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I get to my car, sit down, and start the thing up, but I can’t bring myself to drive. I stare at the space in front of me, the nothingness of the gray wall.
Images of Natasha and Henry swim through my memory, and my gut tightens. I close my eyes, trying to get out of my head, but the anger flares too brightly.
How could I not have seen it? How did I not know?
Screaming into the silence of the cab, I punch the steering wheel until my fist aches. I can’t lose everything I’ve worked for because Natasha is a gold digger. I won’t lose Elijah to her.
The outburst seems to cool my nerves enough to drive home, so I put on one of my favorite playlists and take the now familiar route from the law offices back home.
When I reach my garage, pulling inside slowly and taking another moment in the silence to collect myself, I can hear laughter from inside the house—Elijah’s and Liv’s.
Refusing to bring this home to him, I do my best to shake it off and put on a happy face for my son. I can’t tarnish his enjoyment with all this shit.
Grabbing my briefcase, I step out of the car and open the door that leads to the kitchen. I’m a little surprised to see the two of them down in the adjoining living room and not up in Elijah’s room, but the sight makes me undeniably happy.
They’re playing some dance game in front of the TV, and as I look to the kitchen, setting down my stuff, I can see that, yet again, Liv has made time to clean, cook, and play. She’s like a genie or something.
My mind flashes to Liv in the outfit sported on I Dream of Jeannie, and it’s positively sinful.
Being as quiet as I can, not wanting to disturb their fun, I sneak up behind them, waiting for a pause while standing behind the couch. As their song comes to a close, I start applauding.
“Well done. You two have some serious moves.”
Elijah is the first to spin around and leaps over the couch to tackle me in a hug. I barely keep my footing, and Liv laughs from her spot in front of the motion-tracking camera.
“I’ll admit, I like this one a bit less than the shooter from before. Way more jumping.”
She’s out of breath, a light sheen of sweat dotting her brow, and again my mind goes to unhelpful places.
“Dad! This one is hard. We’ve been trying to get higher than a sixty percent for, like, hours!” He laughs through his words, and as much as I hate the idea of him playing for that long, I can’t be mad.
“It hasn’t been that long.” Liv glances at the clock. “Oh, well, it has been a bit, and you know what that means, Master Steele. Bedtime.”
“Master Steele?” I quirk an eyebrow at her.
“The family I worked for in Ireland liked to embrace some of the traditional ‘lordly’ mannerisms, and the young man of the house was always referred to as master.”
“She’s been telling me all sorts of cool stuff about Ireland. I want to go! Apparently, they have a huge cliff thingie, and it sounds neat.” Elijah looks back at her. “Didn’t you say it was in a movie?”
Liv smiles. “It’s been in a lot of movies, but the one I told you was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”
“See, Dad. Isn’t that cool?” He looks up at me with awe in his sweet eyes.
“So cool. And it’s still time for bed. Let’s go.”
“Aw, man.”
He doesn’t kick his feet too much, and after another very funny story recital with Liv, we tuck Elijah in, and I escort her back downstairs.
When we reach the kitchen, I can tell that Liv is doing her best to maintain a safe distance.
“Dinner is in the microwave. If you want to just toss your dirty dishes in the dishwasher and hit start, it’s good to go.”
I nod with a tight-lipped smile. Truthfully, I’m fucking exhausted from dealing with Natasha, and Liv and I both agreed we were done with messing around.
“Thanks.” I plop down in the chair closest to me, not feeling particularly hungry.
“Rough day?” Liv walks up next to me, not too close, and leans on the counter.
