Page 53 of Broken Halo
I walk into the kitchen to find Chloe and Griffin sitting on the floor in the family room as he snacks on raisins while she points to pictures in a book. When he sees me, he drops his bowl, pushes out of her lap, and starts to race to me on all fours at a pace that could win him a blue ribbon at the Puppy Bowl.
“Hi, baby.” My first real smile since I left him this morning breaks across my face and I dump my bags to reach for him. Tossing him up in the air before I blow a raspberry into his neck, he tries to eat my nose as he belly-laughs. I peek around to look at Chloe. “How was your afternoon?”
She walks over to her bag. “Great. He took a long nap. I can tell he’s feeling so much better.”
I give him a bounce. “He is. And he’s so much happier here than with me at the studio. He can’t crawl around there with all the construction. And he loves you.”
“The feeling is mutual.” She gives us a warm smile. “What time tomorrow?”
“You can take tomorrow off. I’m working from home.”
“Sounds good.” She reaches over and gives Griff’s bare foot a tickle. “See you in a couple days, little man.”
We walk Chloe to the door and my phone dings with a text. I look at Griffin who’s chewing on his fingers. He must be getting another tooth. “I bet that’s your Aunt Jen. What do you think?”
After I get Griffin settled, I dig in my bag for my phone. My stomach drops when I see his name.
Again.
I swear, he’s everywhere.
I open up his text.
Trig: I wonder how many FUCKs are on this thread.
Well, at least no one is here to see me, because I smile. That’s sort of funny.
Me: I’m glad you texted. I’m in need of legal representation. Can you get me a restraining order against my attorney?
Trig: I hear your attorney’s the shit. No judge would grant that.
I sigh. Falling into anything normal with Trig is not what I need.
Me: What do you want?
Trig: You mean, what the FUCK do I want? You’re off your game.
I bite my lip as I walk into the pantry to start dinner.
Me: Fine. What the FUCK do you want?
Trig: I’m going through my mom’s stuff. Since you two had a secret friendship-affair behind my back, I thought if there was anything of hers you wanted, you could come over and grab it.
I sit down on the floor with Griffin and he comes crawling like he always does. Trying to gather my thoughts, I’m grateful he asked me this over text and not where he could see my reaction.
Me: You already gave me the necklace.
Trig: Ellie. My mom was a packrat. Come and pick a few things.
Me: But I have Griffin.
Trig: Bring him.
I look up at Griff. “Should we go to your Mimi Faye’s house?”
Griff and I haven’t been to Faye’s together for a while, but my baby likes the word go and gets excited.
Trig: Come on. I’ll pick up dinner and you can cuss at me all night. It’ll be the most fun you’ve had in months.
