Page 32 of In the Lonely Hour

“Hey, Tiny,” Layla greeted, petting him as he stood on his hind legs to hug her.

Slim wasn’t far behind, sniffing her feet and ankles before brushing up against her to be petted too.

“And who are you?”

“That’s Slim,” Andres answered.

Layla nodded, petting them both. Neither of them said anything else as they avoided each other’s eyes. The fuck was he supposed to say? Releasing a low huff, Andres stared at Layla until she looked at him.

He wanted to ask her how he could mean so little to her that she’d block him and not even give him a parting goodbye, but it didn’t matter at this point. Besides, Andres would never want to make Layla feel bad about what she thought was best for her and her daughter.

“Y’all good?” was all he could think of to ask.

She smiled softly and stood upright. “She misses you a lot.Imiss you a lot.” Layla cleared her throat. “I finally told her that you weren’t going to be her aide anymore because she’s been missing you like crazy and she had the biggest meltdown in life.” She turned and looked back at Dior who was still mugging him. “Took me about an hour to get her calm, then I brought her here. She’s mad at you now if you can’t tell.”

Andres chuckled. “I can see that. It’s not like I chose to step back. I wish I could explain that to her.”

“How can you say that? You did choose to step back. When did you fight for us?”

“Fight for y’all? I risked it all for y’all. You’re the one who didn’t fight for us.”

Layla’s hands lifted in surrender. “I don’t want to fight with you.” Her voice was soft, tired. And it was taking everything in Andres to not pull her into his arms. “If you want to go talk to her, I think that would mean a lot to her.”

He nodded. “She’s cool with dogs, right? I know she mentioned wanting one.”

“She loves them, just as long as they don’t jump on her too quickly. She has to go to them and ease into it.”

“You’d better hold them then.”

Layla nodded in agreement as she took their leashes. They walked over to where Dior was seated, and Andres sat down next to her.

“I’m mad at you,” were the first words out of Dior’s mouth, making Andres fight to reel his smile in.

“Why?”

“Because you told me to call you when I needed you but you didn’t answer the phone.”

“I deeply apologize for that. I was… sad, and I didn’t want to talk. That’s no excuse, though. I should have answered the phone.”

“I told my mommy if you knew it was me calling you would have answered but she didn’t want to call again.”

“Well, if you ever want to call me and she doesn’t want to, you can call me on your iPad.”

Her eyes lit up and she smiled, and that small gesture was enough to soothe his soul.

“I can?”

“Yeah. I’ll show you. Do you have it with you?”

Nodding, Dior went into her bag and pulled her iPad out. After storing his number and address, Andres showed her how to FaceTime and text him. He sat and talked to her for a few minutes until Slim began to whine, then he took that as his cue to leave. Once he said goodbye to Dior, he took the leashes from Layla and told her, “You can call me if you need me too. Always. Aight?”

Her eyes fluttered as she looked straight ahead and nodded. “Okay,” she agreed quietly.

Andres placed a kiss to the center of her head before walking away. And that walk away from them was the hardest walk he’d ever had to take in his fucking life. This had to be why Layla didn’t want to say goodbye to him.

The shit hurt too fucking much.

Carlos was trying, Layla couldn’t deny that. But she couldn’t help but compare everything he did to Andres. A month had passed since she’d seen him at the park, and she’d thought of him every damn day. She’d tried really hard to be in good spirits while she and Carlos had dinner at Fleming’s, but it just didn’t feel the same. Carlos had apparently picked up on her ill feelings because he’d been quiet the entire drive home. As they pulled into the driveway, Carlos asked, “Are you just not going to give me credit at all?”

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