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Nicole Rudder: They better not be. There’s a kid in that house.
The next morning,I woke up with the feeling of regret sitting on my chest. I didn’t know why I had gone out there to talk to her. I didn’t know why she’d responded to a wordI’d said. But it was nice talking to an adult that didn’t have a hand in raising me.
Andnicedidn’t usually stick around.
She’d disappeared while I explained what had happened with Waldren to Eric, and I’d been grateful. I would never lie to him, but telling him who the man claimed to be and why he was there was hard. I knew he was aware that I wasn’t his biological dad on a base level, but hearing about the man who claimed to be was different.
In another world, if Waldren hadn’t demanded to take him, I might have worked with him. I would love for Eric to have more family. But the way he’d spoken about Olivia, and to Mollie, had told me what kind of person he was. And I’d be damned if that kind of man set foot anywhere near Eric.
He had stuck close until he went to bed. When he was finally ready to fall asleep, he’d insisted that I sit in his room on his too-small bed until he was out.
I’d scheduled a DNA test with the state out of an abundance of caution, so we would do that as soon as possible. Then I’d gotten up.
And that was when I had found Mollie outside.
Now, I wasn’t sure what to think about things between us. Twenty-four hours ago, she was the bane of my existence, but now Waldren was.
When I got up to check on the animals, she wasn’t waiting for me. I got peace and quiet as I did my normal routine. She was nowhere to be found when I made Eric breakfast. Her car was still outside, but she had seemingly vanished from my life.
I should have been relieved, but I needed to know if we still hated each other or not. I wasn’t sure why, but I did.
By the time I had gotten Eric to school, I’d thought way too much about the woman sharing my house with me. The onlydistraction I had was when he looked at me as he fidgeted with his shirt and asked me to walk him in.
There was no way I was saying no to that face, no matter how miserable it made me.
“Mr. Smith,” Nicole started. “I was hoping to see you.”
“You were?”
She nodded, but there wasn’t a smile on her face like there was with other parents. “I heard about your houseguest—” Son of a bitch. “And I’m concerned it’s going to affect Eric at home.”
“Mollie has nothing to do with Eric.”
“But do you and her argue? Conflict at home can stunt a child’s growth.”
“It’s not gonna,” I said firmly.
“I know you have to be unhappy about this situation, and we all know how you can be when you’re unhappy. How can I trust you to make good decisions when you live with a person you don’t like? It didn’t go well the first time.”
I gritted my teeth. She wasn’t wrong that I hadn’t handled it well in the past, but I was a grown man now. A changed man. Someone who could take a comment like that andnotget defensive. Besides, Eric already had issues with Waldren coming into his life. He didn’t need to see mine with Mollie too.
“Mollie and Eric get along great, actually,” I said in a low voice. “So she won’t be a problem for him. As far as what she and I have issues with ... We’ll just have to discuss that when he’s not around.”
Nicole’s eyebrows rose as if she were surprised I’d agreed to anything she’d said. “I’m glad you see it that way, Mr. Smith.”
I nodded and walked out of the room without another word, more than ready to get into the truck.
But then I heard heels clicking, and a far-too-familiar voice called, “Cain, wait up!”
Shit.Kerry. It was tempting to keep walking.
“Yes?” I asked.
She stopped in front of me. “Why do you walk so fast?”
Because I don’t wanna be here.Besides, Mollie had no issues keeping up with me. “Because I’m walking all the time. What do you need?”
“I heard what you said to Nicole. Very good parenting.” Was that a compliment, or was that her talking down to me? Probably the latter. “But is it really bad with Mollie? I heard she was super sweet.”