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His head rears back and a puzzled look draws his brows together. In his current state, it makes him look like a bull getting ready to charge. “What are you talking about?”
“You justcalled and asked me to pick her up less than an hour ago. You said something about a work emergency and not being able to get ahold of Summer,” I say as calmly as I can.
“I never called you! I don’t even have your number.” Emma watches the exchange, head bouncing back and forth like she’s watching a tennis match.
“Wellsomeonecalled me, said they were you, and that you needed help.”
Jared laughs, a sharp sound that seems like it hurts coming out, and says, “Even if I needed help, you are the absolute last person I would call.”
“Well, if you didn’t call me, then who did?” As he scoffs, I pull out my phone and check the call log. I turn my screen to him, pointing out his incoming call. “See? You called.”
“That’s not my number. It’s not even the right area code,” he says slowly. He wrinkles his brows in confusion before he types something into his phone. After studying it for a bit he says, “This is one of those throw-away numbers that you can use as long as you have a Wi-Fi signal. How do I know you didn’t call your phone from your computer just to make this all up?”
I shake my head, genuinely taken aback. “Because that's insane.” I stretch out the first word, not able to help myself. What the fuck is going on?
“Daddy, it's true. He said you told him to come pick me up,” Emma says, eyeing her dad, tiny hand clutching at the arm banded around her shoulders.
“Shh baby, this is between the grownups, okay? Why don’t you go hang out with the teddy bears and I’ll come get you in a second.” He brushes a kiss to her brow, helps her down, and gently pushes her in the right direction. Or the wrong direction if you ask me. I shiver at the thought of her sitting in that thing’s lap.
Jared sits across from me and takes a deep breath. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on, but I do know that I didn’t call you. I showed up a couple of minutes late to pick my daughter up from class because Ididhave something come up at work and couldn’t find her. Then when I panicked and asked the girl at the front desk where Emma was, she said she left with some guy and they mentioned something about ice cream. When I exploded on her asking why the hellshe let my six-year-old daughter leave with a man who wasn’t me. She said you were on the approved list and showed me your sign-out signature. If you weren’t setting this whole thing up, why are you suddenly on the approved pick-up list when it hasn’t changed since Emma started there two yearsago?” His voice gets more and more heated, but I can tell he’s trying to keep it down.
I spread my hands out in front of me and say, “I didn’t even realize I was on the list, or that there even was a list. Summer must have added me at some point. Listen, I didn’t introduce myself as Summer’s boyfriend or anything, okay? I just told her that I was picking her up and her mom knew me. No harm, no foul.” I am trying to be understanding because I can’t imagine how terrified he was to get to Emma’s class and find her missing. Still though, I wish he would calm down so we can get to the bottom of this.
I see his jaw clench once, twice. “You know what I think? I think you orchestrated this whole thing so you could soften up my daughter. Make sure she likes you so she’s on your side when the whole six-month clause is up. Which is, conveniently, in about a month. And you just couldn’t wait to come in and be Prince Charming or whatever. You want to push me out and make one happy little family,” he sneers. I blink, stunned. Does this man think that I’m some sort of Bond villain?
I shake my head firmly. “I promise you, not at all. I truly want what’s best for Emma. I think that means having you and Summer here for her. I’m sorry this was such a fucked up thing. I genuinely thought you called me and that I was helping. Can I have your actual number so nothing like this ever happens again?” I ask, trying to show I’m not the bad guy here. He grudgingly gives it to me and then stands to leave.
Just before he goes to Emma, he knocks once on the sticky table and says, “I still don’t think I believe you. I’ll be talking to Summer and my lawyer about this.” A lead ball drops in my gut, but before I can say anything more, he’s shepherding Emma out the door. She gives me a meek wave and a small smile before following her dad out.Well, shit.This won’t be good.I scrub my hand through my hair and hope I don’t get charged with kidnapping or something equally as ridiculous.
CHAPTER 36
Summer
Igrab my phone from the “phone jail” basket in the middle of the scuffed, mahogany conference table and turn it back on as the rest of my coworkers file out in various stages of disgruntlement. We had some team building expert come in and she enthusiastically insisted that our phones should be off and inaccessible for the whole day because we needed to “be fully unplugged so we could plug into each other.” While it sounded vaguely sexual, nothing that interesting (or scarring) happened. It was mostly a lot of icebreakers that felt completely unnecessary since most of us have been working here for over five years. Ididfind out that Rachel’s favorite animal is a guinea pig during one rousing round of two truths and a lie. Riveting stuff.
I sit back, eyes going wide as my phone buzzes with more notifications than I’ve ever gotten at one time. I’m scrolling through a CVS-receipt-long string of texts from Jared where I gather he got to Emma’s gymnastics class to pick her up and found her not there, only to see that Ryan checked her out.
Why would he do that?
Apparently, Jared found them in Emma’s favorite ice creamstore, Swirl, and took her home. Judging from the last few angry texts, he thinks I have something to do with it.
Fantastic.
Knowing that Emma is safe, I feel my heart rate start to slow, and I go to my missed calls and voicemails next. I see a missed call from a number I don’t recognize, several from Jared, and two from Ryan. Both Jared and Ryan left me voicemails, so I decide to rip the band-aid off and listen to Jared’s first. I then listen to Ryan’s two voicemails, the first saying he’s picking up Emma and will explain later, and the next has him profusely apologizing and explaining there was some sort of weird mix-up. I shake my head in confusion and decide to call Ryan back first once I get outside.
The phone rings once before he picks up, and with just his “Hello,” I can tell he’s extremely anxious.
I start my car and lean back, letting the old girl warm up before I head home. “Hey. Wanna tell me what happened?” I ask gently. I know there’s no way he would have just picked Emma up like that for no good reason.
He explains the weird phone call he got and that he didn’t want to leave Emma alone for long, so after he couldn’t get ahold of me, he just went for it. He figured since it was Jared calling him, there was no reason not to do it. His voice is tight with frustration at the end of his explanation, and I wish I was there so I could soothe him. I make the split-second decision to go see him at his place so I can do just that. After confirming with him that he’s home, I hang up and make the quick drive over.
On the way through town, I call Jared and manage to have a restrained conversation where we agree to meet up tomorrow to figure out what happened. I hang up with him right as I pull into Ryan’s driveway. He’s already outside waiting for me, sitting on his front porch, his hands dangling between his spread thighs.
When he hears my car door shut, he looks up and smiles at me. He stands so he can give me a bear hug and I push up ontomy tiptoes to kiss him. I get a little lost in the kiss and pout when he pulls away. He groans and I feel it zing through me. He gently presses me further away with a hand on my shoulder, “You shouldn’t be kissing me like that. I’m trying to be repentant.”
“What sins did you commit?” I ask playfully. It sounds like there was a weird mix up and some wires got crossed, but ultimately everyone is safe and okay. He’s acting like he burned down the building.
“Too many to name, but most recently pissing off your child’s father and maybe almost getting arrested for kidnapping,” he says into his hands.
