“Apparently,” I say, correcting her. “Seems our divorce never went through. We just have to wait out a couple of months and then she’ll be free of me.”
“Oh, nonsense. That young woman is madly in love with you, just you wait and see.” I would love to agree with her, but something tells me that Whiskey will keep me at arm’s length for the entire ninety days.
“I need to leave town for a few days, but I want to know if I can rent my room until the divorce is final. Judge Harvey is forcing Jamie and I to spend time together.”
“He always was a sneaky bastard,” she says, causing me to laugh.
“I agree, Mrs. B.”
“Your room will always be here, Ajay. Don’t you worry. But I have a feeling you’ll be moving in with Jameson and Evelyn before too long.”
“Evelyn?” I ask as I try to run through the names of her family members and friends that I can remember.
Mrs. Buxley sets her hand on my forearm. “It’s best she tells you about Evelyn.” She walks off, leaving me confused. At this point Whiskey would rather eat rat poison than tell me anything.
16
Jamie
As much as I don’t want to admit it, I’ve missed Ajay. It had taken me years to forget him, although I never really forgot, I just pushed him aside as a part of my life that didn’t work out. Once I had Evelyn, she became the only person who dominated my thoughts. And now, as I sit at my desk, watching Ajay through the security camera, I’m wishing he would turn around so I can see him one more time before leaves. He says he’s coming back, but he said that before and it’s taken him almost eight years to make good on his word… and he really only did so because my father arrested him.
As if he knows I’m thinking of him, his face lights up on my phone. I groan as the device vibrates, moving slowly across my desk as a result. I choose not to answer. I know he has Evelyn today but the conversation we need to have has to happen face-to-face. Even my father knows this.
I shut off my monitor, gather my things and head toward the kitchen to let the guys know I’ll be back later. Being the manager has its perks. I can come and go as I please. The downside is that in a small town like Bailey, employees are limited so when someone calls in sick or needs a day off, I am usually the one to cover. For the most part, I don’t care, but sometimes the hours can be a bit too much, especially for Evelyn.
The drive over to my parents is about fifteen minutes from the bar. They live close to the ocean on the outskirts of town, while Evelyn and I live in town near her school, the park and our small downtown. I enjoy being part of the community and want Evelyn to grow up surrounded by these people. My little spitfire of a daughter is loved by all around here.
“Mommy!” she screams as soon as I get out of my car. She runs toward me, launching herself into my arms. I hold her tight to my body. “I missed you,” she tells me even though she’s only been at school for half a day today.
“I miss you always. How was school?” I set her down but grab her hand as we walk toward the front door. My dad is standing there, leaning against the doorjamb. I can’t look at him out of fear that I’ll lash out in front of my daughter. She doesn’t need to hear me say things to her grandfather, at least not the kind of words that I’m holding back.
“School was boring,” Evelyn sighs heavily. “No recess and I had to do spelling.”
“Do we have words to work on?”
She nods and skips over a hole that’s likely a result of my parents’ dog doing some digging. “Ten of them. But I already know them.”
“Of course you do, because you’re so smart.”
We climb the steps leading to the wide wraparound porch. This was a must have for my mom who loves sitting out here to watch the sunrise and listen to the ocean as the waves lap against the shore.
Dad steps out onto the porch and picks Evelyn up. He whispers something in her ear to make her giggle and when he sets her down, she’s off and running. He must know that we need to talk and that it’s going to get ugly. I decide to sit on the steps, as doing so gives me a clear shot at my car if I need to make a quick escape because right now, I feel like running. Running to find Ajay. Running away from life. Just running, never stopping, and never looking back.
He sits next me and lets out an audible sigh. “Jameson—”
“Unless the next thing out of your mouth is ‘I’m sorry for putting my nose in your business’, don’t say anything.”
He sighs again. “I am sorry. I just wanted to scare him. I had no idea Harvey would pull this shit.”
“Really?” I ask, looking at my dad. “Did you really not know? Because I’m having a hard time believing that. At what point did you think arresting Ajay would be a good idea?”
He doesn’t answer. He doesn’t even look at me.
“You have no idea what you’ve done,” I say to him. “Things are good here for Evelyn and me, and now… now I’m forced to spend time with Ajay all because you have a vendetta against him. I accepted that things between us were over a long time ago. I grew up. I became a mother. Ajay’s doing his thing – and we shouldn’t begrudge his happiness or success - yet, here you are interfering with his life. He made a choice, one that I found a way to make peace with, and you need to as well. You don’t act like this with Evelyn’s father and what he did was far worse.”
“At least he pays child support.”