Page 96 of Lies and Lullabies
“Just want to get dressed and go home,” he said.
“Tomorrow,” I promised.
“Where’s Vivi?”
“With Jonas, if you can believe it.”
Adam’s eyes popped open again. “Oh! He was here, wasn’t he?”
“Yeah.”
My brother smiled. “You’re letting him babysit. That’s so adventurous of you.”
“I know.” I smiled back at him. “It’s killing me.”
He kept smiling even as his eyes drifted closed. “She’ll be fine, Kira. It’s… nice. And it’s nice that you’re here with me. Thank you.”
I rested my cheek on the edge of the mattress and held Adam’s hand tightly. “You’re so welcome, sweetie. Anytime.”
I thought he’d fallen asleep. But a minute later, he spoke again. “Please don’t move to Seattle right away.”
“What? Who’s moving?”
“Mr. Hottie is going to take you both. Just don’t let it be too soon…” Then Adam fell asleep for real, his mouth going slack.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I promised. I had no interest in living in Seattle. And it’s not like anyone had asked me to.
Twenty-Four
Kira
I sat with Adam as long as I dared. He was in and out of sleep. I answered his phone a couple of times, as coworkers called to make sure everything had gone smoothly.
At eight o’clock, though, I kissed his sleeping forehead goodnight and headed home.
I splurged on a taxi to get home quickly, but of course there was mad traffic in Back Bay. “What a rookie move,” I whispered as we inched along Beacon Street. I shoved my phone in my pocket, willing myself not to text Jonas again like a nervous freak.
At six I’d allowed myself a casual “how’s everything going?” text. In reply, I’d received a picture of a smiling Vivi, seated in her dining chair, shoving a piece of what looked like naan bread into her mouth.
It was smart of Jonas to send me that proof-of-life photo, the sort that kidnappers sent with their ransom demands. In truth, my little girl looked happy as a clam. I could only imagine what Vivi negotiated for a dinner order.No vegetables, Daddy. Those’ll kill me. And what are we having for dessert?
In the interest of appearing mostly sane, I’d restrained myself from calling or texting again. But now it was past Vivi’s bedtime, and she was probably having a meltdown. Jonas was likely at his wits’ end, trying to charm her out of a tantrum.
If he was smart, he’d let her watchFrozenon his phone.
After thrusting money at the driver, I leapt out of the cab when it stopped on my corner. At the door, I realized I didn’t have my keys. Jonas did.
I gave the buzzer the barest of taps, in case Vivi was conked out in the living room.
A moment later the lock released, and I skipped the elevator in favor of dashing up the stairs. When I reached my apartment, the door was ajar, waiting for me. Quietly, I pushed it open and tiptoed inside.
But neither of the two people in the living room was a sleepy four-year-old girl.
“Dad,”I said, shock in my voice. “What areyoudoing here?”
In my wildest dreams, I never expected to find my father sitting opposite Jonas, the two of them holding bottles of Sam Adams. My father was watching the baseball game on what must have been Jonas’s iPad.
Slowly, my father lifted his eyes from the screen. “What a nice greeting, Kira,” he quipped. He took a casual sip of his beer, as if it were the most normal thing in the world to hang out in our living room with my secret lover who was also Vivi’s daddy.
