Chapter Eighteen
Adam
I spend Sunday with the kids. The rain holds off long enough for us to go to the park for a little while, then we go home and have hot dogs for lunch.
Ian is fine, no fever since Saturday night.
Not really sure what that was all about, but maybe his body was able to fight off whatever illness was trying to creep in.
I told Leslie about it, just in case. She didn’t seem too worried, so I’ll try not to be.
Monday morning, I’m able to drop Judy off at school, something I’ve never been able to do since I always had to catch early flights to California.
I love being able to do this with her. We still got up early to stop at a bakery.
I got coffee and each of them a donut, and I let them eat it in the car on the way.
I wait in the drop off line, and when we get to the designated drop off spot, I get out of the car to help her out.
“Have a great day at school, sweetheart.” I kiss her head.
“Bye, Daddy!” she calls as she runs off and up the steps to the open school doors.
I wave, then get back into the car where Ian is still focused on his donut.
He licked off all the strawberry frosting, and now he’s nibbling the rest of it.
I won’t be surprised if it ends up on the floor, but at least it’s free of frosting so the mess will be minimal.
When I pull up at Leslie’s parents’ house, I get Ian and his things and walk up the front steps to ring the bell. Her mother answers, as she usually does.
I don’t hate her, but she’s not a warm person. She’s very cold, very distant, and she has this way of looking at you that makes you feel less than.
“Is Leslie here?” I ask, though I know she is. Her car is in the driveway this morning.
Ian runs inside. “Hello to you too!” she calls after him, then looks at me. “I’ll get her.”
She closes the door in my face, and I wait there for Leslie to come to the door.
I don’t know why her mother never liked me. Her father is indifferent, always has been, but her other family seemed to like me just fine. Aunts. Uncles. Cousins. It’s just her parents who give me a hard time, and she always denied it so I never got even an inkling of what the issue was.
“You wanted to see me?” Leslie asks when she opens the door.
“Yeah,” I say firmly. “We need to talk about the schedule with the kids.”
“I told you we would.”
“Right. After the New Year, and that’s where we are. I can’t accept a job until I know my schedule with them, Leslie.”
“Well, I haven’t figured it out yet.”
“How hard is it to figure out? Let me take them half the week, you take them the other half.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Sh,” she hisses, stepping out and closing the door. “It’s important for the kids to have a routine, Adam. Especially with Judy being in school and Ian starting daycare soon.”
“Why is he starting daycare soon? Why didn’t you tell me about this? It’s not fair for you to make decisions like this without me.”
“Must have slipped my mind.” She throws her arms up and drops them at her sides.
She’s so flippant about it, like it doesn’t matter. This isn’t usually her, so maybe she’s having a bad day. There have been plenty of times she’s made decisions without me, but I don’t think she does it on purpose. But that doesn’t stop me from being angry about it right now.
“You know, there are dead beat dads out here who don’t even want to see their kids. You should be grateful you’re not stuck with one of them. All I want is to see my kids.”
“If you’re going to be rude, you can leave.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to threaten her with court, but I know how that will go. It’ll take forever. I could go months, maybe years, without seeing them while it’s all sorted out. And in the end, I could see them less than I see them now. I can’t have that. I won’t risk it.
I sigh. “I just want to spend time with my kids, Leslie.”
She watches me for a moment, then says, “I have a lot going on right now, Adam. I can’t talk about this.” Then she heads inside, and I guess the conversation is over.
When I get back in my car, I make it down the road before I’m pulling out my phone and calling Emmet.
“Hello?”
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“Nothing. Why?”
“You want to grab breakfast? Preferably somewhere that serves alcohol.”
He chuckles, the sound raspy from sleep. I think I woke him up.
“Sure. Where do you want me to meet you?”
“How about I pick you up? You can show me your house, and I can judge you for your choice.”
He laughs again, and I smile to myself. I like that I can make him laugh.
“I’ll text you the address,” he says.
The call ends and a moment later the address comes in, so I type it into my GPS. It takes less than fifteen minutes to get there.
From the outside, it’s a normal little house.
One floor, white vinyl, big windows, and a one-car garage.
The driveway holds my car and his comfortably, and you could squish another if you needed to.
