“Fine,” she huffed, and brought the tip of the pen back to the agreement.
She scratched out the word “hours” and changed it to “days.” I didn’t argue, because I had full intention of coming back when she wasn’t looking to change “days” to “years,” just to see how long it’d take her to notice.
“I guess I should print a new one since you went and marked this one up,” I joked. “Keep adding things and we’ll have to put it in a binder instead of stuck to the fridge. I doubt a magnet would hold that much paper.”
“That’s why I call it the disagreement, but you refuse to add the ‘dis’ to it.”
She elbowed me, and like every other time she’d hit me in jest, she chose the right side. I couldn’t figure it out. Anytime I’d touch her, it was nice and gentle, yet she seemed to aim for the one bruise I had on my entire body.
“Oh my God, I did it again.” She turned to face me and immediately started to pat my chest and arm, as if that would make the ache in my ribs go away. But I could tell she had no clue what to do, and this was her way of comforting me—treating me like a dog.
“It’s fine. I’ll eventually learn to keep three feet between us at all times.”
“Here, let me get some ice.”
I grabbed her arm to stop her from pulling the freezer drawer open. “Really, I’m fine. I need to take a shower anyway, so I’ll ice it when I get out.”
She nodded but remained silent while I held my side and headed back to my room.
After the day I’d had, the hot water felt amazing. I wasn’t sure if it was that or knowing Jade had no intention of moving out anytime soon, but it was as though the tension I’d carried with me since last weekend swirled down the drain, leaving me feeling refreshed when I stepped out. I’d contemplated putting on a shirt, but after Jade jabbed me in the ribs with her elbow, I didn’t care to deal with one. I would just take it off before I went to bed, so I didn’t see the point in making the pain worse, just to do it all over again in a few hours when it was time to take it off.
To my surprise, Jade had taken her shower, too. When I stepped out of my room, I found her in the kitchen with her wet hair twisted into a tight bun and wearing the shirt I’d bought for her earlier today. She wrapped ice in a towel, just like our first night in the house together, and joined me on the couch.
“Nice shirt.” I wagged my brows, pulling a soft giggle and eye roll from her.
“I put on sleep shorts beneath it for double protection. Wouldn’t want you to see my panties this time.”
“Fuck,” I blurted out, catching her by surprise.
She froze and panic colored her expression. “What?”
“You said panties, so I said fuck.”
Realizing what I meant, she relaxed into the cushion again and shook her head. “That’s not how that works. Saying one doesn’t give you permission to shout the other.”
I rested my right arm over her shoulder to give her room to hold the ice pack to my ribs. I wasn’t sure if she intended to do that or if she’d brought it over so I could hold it there myself, but I didn’t give her an option. “I figured if you broke a rule, it’s only right to break the same one so you don’t feel like such a criminal.”
“How gracious of you.”
“I do what I can.” Our gazes met, and for some reason, I couldn’t look away. Finally, she glanced down at the ice pack in her hand, and it was enough to break the spell. “Speaking of underwear, how’d Aria do? She didn’t make a mess out here.”
“As much as it pains me to admit this, she did well. After dinner, when I took her to take a bath, she was dry. She took off her clothes and sat on the chair and went…all by herself. I didn’t even prod her to do it.”
“See? Parenting magazines have all the answers.”
“I love how you just jump in and play the part with complete modesty.”
“Thank you. I try.” With the TV off, I almost felt pressured to talk, to keep the conversation going, even though I wasn’t sure what to say. “I can’t imagine what it’s been like for you, having to do it all alone. Her father never helped at all?”
Jade grew tense, but I didn’t push. I simply waited her out, observing her reaction. She blinked a few times, swallowed harshly, and fought to control her breathing while never pulling her attention away from the towel in her hand. To anyone else, it was a simple yes-or-no question. But to Jade, that answer came with memories and heartache, the kind of pain I wished for nothing more than to take away.
“No. He, um…he didn’t do anything. He’s never even held her, which I’m okay with. I’m actually happy about it. I didn’t want him anywhere near her—still don’t.”
I was about to ask another question, curious as to how he’d managed to have nothing to do with his own daughter. But I stopped short when I noticed the tears streaming down her cheeks. Rather than make things worse, I used the arm I had draped over her shoulder to tug her against me. It was an awkward embrace with the way she sat on the cushion facing me and the ice pack between us, but she adjusted just enough to tuck herself into my side.
“Why are you crying? He sounds like a loser, anyway. You’re free of him, so there’s no need to cry. Aria is better off without him. She has you, and that’s all she needs.” I tried to comfort her the best way I knew how, but this was foreign to me. Even during my marriage, there weren’t many times I had to console Colleen—probably because I wasn’t home enough to do so.
She sniffled and pulled back just enough to sit comfortably and hold a conversation. “When I was younger, I had this picture in my mind of what my future would look like,” she said quietly, wiping her face with the back of her hand. “There was me, my husband, and our kids. I mean, the faces of them were blurry because I obviously didn’t know who they’d turn out to be. Sometimes my husband was a boy I liked in class, and other times he was a celebrity. But no matter who he was in my fantasies, he loved me and our kids. He was the kind of father mine was before he died.”
Up until this very second, I’d always believed you could find out more about a person from a thorough background check than you could from conversations with them. But listening to Jade open up about her childhood dreams of love and family, I no longer believed that to be true. She held more information in a single tear than any report I could’ve pulled on her.