Chapter 24 Everly
EVERLY
Elsie excuses herself to the bathroom and Sonny munches on some small carrots with the green tops still on.
“Grey, in the future, relaying this kind of information is something you have to prepare someone for. Suggest they sit down or tell them in advance. Is there a reason you didn’t tell me that you’re a father?”
His shrug is apologetic rather than dismissive. “Some days, I don’t believe it myself.”
As if this isn’t the biggest deal of the century, Grey dumps a wooden puzzle onto the counter and they put it back together while Sonny eats his snack.
Elsie returns and asks about our trip. They’re both acting like this is all perfectly normal while I freak out inside. I skim through every conversation I had with Grey, wondering if I experienced temporary and selective amnesia, having blocked out this surprising and adorable fact.
At no point did Grey mention that he has a son, named Sonny, or that he’s a miniature version of his father, minus the beard, which has grown back in record time, by the way. Then again, I quickly enacted the MOC Club rules, thereby giving him a reason not to tell me about this situation.
The early summer breeze wafts from the doorway and I realize Elsie is saying goodbye.
“It was so nice to meet you,” she calls to me.
“Are you sure you can’t stay?” Grey asks.
“You know I’d love to, but—”
“I know, I know. You did me an immense favor and have to get back to your life—Mathias and the big wedding coming up.”
“Will you be able to make it?” she asks me.
“To your wedding?” My gaze searches Grey’s.
She slaps him on the shoulder and shakes her head. “There is something you must know about the Olmsted men, whether they’re speaking English or Norwegian, they’re men of few words. Thankfully for me, I’m marrying into the Norgaard family.”
“Who’re notorious for having stinky feet.”
Elsie glares at Grey, but mirth fills her eyes.
“What? It’s true. The summer we had to bunk in the same room as Mathias, all Bran and I could—” Grey falls quiet.
Elsie’s eyebrows dip together and she hugs him. “Good luck.”
“Safe travels.” Grey’s voice strains ever so slightly.
With a wave at Sonny, who chomps on his last carrot, she leaves us with this little kid. For the record, he’s adorable, but not someone I was expecting.
Neither is Grey, who seems to come alive around him. Having moved on from the puzzle, Grey bounces him on his shoulders as they parade down the hallway, singing a nursery rhyme in what I’m guessing is Norwegian.
I trail behind, following Grey’s echoing voice as he shows Sonny his new room.
Remaining in the doorway while the two of them play on the floor, I say, “You didn’t show me this room during the home tour.
” Accusation contrasts with the smile I can’t help at the sight of father and son, heads bent together in concentration, as they untie a knot on the string that holds together a rubber mat printed with roads for the little guy’s toy cars.
Grey glances up at me and gestures for me to come over. “Can you help us untie this?”
“If you help me make sense of this,” I say softly because I don’t want to make a scene or upset Sonny.
After I loosen the knot, Grey smooths the mat and sets up the cars for Sonny and gestures that we go into the hall.
“I’ll be right back and then we’ll go look for bunnies,” he says to his son.
Preoccupied with his fleet of miniature four-wheeled vehicles, the little boy says, “Okay.”
In the hall, Grey lets out a breath. “It’s a part of my life that I don’t really like to talk about.”
Aghast, I say, “That you’re a dad?”
“Unexpectedly.”
I incline my head. “Cateline warned us about you football players.”
Grey’s expression hardens. “I didn’t—”
“But you’re an adult, you know how that works, right?” I realize I’m waving my finger between us because if this guy needs the birds and the bees talk, we have more work to do than I thought.
“It wasn’t like that.”
I roll my eyes. “No, of course not.”
“A few years ago, I decided it was time to settle down. I was dating Sonny’s mother, a performer from Norway.
She was popular on the cruise lines. Thought we could make it work.
She had him, but then our relationship unraveled.
She was happy enough to get child support, but then started to restrict my time with him.
I was busy. Selfish, I guess.” Grey scrubs his hand across his forehead.
My eyebrows lift because that sounds like a knot that’s not so easily untied, but I’m not sure I’m ready to travel down this road with him.
“I’d like to remind you that I already have a job, teaching you etiquette, so if you want me to take over Elsie’s job as the nanny around here, then we’re going to have to backtrack.
Lesson one, tell the woman you married that you have a kid. ”
“It’s a difficult subject.”
