Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
“Of letting her in?”
Turning to face him, I replied, “Of loving her more than I loved Lisa…then hurting her because I’m not sure I can let her in. I don’t want to risk making things bad between us, enough that she leaves Hadley. It would destroy her. She loves Emma.”
Dalton sighed. “I’ve told you before, you need to let the guilt go, Aiden. So you slept with Nancy. Big deal. You weren’t carrying on an affair with her, and you didn’t sleep with her while you and Lisa were still together, and only did it once. You were not cheating. God, Lisa was the one seeing another man. Before the cancer, she was ready to run off with him to California and leave you and Hadley behind. Are you forgetting that?”
My head dropped.
He put his hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Don’t be afraid of the feelings you have for Emma. Be honest with her, she needs that. She deserves that. Even if you decide not to tell her how you feel, why can’t you be friends? Stop saying she’s the nanny, and say she’s a friend who’s working for you, a friend who’s helping both you and Hadley. Stop trying to put this label on her in order to hide how you feel.”
I didn’t reply, but I let his words sink in.
Dalton put his truck in drive and took me home. The only thing I remembered after that was crawling into bed before I passed out.
It felt like I had barely closed my eyes when I heard the sound of my daughter’s laughter ring through the house.
Hadley was home.
“Crap,” I mumbled as I climbed out of bed. The pounding in my head felt like a jackhammer. Quickly getting dressed in sweats and a T-shirt, I made my way to the kitchen.
“Daddy! Grams said we couldn’t wake you up.”
“Why not?” I asked, looking at my mother for the answer.
“I wasn’t sure how late you were out last night.”
Hadley gasped. “You go on a date, Daddy?”
“No,” I replied quickly.
My mother furrowed her brows, then turned back to Hadley. “Why don’t you run your bag up to your room, sweetheart, before the waffles are done.”
“Okay!” Hadley said, grabbing her overnight bag and rushing up the steps.
I knew what my mother was doing, and I decided to put a stop to it before she even opened her mouth.
“Nothing happened. She’s the nanny.” I flinched as Dalton’s words came back to me. “She’s just a friend, and that’s all she’ll ever be, so don’t even go there, Mom. I’m not the least bit interested in her that way.”
Pulling out the orange juice, I grabbed a cup from the cabinet and poured a glass. I glanced up and saw my mother staring at me. Except…she wasn’t really staring at me. More like past me.
Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Emma standing there.
My chest grew heavy, like someone had just dropped a fifty-pound weight onto my body.
Emma forced a wobbly smile as she walked in and set a piece of paper down on the island. “Excuse me. Here’s the recipe you asked for, Patty. I’ll leave y’all be.”
I stood there like an idiot, not saying a word as I watched Emma walk away. The door closed quietly, just like it had last night. I closed my eyes and cursed myself.
“At no time did I think you and Emma had slept together last night. I honestly just wasn’t sure what time you got home. Emma said you went out last night, and she heard a car pull in late. I assumed you needed a ride home, since your truck isn’t here. That led me to conclude you got drunk. That’s why I told your daughter we couldn’t wake you up.”
Placing my hands on the counter, I had to control the urge to throw up.
“Now, I don’t know what you did to her, but Emma wasn’t herself this morning. She said she was going to do some hiking today to clear her mind.”
“Hiking? Alone?”
“Yes. I asked her not to go by herself, but she insisted it would be fine. I saw something in her eyes, Aiden. Pain, maybe. I don’t know…but that comment you just made leads me to believe something almost happened between the two of you.”
“No, nothing happened.”
Her brow lifted. “Did you say something to her?”
Hadley raced back into the kitchen right as I heard Emma pulling out of the driveway. A part of me wanted to rush outside and stop her. Ask her to come in and have breakfast with us, but another part of me said I needed to let her go.
“Lines were blurred last night, but I handled it.”
“Is that so? Who was blurred? You? Her?”
“What does that mean?” Hadley asked.
I ruffled her hair and grinned. “Nothing. How about you and me spend the day together horseback riding.”