Page 62 of Enemy Daddy Next Door

“Jeez, Amy. Looks sad.”

“Yeah, well, I feel sad.”

I can feel Gillian’s eyes on me, her head tilting to the side as she considers the best way to help me. I wish I was better at keeping things to myself. But the second Hunter told me we had to cool things down, I blabbered to Kira. And while Kira usually is the most locked lipped of us all, she texted all the rest of my sisters to let them know what was going on.

Now that they all know, I can feel their constant pity. Whether it’s in real life or in their “checking in” text messages. Dana sent me one every hour on the hour yesterday until I sent her a few angry faced emojis and wrote, “Stop asking!”

She did stop asking. But I probably also hurt her feelings a bit in the process.

“Stop looking at me like I’m a three-legged dog,” I grumble.

“Sorry, I don’t mean to be looking at you like…like that…” Gillian says, turning to look at the door as a customer walks inside and goes to meet Lola at the counter. “We’re just…we want to help, Amy.”

I don’t say anything, rubbing some of the graphite on the page with my pinky finger so it smudges into threatening fog.

“This is your first big thing, you know? And we all want it to work out the way you want it to. It just sucks that sometimes we don’t have control over how other people act or feel.”

I stop for a second, dropping my pencil. “Do you think he’s trying to let me down easy?”

Gillian hesitates. “I don’t know that for a fact, but –”

“God, is that what he’s doing?” I ask, voice quivering.

“I don’t think so, but –’

‘Because if that’s what he’s doing, I’ll die. I’ll just want to die,” I say and then burst into loud, tremendous tears. I push my hands over my face and weep.

“Oh, honey, okay…” Gillian rubs my back. I hear her whisper over her shoulder to Lola and the customer, “Boy troubles.”

Worse than boy troubles. Grown ass man with a child troubles. Grown ass man with a child and an ex-wife suing for custody troubles. I could go on and on. It only makes it sound worse.

“You let it all out…just cry it out.”

I haven’t really cried over it since it happened. A few tears shed while Hunter held my hands, telling me, “I’m not going away. This is just a bump in the road. I promise, I promise.”

I don’t believe in promises.

“Hunter is a good man. I know he is. And he cares for you. He will come back. He hasn’t even really gone away…”

“We don’t know that yet. He’s barely even sent a text to me since he – he –” I can’t get the words out through the sobs.

“He’ll come back.”

“People don’t come back, Gillian,” I snap suddenly, pulling away from her. “People never come back. You saw what happened with Mom.”

Gillian blinks. “I…alright. That’s different.”

“It’s not. That’s our mother, and she walked away. Hunter’s a guy I’ve been seeing for like a month!” It seems not only possible he’ll walk away. It seems likely.

Gillian grabs my hand tight. “Listen to me, Amy.”

I drag my eyes to meet hers.

“Hunter cares for you. I saw it in the way he looked at you the other night. I promise, it’s not something he can just walk away from. If he has a heart, which he must since he has a little girl who is so happy and sweet, then he has a heart for you.”

It feels like I’m talking to the old Gillian. The one before Stella came along who was so passionate about love, who believed it existed. When Stella was born, she became all consumed with that. I guess I can understand Hunter’s callous behavior when it comes to women, up until me. Gillian never even dated, never had the time.

Now that she and Axel have found their way to each other, the gleaming hope of true love and fairytales is back in her eyes.

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