“Maybe so, but it’s one that’s your responsibility. So, do you expect me to be a nanny?” I imagine my life like the second run of a movie in a warped sort of way, with Grey playing my cold, distant father, Sonny depicting me, and my role as the nanny instead of the invisible child.
“Not a nanny. My wife.”
“Wifey? Wanny? Nifey.” I wince. “That sounds aggressive. I’m not going to knife you over this, but is there anything else I should know?”
This time Grey inhales. “I wasn’t a good father.
Wasn’t around as much as I should’ve been after my ex and I broke up.
Then she pulled an ‘ole splitsville from Sonny’s life and left him with her mother.
Last month, Sonny’s grandmother passed away, leaving Sonny with the state.
I wasn’t aware of that until I’d been trying to reach my ex to arrange a visit.
She wouldn’t respond, so I got the police involved. Found out she abandoned our kid.”
My heart breaks in two and I grip his arm. “I am so sorry, Grey.”
He grunts. “Everly, I essentially did the same thing. Traded my family for my football career.”
“But you’re here now.”
He swallows thickly as though struggling with guilt and regret.
“Yeah. I am. But that’s why I didn’t tell you.
I’m not proud of the man I was, and had my brother been around, he’d have whooped me good for being such an idiot.
” He turns to the little boy. The love in his eyes when he looks at Sonny puts those broken pieces in my chest back together.
“So, tell me about the little dude.”
Grey beams. “Sonny just turned three, loves cars and trucks, swimming, and strawberries. But blueberries are his favorite. Seriously, you have to be careful because he’ll eat a pound of them.
Found that out the hard way.” A grin plays on his lips, reminding me that boys, guys too by the looks of it, all think poop is funny.
Sonny toddles over and hugs Grey’s legs. He looks up at him with big blue eyes that are the same as his father’s in every way except the color.
Grey picks him up. “Sonny, I forgot my manners. I didn’t introduce you to—” He pauses as though not sure what to call me. “Buttercup?”
Sonny giggles, then in his squeaky little kid voice, he says, “I like sm?r.”
“That means butter,” Grey says.
“Hi, Sonny. I like butter and buttercups, too. It’s nice to meet you.”
The little boy looks at me for a long moment. Hope lights in his eyes and his chubby little fingers reach for me. “Mamma?”
Grey grunts.
I take Sonny into my arms and he clamps down with a hug like he doesn’t ever plan to let go.
There is something else Grey isn’t saying.
Something hidden beneath the surface. Another piece of his sad story that he won’t tell.
Over Sonny’s shoulder, as he clings to me like a little koala, my gaze floats from Grey’s chiseled cheekbones, to the scar on his lip, to the snug bind of his T-shirt around his muscles.
Had it not been for the fish story, I’d think he was hewn out of the solid rock of the island.
After a walk around the property where we try to track down the bunnies, or the kaniner, as I learned in Norwegian, we return to the cabin, as Grey calls it.
More like a mansion, but I’m learning the man who isn’t much for talking has plenty to say and more answers he owes me.
While he finishes preparing dinner, I read to Sonny from a stack of books Elsie brought.
Out the big windows, the sun hovers just above the tree line, painting the lake shades of citrus.
Once at the table, the three of us join hands in prayer, completing the moment. It’s like we found a missing chapter of the story I didn’t even know I was part of.
The three of us quickly form a connection and it fills me up.
I could attribute it to the natural environment, Grey and I telling each other personal stories or the fact that he brought me to the place that’s very special to him, but I’ve seen another side of Grey that I couldn’t have imagined.
From hiking around the island with Sonny riding piggyback, to the two of them singing together, to him blowing raspberries on his sweaty little neck.
Sonny brought him to life.
And as upset as his omission of this very major detail makes me, seeing him in the kitchen, in jeans and barefoot while making dinner—fully domesticated yet every bit still a Viking—makes my heart race and stop at the same time.
What could this mean? Have I fallen for my marriage of convenience husband?
“What?” he asks in a new, non-gruff, flirty tone when he catches me staring.
Smirking, I shake my head. When Grey looks in the mirror, I’m guessing all he sees is the Viking, the Hulk, so he acts like one when there’s so much more to his man if he’d only allow it.
I’m only three bites into the meal with balsamic grilled chicken, sweet potatoes, and a salad when I realize that this could be my life...
And I could eat this way every day for the rest of my life. I close my eyes, savoring the moment and the fresh flavors. When I blink my eyes open, Grey stares at me with...curiosity? Mirth? Something else?