When there was no response, she angled her head towards Jesse’s room. “Door, Jesse.”
She held her breath as Jesse’s door opened and her son appeared. “What?”
“Door,” she said, motioning her head toward the door to emphasize what she was saying.
Jesse nodded and made his way over.
“Hey,” a deep and very familiar voice said.
Danielle’s stomach leapt into her throat as she closed her eyes. Why was Zach here? How did he even learn where she lived?
“Hey,” Jesse said.
Desperate to get those two away from each other, Danielle dropped the towel and rushed over to the door. “I’ve got this, you can go back to your room,” she said, grabbing the door and motioning toward Jesse’s room.
Jesse looked confused and then shrugged. “Fine,” he said as he turned and obeyed.
Heat pricked the back of her neck as she turned and forced a smile. “What are you doing here?” she asked as she glanced behind him, praying Roger would walk up.
Zach seemed to notice as he followed her gaze. “You, um, called me. Said you have a leak?” He raised up his toolbox until it was in her line of sight.
“No I didn’t,” she said. Her ears were ringing from his words. Had she called him?
Zach furrowed his brow. “Yes you did. Said you had a leak and needed me to come fix it.” He looked so uncertain for someone who towered over her.
Danielle glanced back at her phone. She must have hit the wrong phone number by accident. “I didn’t mean to if I did. So, sorry. Thanks for coming over but I think we’ve got it handled.” Just as the words left her lips, a loud clanging noise rang out from the bathroom. She winced as she could only guess what had fallen from the now damp sheetrock.
When she glanced back at Zach, he didn’t look convinced. Then he sighed, pushing his hands through his hair. “I’m here, might as well let me take a look at it,” he said, pushing past her and into her apartment.
All sorts of excuses for why Zach shouldn’t come into her apartment rushed through her mind. All of them started with the desperation she felt from the fact that he was about to see where she lived. How meager her apartment was.
This was not the dream she’d made for herself all those years ago when they would talk about their hopes for the future.
From the hesitation in Zach’s step when he walked in, embarrassment flushed her cheeks. She needed to get him out. Now.
“I think I’ve got this handled. You can just go,” she said, opening the door wider and then stepping in front of him, trying to halt him from coming in further.
It wasn’t that her apartment was dirty. If anything, cleanliness was about the only thing she could do about this place. It was just small and worn out. Like it had given up on hope, just like her.
Zach glanced down at her and she could see his stubbornness creeping up. “Show me the bathroom. I can fix your faucet.”
Realizing that she probably shouldn’t be getting in a tug of war with a NFL player, Danielle sighed and nodded, motioning toward the bathroom. “The faucet is in there.”
Zach followed her gesture and then nodded. “Got it,” he said over his shoulder as he walked.
She reached up her finger to her lips and began to gnaw on her nail. Why was Zach here? Why didn’t he just tell her that she had the wrong number? Why come all the way over here just to help her?
And what the heck was she going to do about him meeting Jesse? Did he notice the similarities? Would he suspect that Jesse was his nephew?
She needed to find a way to get Jesse out of the house. Right now.
Sunny. Hopefully Sunny wasn’t busy and would be able to take Jesse out of the house. Calming her nerves, she walked nonchalantly over to the bathroom and located her phone. She crouched down and grabbed it.
Zach had his head under the sink and thankfully, didn’t notice her.
With her phone in hand, she made her way into her bedroom and found Sunny’s number—she made sure of it three times.
“Hey,” Sunny said after three rings.
