To Hate Adam Connor

Lucy

Shockingly, the amount of people waiting in front of Adam’s gate was even worse than what we’d seen downtown. Thankfully, not one single soul could see through Jason’s black windows, and Adam went unnoticed as we drove through the gates and he walked into Jason and Olive’s house with us.

As I held on to the back of the couch so I could take off my heels, I watched him pace back and forth like a trapped animal. Not exactly sure what to do or what to say in a situation like this, I stayed silent. Was part of his anger because of the cheating? Sensing my eyes on him, he turned to me.

“I’m sorry, Lucy. I know I said we’d talk, but I haven’t heard from Dan yet, and I need to know how bad things are at Adeline’s.”

Shaking my head, I left the safety of the couch and walked up to him. “Are you crazy? That’s not even on my mind right now. I’m worried about the little guy, too.”

He sighed and rubbed his forehead.

Pretty much helpless, I met Olive’s eyes.

“Jason?” she called out as her husband joined us in the living room. “Maybe the driver can take Adam to Adeline’s place?”

“Yeah, he hasn’t left yet, Adam. If things are this bad at your place, it can’t be any better at Adeline’s.”

“That’s what I’m afraid—”

Finally, his phone started ringing.

“Dan? What’s going on?” He covered his eyes with his hand and released a suffering sigh. “Yes. Did they see him leave? Okay. Okay. That’s fine, bring him through the gate. I’m at Jason’s place. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

Ending the call, he turned to us.

“He is bringing him here. Apparently things are even worse at Adeline’s and when he offered to bring Aiden back here so she could take care of everything else, she didn’t put up a fight.”

I closed the distance between us and touched his arm. “That’s good, right? Do you want me to come too, so I can distract Aiden from what’s going on outside?”

He touched my face, his palm warm against my cheek. “Only if you promise to distract me too.”

I couldn’t help but smile at him; he made me do that a lot these days. “We might be able to work something out.”

***

Adam walked in with Aiden in his arms, Dan bringing up the rear with a ferocious scowl on his face.

“Look who is here to see you, big guy,” Adam murmured to Aiden, whose face was buried in his neck as his little arms held on tight. The PJs he was wearing had adorable little blue cars on them.

“Hi, Aiden.” I walked up to them, not sure what was going on exactly or how bad it was. Could the day have gone any worse, for God’s sake? It had started out so promising only to turn into a complete mess.

Aiden came out from hiding and gave me a small wave. “Hello, Lucy. Did you come for me?”

My face brightened. “I did. Your dad asked me if I wanted to see you, and I jumped on it. How are you doing?”

“I had a tough day. Mommy was really sad. I didn’t want to leave her, but she said I couldn’t help.”

Oh, dammit. I glanced at Adam and saw his jaw clench—and what a sexy jaw it was. I shook my head and focused on the anxious little boy.

“We all have tough days every now and then. Do you know what I do when I have a tough day?” His little hand holding on to his father’s shirt, he just shook his head. “I have a little ice cream and watch The Lion King or Zootopia with my best friend.” Those were his favorite movies to watch.

“You watch them with Olive?”

I nodded. “Yes. She loves them just as much as I do.”

He blinked a few times, his eyes already sleepy. Dan must have taken him right out of his bed.

“I love them, too.” He turned his eyes to his dad. “Daddy, can I watch them with Lucy now? I had a really tough day.”

Adam forced a tight smile on his face and brushed away Aiden’s hair. “It’s past your bedtime, Aiden.”

“Just a little, Daddy? Please?”

“How about we build a fort right here in the living room and watch the movies under it? Maybe if we invite your dad to watch with us, he won’t say no.”

Aiden’s eyes got big and hopeful as he straightened in his dad’s arms. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Adam smile and Dan shake his head.

“But I don’t know how to make a fort, Lucy. I’ve never made one before. Have you?”

“Of course I did, but I don’t think I can quite do it without you. Would you help me?”

“Yes, I can do that.” He touched his father’s cheek to get his attention. “Can we build a tent, Daddy? You can watch with us, too. If Lucy starts crying again, you can help me hug her and tell her she is being silly again.”

Adam laughed and nodded. “Okay. We’ll do that then.” He lowered Aiden down and the moment his little feet touched the ground, he started toward his bedroom.

“I’ll bring my favorite pillow!”

“I’ll get the sheets.” As I was walking past Adam, he grabbed my wrist and stopped me. I raised my eyebrow and looked up at him. “Your fetish again?”

He leaned down and kissed me. The soft touch of his lips, the intimate thank you made my head spin when his tongue sneaked into my mouth. Before I knew what was happening, it was over.

“Thank you for being here, Lucy. Being with us.” he said in a gruff voice. Aiden came running in with two pillows in his hand.

“I brought my other favorite pillow for you, Lucy.”

“Thank you, little human,” I said quietly. He carefully placed the pillows on the couch and reached for my hand.

“Come on, I’ll show you where the sheets are.” He pulled me away from his dad and stopped at the mouth of the hallway. “Daddy, are you gonna help us?”

“I have to talk to Dan before he leaves. I’ll be with you right after that.”

“You don’t want to watch a movie with us, Dan?”

“I have to leave, big guy. You’ll take care of your dad and Lucy for me, won’t you?”

Aiden visibly puffed out his chest and nodded. “I will. I’ll do a good job.”

With that promise, he pulled me into his room so we could choose from his favorite sheets.

After rummaging through various sets, we decided on two light blue ones, one green that almost matched his eye color, one red, and one white with red and black trains on it. We also stole a few pillows from his dad’s bed.

When we emerged with our loot, neither Adam nor Dan was in sight. Aiden dumped everything in his arms on the floor and helped me with mine.

“Can you get the cushions down? We’ll stack them on the couch so we can make it higher. I’ll go and check on your dad.”

“Lucy…do you think he’d let us have ice cream?”

“Hmmm.” I narrowed my eyes to appear like I was thinking very hard about it. “I’ll ask, but I think he’d say it’s a little late to have ice cream.”

Aiden crossed his arms over his chest, mimicking my stance, and tilted his head to the side. “Yeah, I think you’re right. But he wouldn’t say no if we asked him tomorrow! And maybe Mom can come with us, too.”

“Yes. You’re right. We’ll ask him tomorrow.”

I helped him climb onto the couch so he could throw the cushions on the floor and headed toward the front door where I could hear Adam’s voice slowly rising.

“Hey,” I hissed, grabbing the attention of two very angry men. “He is worried as it is; how about you keep it down a little?”

Dan’s scowl deepened, but he didn’t say anything. Adam was on his phone and looked seconds away from losing it.

“What’s going on?” I asked Dan quietly.

“Adeline,” he grumbled, his tone communicating his opinion of Adam’s ex quite clearly.

“Adeline, I’m not going to make a statement with you. I don’t care how this affects your career at all. You should’ve thought about that before you decided it would be a good idea to cheat on me with a director to get a role.”

I bugged my eyes out at Dan and swallowed the words threatening to spill out.

Oh, boy.

In the next breath, Adam’s entire body tensed. I could practically see the vein throbbing in his neck. He closed his eyes to take a deep breath that didn’t seem to relax him at all.

“You won’t do that to Aiden. You won’t make him go through that.”

“Lucy!” Aiden shouted my name, and Adam’s head snapped toward the noise.

“I’m sorry. I’ll go,” I murmured, and his eyes softened when they fell on me. I raced back to Aiden without saying anything else.

What the hell was going on?