Scott turns to me. “Charlie threatened that if I mention how old I am, or that my back doesn’t hurt every morning, I’m going to have to do after-school-pick-up, alone, wearing gray sweatpants.”
I shake my head. “That’s too far, Charlie. They’d eat the kid alive.”
“Ha! You called him the kid! I won the bet! Pay up, Miller,” Charlie demands, and Donovan slaps a twenty down in his hand.
Hattie comes out of the door, sees all of us standing around on her back porch, and exhales. “Will you idiots quit making bets on every little thing?”
Charlie’s demeanor changes from his goofball persona to something more commanding. He stands in front of her and tipsher chin up with his index finger. When he finally speaks, his voice has dropped and rumbles out in a gravelly, authoritative tone. “Doll, I’m in the mood to see how many times I can make you scream tonight. Are you sure you want me to stop betting? Because I think I can get you to five, but if you’d rather?—”
Hattie’s head tips down, but not before I catch how pink her cheeks are. I think I preferred it when I didn’t know how big of a freak my best friend is.
“I’ll see you when I get off work,” she mumbles.
“You soundproofed your room, right?” Scott asks once Hattie is in her car.
Charlie scoffs. “We’ve got kids in the house. It was either soundproof our room, or learn to be more vanilla.”
“Heaven forbid,” I deadpan.
He gives me a look. “Like you have room to talk,Daddy.”
They all laugh at my expense, but I don’t mind. It’s good to let the tension go for a change. Eventually, the silence finds us, and one by one we all turn our attention to the empty house at the end of our circle.
“Are we supposed to do something? It’s weird that she hasn’t come home at all,” I finally break the silence.
“What can we do? We can’t force her to give him a second chance. We don’t even know how bad things were before she left,” Charlie admits.
We exchange a look. Neither of us has forgotten how awful things got the last time Liam was drinking and taking pills. Charlie is the only one I’ve ever told anything about how abusive my son was to Wren, but even he knows only a little.
He also doesn’t know how close Wren and I came to losing everything the last time Liam got sober. I, however, will never forget. Sometimes the most selfish thing you can do to another person is try to make amends.
Chapter Nine
Wren - Past
Six months,twenty-six weeks, one hundred and eighty-two days. Every second of that time I’ve spent falling deeper in love with Griffin. It didn’t hurt most of that time, because Liam has been away at rehab. It gave us a chance to grow without his shadow looming over us. Before he went away it still felt like we were sneaking around, even after everyone found out about us. Heaven forbid he should see us together and deal with it like an adult. No, much better that we tiptoe around him, like he did when he was screwing my best friend during our marriage.
I didn’t feel bad when Griffin and I first got together. I was far too pissed off at Liam for that. Not even when I was saying my vows did I feel even the smallest iota of guilt. I only feel bad that Griff is caught in the middle of my cold war with his son, and that I have been secretly happy while Liam was away at rehab.
He’s back now, but I refuse to let go of any of the peace I’ve found with him gone. There has to be a way that Griffin can stay close to his son, and I can keep him at arm’s length. To start, I need to shove any thoughts of him out of my head when he’s not right in front of me. Now is as good a time as any to do that.
I seek out Griffin, which isn’t hard because there are only two places he disappears to. I know he’s not in the garage, which means he’s in the nursery. Leaning against the doorway, I watch him sway back and forth with our tiny, pink bundle cradled in his strong arms. He’s humming some rock ballad I can’t quite place, probably something wildly inappropriate, but at least he left the words out.
“Hey, Daddy. You’re supposed to lay her down once she’s asleep,” I say.
Gently, he brushes his finger down the side of her face, moving one of her short curls off her cheek. “I know how fast these days go by. I don’t want to miss anything.”
He’s been reminiscing a lot since Parker’s birth. He can see so much farther down this road of parenthood than I can, because he’s already lived the highs and lows of it. Sometimes it makes me feel like there’s a canyon between us. I’m younger, but not so naive that I never thought our age difference would occasionally be an issue.
Griffin has lived an entire life before me, while I’m just starting mine with him beside me. I don’t think the years I spent with Liam count, because my marriage was more like I put my life on hold rather than actually live those five years.
Thoughts like this make me desperate to connect with him. I’ll bridge the gap between us in the way we communicate best.
I reach my hand out to him. “How ‘bout you lay her down and take me to bed, Daddy.”
His eyes slowly shift in my direction. Thick, dark lashes sweep up to reveal the bottomless depths of his dark eyes. The corner of his mouth twitches.
He kisses Parker on the top of her head and gently lays her down in her crib. I don’t have to run in and make sure there’s nothing that will obstruct her breathing, that she’s not too hot or too cold, and that there’s just enough light to check on her if needed, because Griffin is a very involved father.
