“I don’t know,” he huffs “maybe because you care,” and all I can do is gawk at the phone.
“You made me think I was the other woman,” I hiss at him. “Do you know how bad I felt?”
“I’m sorry, I never meant for you to feel that.” His voice is so soft and sounds so sincere, I have to close my eyes before I do something stupid like ask him to come over. “Go out with me on a date. I want to date you, Addison. Like a real date. Like a woman and a man go out together, even though they already have a child.”
“No.” I shake my head.
“Okay, fine,” he sighs. “I would like to have you and Avery over for lunch tomorrow.” I’m about to say no to that also, but then his voice catches me off guard. “I want to show you and Avery the house.”
“Fine,” I finally give in. “But just a visit.”
“Fine,” he relents, “for now.” I can’t help the smile that fills my face, and I’m happy he can’t see it. “I’ll text you the address. Come over as soon as you guys wake up and we can make breakfast together.” I just nod my head. “I’ll see you tomorrow, bright and early,” he says, his voice sounding like he’s smiling. “What time does she usually get up?”
“Depends. It could be six a.m., or it could be nine. It’s Russian roulette on the weekend,” I tell him. “I’ll text you when she wakes up.”
“Sounds good,” he says and I’m about to hang up. “Sweet dreams.” His voice dips right before he hangs up.
I stare down at the phone, my head once again spinning because of him. “He broke up with his girlfriend,” I tell my dark room as I put the phone down on the side table. Getting back into bed, I quickly fall asleep. When I feel little fingers on my face, my eyes flicker open, but then I jump when Avery just stares at me, scaring the shit out of me.
“Morning, Mom,” she says, as if I didn’t almost have a heart attack. “I’m hungry.”
“What time is it?” I mumble as I turn over and grab my phone, seeing it’s seven thirty. I also see Stefano has already texted me.
I’m up.
I check the time stamp and see it was at 7:00 a.m. I wonder if he set the alarm or just woke up. I see another one from six minutes ago.
I forgot to give you my address.
I stretch out and then reply to him.
Just got up, give us thirty.
I’ll be here waiting for you guys.
I look over at Avery. “Let’s get dressed and go for breakfast,” I tell her and her eyes open big. She jumps out of bed and rushes to her room to get dressed and then comes to find me in the bathroom while I brush my teeth.
I toss on a pair of beige linen shorts and a white spaghetti-strap top. I’m lucky that before my parents cut me off I was always shopping and buying clothes. Sure, the clothes are somewhat outdated, but some pieces are still good. Avery opts for a princess shirt with matching shorts that Vivienne sent to her last week. I draw the line when she walks out with her tiara on her head. “Is today a special day?”
“Not today,” I inform her, and she pouts. “But you can wear it all day once we get home.” Which seems to satisfy her. We walk out of the house and I punch in the address, and when we turn onto his street, I know all of a sudden, we are in a different tax bracket. I know because I grew up in a similar house, maybe a touch bigger. But definitely in a neighborhood where we knew everyone had money.
My eyes almost pop out of my head when the GPS tells me I have reached my destination. I’m about to tap the phone, thinking there is a mistake, but the front door opens and Stefano steps out onto the porch. He’s wearing blue shorts with a matching blue shirt. He walks down the steps with no shoes on, coming to my car. “This house is a mansion.” I gasp, right before he opens the back door.
“Hi,” he says, bending to kiss her neck as he unbuckles her seat belt. “Good morning.” He kisses her again. “I just put bacon and sausage in the oven.”
“I like pancakes,” Avery says to him as she gets out, and he picks her up to carry her. I slowly get out of the car, trying not to freak out at how huge this house is. “Whose house is this?” I hear Avery ask him as he walks up the stairs. “You live in a mansion.” He just chuckles at her.
“No, I don’t,” he denies as he opens the front door and then places her down on her feet before turning to wait for me.
“That’s what Momma said.” She throws me under the bus, and I gasp.
“I did not.” I try to lie, but my daughter is shaking her head.
“She did.” She points at me, then turns around. “This is nice.”
“If you want, you can go upstairs and see if you can find the room I made for you,” he suggests as I
step in. A spiral staircase sits in the middle of the house, and I about groan, of course it comes with a spiral staircase. “Be careful,” he warns her as she walks up the stairs.
He turns to look at me when she gets to the top and turns to walk toward an open door. “Hi,” he repeats to me, closing the distance between us before he wraps an arm around my waist, pulling me even closer to him. My heart starts to speed up. “Thanks for coming.” Every single word that I’ve ever learned is thrown out the window. I have no vocabulary in my body, none. “We have to talk. We do.” I don’t know if he’s asking me or telling me.
“We do?” I say and then I’m interrupted when I hear Avery squealing and then running to the railing.
“There is a princess bed!” she shouts, looking through the spindles. “It’s a big princess bed with a dresser and everything.” She looks at Stefano. “Can I play with the toys?”
“You can do what you want. It’s yours,” he replies, and she squeals right before she runs back into the room.
“Come and have some coffee. We can talk before she comes back downstairs.” He drops his arm around my waist and slips his hand into mine. “I’ll give you the tour after,” he tells me as we walk past what looks like an office, and on the other side, I think, is a dining room, but all there is are hanging lights with no table.
I stop in my tracks when we walk into the kitchen that has a little table off to the side, but there is a huge island in the middle of the room with six stools tucked under. But it’s the attached family room that makes my feet stop. It’s what I always thought my family room would look like. It’s what I’ve always dreamed my family room would look like. Definitely not like the family room I grew up in, where everything had a place, and you were afraid to touch anything. Where pictures were displayed because of who was in the pictures and not because it was a nice picture. No, this room is where you know it’s okay to curl up on the couch. Where you can sit and have a movie night with throw blankets.
Where you can lie down and take a little nap.
A huge couch sits in the room that can seat a lot of people, with a big square table in the middle facing a fireplace. A big-screen television is hanging above it. “This is—” I start to say as he lets go of my hand and walks into the kitchen. “This is perfect,” I tell him softly before I smell the coffee, turning to watch him put another pod in the coffee maker.
“Where do you want to sit?” he asks me, grabbing the milk from the fridge and pouring a bit in each cup.
“The couch, if it’s okay,” I say, trying to hide how badly I want to sit down and curl my feet under myself.
He walks toward the couch with both cups of coffee and waits for me to follow him before he hands me a cup and I sit down, but not the way I want. I take a sip while Stefano faces me. “Do you know what I do for work?” he asks.
“I don’t.” I just look at him, placing the cup of coffee on the big wooden table. I look for coasters
in the middle, where a big square tray holds remotes and a notepad, but nothing else.
“I’m a forensic accountant,” he says, putting his own cup on the table, so I don’t feel as bad.
“What does that mean?” I tilt my head to the side and he leans back onto the couch.