Page 61 of Broken Grump

“Oh, God. Please, no. Hayden. That’s mortifying,” she pleads.

“No. That won’t be necessary.”

“Thank you.”

For the rest of the night, she allows the smallest of touches from me and even tolerates, at best, my playing with the ends of her hair.

But just before we’re about to say our goodbyes and conclude another puzzling evening spent with Randall, she peels away again.

“Just gotta make sure everything is okay.”

“Alright.”

***

After our dinner, we drive home through her car. Once we arrive, I get out with her, but see Lionel already pulled up.

I approach the black SUV to excuse him for the night.

“Sir? Are you sure?”

“Absolutely. I’ll just call an Uber home.”

Reluctantly, he nods and then pulls away.

“What was that for?” Addie asks as she watches him drive down the street.

I feel like a frog is in my throat as I timidly ask, “Well, I was wondering if it’d be okay for me to come in and see Luna?”

“Oh. Um . . .”

Sensing rejection on her end, I try to back myself out of the situation. “Actually, you know what?” Never mind. It was stupid. “I’ll just see you tomorrow at the subsidiary, yeah? We’ve got to brainstorm where the hell we need to go from here with Randall and this stupid agreement.”

My phone is already pulled out of my pocket, and I’m about to get the app up on the screen.

She comes a little closer and blocks it with her dainty hand. “What I was going to say is that she’s probably a sleep by now.”

“Right.” Then, I let out an uncomfortable chuckle. “I always forget how early kids go to sleep.”

“Yeah.”

A moment of silence falls upon us, and I notice she’s rubbing her arms, which must mean she’s cold.

“Can I actually ask you something?” I’ve been dying to know, and I figure I might as well ask now before I depart for the night.

“Okay?”

“Why’d you call the nanny twice tonight?”

“Oh.” She lets out a prolonged sigh. “I was wondering if you were going to catch onto that or not.”

How could I not?

“Listen, I just have a hard time trusting others around my kid. Usually, after school, she just comes to work with me. But since we had this dinner meeting, I had no choice but to leave her with someone else.”

“That makes sense.”

“Fine. If you really want to see her, you can. But you have to promise to be quiet.”

---