There’s hardly a front yard, but the grass is neatly trimmed.
I can’t tell what the backyard looks like from here.
The only thing I don’t like about this house from the get-go is how close it is to the neighbor.
There’s about five feet between his house and the house on the left.
On the right is a plot of trees, so he gets privacy on that side at least. I get out and go to the front door to ring the bell.
Emmet pulls open the door a moment later.
Grey sweatpants, white T-shirt, messy hair. Damn, he looks good.
“Morning,” he says, running his hand over his head.
“Good morning,” I answer with a smile.
“So, what do you think?” he grins, and my knees go weak.
“Hm?” I say, trying not to be distracted by how the T-shirt seems a size too small, and hugs every sexy curve on his torso.
“The house? I’m sure you’re judging it.”
“Stop acting like you know me,” I say with a smirk and step into his house. I glance to the left and find the living room. The curtains are open, showing me a great view of the other house.
“It’s close, I know,” Emmet comments.
“You think?”
He shrugs. “I just shut the curtains when I walk around naked.”
I bite my cheek, trying not to picture Emmet walking around naked. He always was attractive, but now that he’s bigger, older, more masculine, he’s sexier than ever.
“Well, that’s smart,” I say. “Show me around.”
Emmet stares at me for a moment, just smiling.
Then he gives me the grand tour. The rooms are spacious.
There are three bedrooms, one of which has been turned into an office.
One is empty, and the other has a bed and a dresser with boxes in one corner and opened suitcases along another wall.
There is an en suite bathroom with a shower-bath combo and a lot of counter space.
The kitchen is newly refurbished with shiny counters and stainless steel appliances. The dining room is empty, with large windows that show the decently-sized backyard.
“It’s nice,” I say. “Good area, decent layout. Did you have it inspected?” I ask as I open a fan door in the hallway to find a small laundry room.
“Of course I did.”
I close the door and turn toward him. “I approve. Good job.”
He chuckles, shaking his head. “I’m going to get dressed.”
Emmet disappears into his bedroom, and I wander around the house just checking things out. Trying really hard not to think about him naked in his bedroom.
The house really is nice, and much more spacious than my apartment. Probably costs a hell of a lot more money too. Though, once the sale on my house in California goes through, I could buy a house here. Something like this, maybe. It’s big enough for me and the kids, and I really do like it.
“You ready?” he asks as I stare out the kitchen window into the back yard. There’s a wooden fence lined with trees that block any neighbors that may be back there.
“Yeah, I’m good.” We head out to my car. “I’m selling my house in California.”
“You going to buy something out here?”
“I don’t know yet. I’m thinking about it, but I’m trying to figure out what’s going on with Leslie first. She can’t figure out where she wants to settle, and I’d hate to buy a house here if she goes somewhere else.”
“So, you’ll just go wherever she does?” he asks.
“That’s where my kids will be, so yes.”
“You won’t try talking her out of it?”
I’d love to. But there’s no talking her out of anything.
“I don’t know,” is what I say, and I know that’s a shitty answer.
From the corner of my eye, I see him watching me, like he wants to say something but he doesn’t. Emmet always speaks his mind, so I’m surprised he doesn’t say anything.
“You can mess with the radio if you want,” I tell him.
He does, switching on a classical rock station.
“Do you know where we’re going?” he asks after a few minutes of driving.
“Yeah, there’s a place downtown.”
“How long have you been living here, exactly?”
“February will make a year. Leslie couldn’t manage as a single mother, so she wanted to move closer to her parents, which I guess meant with her parents.”
“And you were stuck in your contract at work,” he adds.
“Yeah, so I went back and forth. It was stressful at first, but the routine got easier.”
“I bet the cost was killer.”
I huff out a laugh. “Fucking awful.”
I expect him to go on about the Leslie thing.
It’s clear in his facial expressions and responses that he doesn’t agree with the way I’m doing things, but it’s really none of his business.
They’re my kids and I’ll do whatever I need to see them.
And maybe he gets that and it’s why he isn’t saying anything about it.
“So you know your way around Seattle then,” is what he says.
I let out a quiet sigh of relief. “Yeah, you could say that.”
“Great. After breakfast, I want a tour.”
I smile to myself. “I can totally do that.”