Page 76 of To Hate Adam Connor

“She’ll be happy to hear that,” Lucy replied.

“I hope you don’t think this is awkward, Lucy. Since you’re spending time with Aiden, I’d like to get to know you a little more. I know he loves you, but…”

I shook my head. So that’s where she is going.

“Aiden,” I yelled, and a few seconds later we all heard his running feet coming toward us. When he saw Lucy, he changed course and ran toward her. Lucy got up, and Aiden threw himself to her and hugged her legs. She grunted with the force, and the laugh that came after the grunt was beautiful.

“Hey, little human,” she said affectionately.

Aiden tilted his head back and looked up at her with such pleasure.

“You came!”

“Of course I did. How could I miss seeing you?”

“You were almost late, though, so you’ll have to stay longer.”

Aiden dropped his arms down and waited for her answer, his eyes scheming.

Seeing him so happy eased the worry in my chest. Maybe he wasn’t that scared anymore, now that he had his Lucy. For a brief second I wondered what Lucy would’ve done if she had been in that car with him. Would she have left him behind and trusted the assistants to take care of him? Or would she have even forgotten about him in the first place?

I seriously doubted it.

Lucy made a show of checking her nonexistent watch. “Ah, I can’t tell, how late was I?”

Aiden grabbed her wrist and stared at it for a while. “You were an hour late, Lucy! Now you’ll have to stay for an hour.”

“Huh, look at that. And here I thought it was only five minutes. I guess I’m staying for an hour then.”

Aiden jumped up and raised his fist. “Yes!”

“Aiden,” I called to get his attention, and he looked at me. He had that sweet smile only a child can have when they’ve tricked their favorite person into spending time with them. “I still have to talk to your mom, so maybe you can take Lucy into the backyard and tell her what you were up to in New York?”

“Okay,” he answered readily, his eyes still shining with excitement. Grabbing Lucy’s hand, he dragged her out to the backyard.

“Ah, Adam,” Lucy mumbled before I could slide the door closed. Aiden let go of her hand and raced toward the pool.

“Aiden, slow down,” I yelled after him.

After shooting a quick glance at Adeline, Lucy smiled and quietly whispered, “She doesn’t know why you fired the nanny?”

“She does.”

“Then she doesn’t know you had me arrested?”

“She knows that, too.”

Her brows drew together, and she gave me a long look before walking away to join Aiden as she muttered under her breath, her voice too low for me to hear.

Adeline’s eyes were following them as Aiden ran back to meet Lucy so he could drag her again.

“She is babysitting him?”

“If she isn’t busy, she comes over for a few hours until I come back. Or Dan watches him.”

“You trust her after the Anne incident?”

“You mean the incident where our son almost drowned?”

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