Page 51 of To Hate Adam Connor

She sounded equally tired, if not more, when she said, “I don’t have a home.”

“Tonight you do.”

***

I woke up to the sound of laughter ringing through the house. A woman’s laughter and a kid’s—my kid’s, to be more specific. But Aiden was supposed to be with Adeline; it was her weekend. Had she brought him back? Frowning, I got up to find out what was going on.

The night before had ended abruptly after I’d helped Lucy ice her hand. One second I was holding her fragile hand in my palm, getting used to its weight in my hand as we stood almost nose to nose, and the next she was scrambling away from me. The moment she could, she’d fled to her room. Knowing there was nothing more I could do, I’d gone to bed, too, but I couldn’t fall sleep. Apart from worrying about what I was going to do about Adeline, I’d worried about Lucy too because she’d managed to work her way into my life somehow.

Getting out of bed, I had spent some time in the kitchen, thinking maybe she’d join me. I’d seen the light coming from under her door, so I knew she was having trouble sleeping too.

She hadn’t come out, so after a while I’d gone back to bed, and I thought it was for the best.

I made it to the living room and spotted Dan watching Lucy and Aiden with a fleeting smile on his face.

Aiden and Lucy? They were laughing uncontrollably, completely oblivious to their surroundings.

They didn’t even notice me walking up to Dan. “What’s going on here?” I asked.

His lips quirked up even more and to hide it he took a sip from the coffee cup he had in his hand. “They are practicing their laughter. Lucy thought Aiden’s needed a little more kick.”

“Is that so?”

“Yup.” He gave me a quick glance. “He was feeling sorry for himself, so she said she wasn’t feeling all that great either and thought it was the perfect time to practice how to laugh better.”

I smiled. That sounded exactly like something Lucy would do.

“And what’s Aiden doing here?”

“The little bugger tricked me.”

I didn’t have time to ask how he’d been tricked because Aiden finally noticed me and jumped off the couch, running toward me.

“Daddy!”

“Got you,” I grunted, lifting him up in my arms.

“I missed you like crazy. You missed me too?” he asked into my neck, his thin arms holding on tight. I hugged him even tighter and dropped a kiss on his head.

“I missed you too, little man. What are you doing here?”

His head came out of my neck, and he held my face between his hands.

“Checking on things. You haven’t shaved?”

I laughed. “What things are you checking on exactly?”

“You.”

“Me?”

“I don’t like you being all alone here. I think about it so much that sometimes I can’t sleep at night. I know you miss me, so I came to check on things. Since I worry about you so much, maybe I shouldn’t leave you alone here?”

“I thought you said you forgot to take your favorite book with you and that was why we came here, little guy,” Dan said, grabbing Aiden’s attention.

As he was weaving more tales to Dan, I glanced at Lucy, who was off the couch and watching us quietly. I tried to figure out her mood, but she was good at not giving away too much. She still had a smile on her face, but other than that, I couldn’t even begin to guess what she was thinking.

“And then I said to myself, Dan is protecting Daddy, so he’d want to check things out too.” Aiden was still talking.

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