Page 79 of To Hate Adam Connor

She stood up and met my eyes, her voice rising. “He should’ve waited in the car, Adam.”

“He is five years old, Adeline. He was going after his mom.”

Her phone stopped buzzing then started to go off again.

“Take it,” I said. “I’ll send Aiden in so he can say goodbye—if you have time for that, of course. If not, I’m going out to spend time with him so he can start looking into my face again instead of at my feet and then I’m meeting with my lawyer. I suggest you do the same. You’ll still have your weeks with him until the judge makes a decision.”

I walked away from her, but her voice stopped me before I could step outside.

“I won’t give up on him that easily, Adam,” she said, her voice harder than it had been seconds before. “I won’t let everyone think I’m okay with you taking him away from his mother.”

“Of course you can’t, Adeline,” I agreed with her. “How would that make you look in the public eye? A woman who doesn’t care about her kid…” I shook my head. “You’ll have a much harder time getting auditions that way, I imagine, with the bad press and everything. You’ll fight for it, I know. Me, on the other hand…I don’t care what they think at all. All I care about right now is what that kid”—I gestured with my thumb over my shoulder—“thinks of me. And if I never hear him beg me not to send him away again, I think that will be enough to make me happy.”

Chapter Thirteen

Lucy

“You’re a dog,” I said to Aiden, and he giggled, covering his mouth with his hand.

“I’m not a dog, Lucy,” he managed to sputter in between giggles. I smiled at him.

We were sitting out in the backyard, lounging as his daddy talked to his mommy. Geez, but I had acted like a complete weirdo when I saw her. I mean, she was an actress, even though she didn’t actually act in many movies, but still, she was. More than anything, she was known as Adam Connor’s wife.

So after the things the clever asshole had murmured into my ear, lifting my head and seeing his wife—ex-wife—had messed with my mind for a second there.

“Okay,” I gave in. “You’re more like a cute puppy.”

“If I’m a puppy what are you? A cat?” he asked, his eyes dancing with mischief.

“Why does everyone think I’m a cat? No, today I’m gonna be a bird. Now close your eyes.”

“But I wanna be a bird too.”

“You do?” I looked at him with one eye half-open. “Okay, then we are both birds today.”

He nodded enthusiastically and closed his eyes.

“Now, what would you do if you were a bird?”

“I’d fly away!”

“Where do you wanna fly?”

“You’re weird, Lucy,” Aiden announced.

“Good weird or bad weird?”

A moment of hesitation on his part.

“Good weird. I like you.”

“That’s good,” I said with a smile. “I like you, too.”

“Aiden,” Adam called out; I peered at him over the chair.

Handsome bastard.

He walked toward us with easy steps and my eyes took in everything that was Adam Connor. He looked at me, so of course I looked away, but damn those eyes of his.

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