restaurant. Maybe I’d just been too scared to hope that it really could be her. Either way, it felt good to know that on some level, I really did still know her.
Me: Would you like to take them out together sometime?
The three dots took longer to appear this time. Long enough that I started reconsidering everything from the tone of the message, to the timing, to whether I should’ve just left it completely, but then her reply popped up.
Adeline: Yes. I think they’d like that.
All the nerves vanished and I might even have smiled a little. I still didn’t have a map and I still wasn’t sure what would come next, but I suddenly had a feeling I knew what moving forward looked like—and it felt a hell of a lot like this.
CHAPTER 14
ADELINE
The second the car pulled into the parking lot, my stomach dropped. It wasn’t slow or gentle either, just a full, immediate,oh noas I stared up at a brightly lit, Chuck-e-Cheese style pizza place that looked like it had been designed by someone who believed children should be permanently overstimulated.
“Pizza!” Jennifer shouted before the driver Zach had sent to collect us had even fully pulled to a stop.
Lu gasped like she’d just been handed the keys to the kingdom, and it warmed my heart to see excitement in her eyes for a change. The driver pulled up next to the curb, leaving the car in idle to climb out and open the door for us. As soon as it was, both girls squeezed out and sprinted toward the entrance like I’d been holding them hostage for years and this was their first taste of freedom.
I winced when they sped past Zach, who was standing by the door, holding it open and smiling at them, but they flew past him without so much as a glance.Icouldn’tnotlook at him, though. Wearing jeans and a fitted black T-shirt, he looked sexy as sin.
But also laid back. Like we were just us again and this was an actual date. At a few inches over six feet, Zach had been tallpretty much since I’d met him. He’d maybe grown another inch or two before we’d left high school, but he’d always been at least half a head taller than me.
He’d always been athletic too, running and rowing. His interests had pretty much run the gamut. His body was harder now, his lean frame filled out in a way it hadn’t been as a boy. My cheeks flushed a little when I realized the driver was staring at me, waiting for me to climb out too.
I finally followed my kids to the door. When I reached him, I stopped and glanced up into those green eyes and immediately saw the confusion there when he swept them across my face.
“Is this not okay?” he asked. “We can go somewhere else. I just thought pizza, games, and kids went well together.”
“No, it’s fine,” I said. “Really. They’re going to love it.”
I glanced through the window to see Jennifer already diving into a ball pit while Lu hovered beside her like a tiny, skeptical bodyguard. When I looked back up at Zach, he seemed worried, his brow furrowed and that confusion still in his eyes.
