Page 49 of Broken Grump

“Thank you for helping my wife,” Randall says to me later on in the evening around the campfire, where the little kids are making smores.

“It was my pleasure.”

He motions for everyone to huddle closer around, and he instructs us to bow our heads.

“Dear Lord, I would just like to thank you for bringing these like-minded people together tonight, and I’d also like to ask for your forgiveness on behalf of the sinners among us. Namely, those who may have given into their sinful desires and procreated before marriage.”

Oh, no.It’s clear he’s talking about Hayden and me.

“Amen,” Claire agrees, her eyes clenched tightly together.

Okay, lady. You can over-populate the world, but I can’t have one measly child?

Then, Hayden’s ticking jaw tells me that he not only recognizes who the subjects of the prayer are, but also that he’s about five seconds from exploding.

It really warms my heart to see him so upset on my behalf.

So, I grab his hand, and give it a squeeze. Then, when he opens his eyes and glances up at me, I give him a wink.

I don’t even listen to the rest of the admonishment against us, but I do recognize when Randall finally says, “In Jesus’s name, we pray. Amen.”

“Amen!” I yell before grabbing my daughter, who is thankfully too young to understand what just happened, apologizing to the group for having to leave so early—you know, she has school tomorrow and all—and then heading for the car.

Chapter fifteen

Hayden

The way in whichRandall, Claire, and everybody else shamed Addie in that weird prayer circle is still grating on me.

I mean, who the hell are they to judge a fantastic woman and mother like that?

But in an attempt to somehow make things right, even for a moment, I decide to surprise her with Danny Boy’s pizza.

Although she resisted my attempts at getting more security, she has since allowed me to hire someone to install more cameras. So with the assurance that her witch of a mother won’t be there, I know she’s been frequenting the subsidiary.

Not that I can blame her. But with Rosa’s changes done away with, the place feels like Salvador reincarnated into a building.

Heck, the last time I was there, I even caught whiffs of his Jo Malone cologne as it if it was pumping though the air vents or something.

After my driver drops me off, I nod at the receptionist behind the front desk as I head into the main office.

“Knock, knock,” I announce while simultaneously tapping my hand against the door.

She was staring at her computer screen, and the sound seemed to spook her a bit.

“Oh! Sorry, Hayden.”

“That’s okay. I’m sorry I scared you.”

“No, you didn’t.” Her elbows come up onto the desk, and she takes off the glasses that she describes as “readers.”

“I’ve never seen you with glasses on.”

While rubbing her eyes, she says, “Yeah, well. It’s hell to get old.”

I chuckle and then remember the piping hot food in my hands. “Anyway, I brought you some—”

“Hayden,” she mutters with a sigh.

---