Page 14 of Soft Tissue Damage
“Leon said that?” she asks, a smile breaking over her face.
He didn’t, but I can’t exactly tell her I followed her and had her stalked for three days.
I lead her along the hallway. “You can use the guest bedroom next to the nursery to get some sleep, and it has abathroom where you can shower. Feel free to leave some things here. Also, give me your phone. I’ll install the baby monitor app so you can check on Rosie wherever you are in the house.”
She hands me her unlocked phone, and the background is a photo of her and Leon. She’s kissing his cheek, and he’s smiling cockily at the camera like he’s God’s gift. The photo annoys me, and I quickly open the app store.
A moment later I hand her the phone back.
“When would you like me to start?”
“Next Tuesday. Can you be here by five so you can put Rosie to bed? Other nights I won’t need you to start until your shift ends at the diner.”
“Sounds great, Mr. Grant.”
I drive her home, and when I double park in front of her building, I take a long, professional look at it. The security is terrible. I feel my blood pressure spike when I notice that someone has propped open the front door with a brick.
“Thank you for the ride home.”
I turn to Elena. “Just one more thing. I need to know while you’re in my house you’ll be focused on Rosie. The nights you stay over, Leon will be at his mother’s. All right?”
I study Elena closely, searching for any sign of resentment or annoyance that I won’t let them use my house for making out.
Elena’s cheeks turn pink, and she hastens to reassure me. “Of course. I’ll only be focused on Rosie, and Leon andI, well we’ve only just started dating, and we don’t, I mean…” She breaks off, and her flush deepens.
They’re not sleeping together?
Interesting.
I say good night and wait until Elena is safely inside her building. Then I get out of my truck, go over, and kick the brick away so the front door closes securely before driving home.
Leon is in the kitchen spreading peanut butter on crackers when I walk in. I tell him the good news about Elena accepting the job, with one caveat. “You’ll be staying with your mother on the nights that Elena is sleeping over in this house.”
Unlike Elena, Leon looks annoyed. “But, Dad, I—”
“No arguing. Elena will be here to work, and I don’t want you distracting her.”
Still grumbling, Leon eats his crackers and heads off to bed.
I don’t care if he doesn’t like it. My house. My rules.
Tuesday comes, and I find I’m anticipating being out under the cover of night, feeling like Blackport in darkness belongs to me once more. I’ve been playing it too safe lately. I need to taste danger again.
Elena arrives promptly at five, and I introduce her to my daughter properly now that Rosie is awake, and I take her through her bedtime routine. Dinner. Bath. Bottle. Elena is so kind and patient with Rosie. My daughter has never been shy, but she takes to Elena faster than she did her nanny.
Elena reads Rosie a bedtime story in the comfortable nursery chair. I leave her to it and go downstairs, but I watch the whole thing through my phone. Elena tucks Rosie into bed and sings to her softly until she falls asleep. Then she comes downstairs and finds me in the living room.
“Rosie is wonderful,” Elena gushes. “She’s so lucky to have you and that beautiful nursery. Being there with her made me so happy.”
Is it my imagination, or is that wistful look back in her eyes? I wonder about her home life, and how she came to be raised by two spinsters.
I have to go through tonight’s plan one last time, and so I go into my office while Elena reads in the living room.
At nine p.m., I say good night to Elena, telling her I’m leaving.
She sits up and puts a bookmark in her book. “I didn’t ask you where you’re going tonight.”
“Poker game,” I tell her with a smile. “Sometimes we go all night.” I’m wearing a button-down shirt open over a T-shirt and jeans, just the kind of casual outfit you’d wear to play poker with your friends. I’ll change into my black utility gear when I meet my team.
