“I’m not looking to make a big production out of this, Laura.”
“And I’m not saying you should. Just think about it. In these situations, it’s better to offer an explanation instead of staying silent and letting the press run wild with it. And after last night’s photos, trust me, they will run wild with it.”
“Which reminds me,” I started, something heavy taking residence in my stomach. “I want Aiden’s photos off the Internet, and I need the names of those photographers. They knew what they were doing was illegal. It shouldn’t have happened.”
She sighed, the sound making me even more agitated. “You’re right, it is illegal, but it’s hard to implement the law. I’ll have my investigator try and get the names of the photographers, but you know they protect each other. It’ll be a long shot.”
“I still want you to try.”
“Of course I will. We’ll talk again.”
She ended the call. With the phone still in my hand, I walked out to the patio and called Adeline. Again. The night before when Dan had come back from Adeline’s place without Aiden and let me know that she had left the city with him, without giving me any notice even though she knew it was my day to take him, I’d called her repeatedly until she answered her phone. It hadn’t been a fun phone conversation. When she tried to explain to me why she’d had to take him with her, I was speechless.
She answered the call on the fifth ring. “Adam. Hello.”
“Adeline. Where are you?”
“We just landed at LAX.”
“Are you heading home? I’ll send Dan to get Aiden. Then you and me…we need to talk.”
“Adam.” She sighed. “I know I messed up. You have every right to be mad at me, but I’m perfectly capable of dropping Aiden off myself.”
“And I’m telling you, you don’t have to.”
“I want to, Adam. Please give me a chance to explain. I want to apologize to you face to face, and I think it’ll be good for Aiden to see us together.”
I didn’t want her apology, and I didn’t want to see her, especially after seeing the photos of Aiden crying as he stood in the middle of a paparazzi frenzy. As far as I was concerned, we were done. In every way.
After I ended my conversation with Adeline, I had another talk with my new PR team and set up everything that needed to be dealt with. As much as I wanted to keep everything private and didn’t agree with my lawyer, I knew it would spill out; at least this way I’d have control over how much and what had to spill.
An hour later, Adeline walked in holding Aiden’s hand. The night before when I’d called Adeline, she’d said he was tuckered out and sleeping, so I couldn’t talk to him about what had happened and how he was doing.
Every time I dropped him off at Adeline’s place, he’d get quiet and look at me as if I was betraying him. The look he was giving me when he walked in was the exact same look and it pierced something in my chest.
Not knowing what I was dealing with, I knelt in front of him to get a hug. He was having none of it. He stood completely immobile against me as I rounded my arms around him.
With my arms still around Aiden, I glanced up at Adeline. She pursed her lips and mouthed a quick sorry.
I sighed and let go of my son.
“Hey, buddy. I missed you.”
He muttered a low hi under his breath.
“Did you have fun in New York with your mom?”
Another non-answer in the form of a mumble.
“Aiden,” Adeline murmured gently as she let go of his hand and fixed his hair. “Can you give your dad and me a few minutes?”
“Okay.”
Without meeting my eyes, he skirted around me and headed toward his room, only to stop midway.
His eyes met mine fleetingly as I slowly rose up. “I’ve been good, so can I ask for something?”
“Of course,” I answered. He’d get pretty much whatever he wanted from me at that moment if it meant he’d look me in the eye.
“Can I ask for Lucy?”
“He’s been asking for her ever since we landed,” Adeline added.
Of course he’d ask for Lucy. I’d want her too if I were him. Matter of fact, I wanted her too. That was another matter I hadn’t had time to handle…not that you could ever make the mistake of trying to ‘handle’ Lucy, but we needed to talk about that kiss. As much as it made me sound like a pussy, after the night before…we needed to talk, and after that, I needed to kiss her again—most likely to shut her up.
“We can call her, buddy, but I don’t know if she’s busy.”
“Can we call her now? If we call her now, we can ask her if she missed me. ’Cause if she did, she’ll come for me, I know it.”
I faced Adeline. “Can you wait while I call her?”
“Of course, Adam,” she replied with a gentle smile, touching my arm for a brief moment before heading toward the living room as I reached for my phone.
Aiden took a few small steps toward me, but he was still being distant. I hoped seeing Lucy would help. I dialed her number, and she answered on the third ring.
Her opening line was, “Are you calling to get a few pointers?”
Who knew what she was talking about. “Pointers on what?”
“Kissing, of course. I mean, you weren’t the worst, I guess, but…I don’t know, I think you could use a few pointers, and if I think that, that means you can really use a few pointers.”
Even though Adeline was sitting just a few feet away and Aiden was looking at me with hopeful eyes, my lips twitched.
“Because you’ve done such a good job of it yourself?”
There was a short moment of silence. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m just saying, I happen to think you could use a few pointers yourself. I don’t want to break your heart, but…”
When she spoke her voice was high-pitched. “But…? But what?”
“I’m afraid this is not a good time. We’ll have to discuss it some other time.”
She growled. “I’m the best kisser you could’ve ever had, you asshole.”
“If you say so, Lucy.”
“If I say so? If I say so? Who do you even think you are?”
The small twitch turned into a full smile. If she had been standing next to me, I would have loved to show her who I was, but unfortunately for us, she wasn’t. Instead, my son was pulling on my shirt, trying to get my attention.
“Can I talk to her? I think she missed me. I think I should be the one to talk to her.”
I nodded at Aiden and held up my finger.
“There is someone here who wants to talk to you, Lucy. Do you have a moment?”
“Now you ask me if I have a moment? After you ruined my afternoon? And who wants to talk? Is it Dan? I just talked to him this morning.”
She was talking to Dan? The question came to the tip of my tongue, but I held it back.
“No, not Dan,” I said curtly. Without any further explanation, I handed the phone to Aiden.
“Don’t push her, okay?” I said gently. “If she is busy, you can always see her some other time.”
“Hello? Lucy? Is it you?” He held the phone with both hands and focused his gaze on his shoes. “I’m Aiden. Do you remember me?”
I glanced at Adeline to see what she was doing and found her eyes on us. She gave a small nod and looked away. Having her in my house felt strange, like she didn’t belong in my life. So much had changed in so little time.