Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 99434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
I rubbed the back of it and watched the two of them interact. It took a minute or two for Ella to even notice someone else was in the room. She crinkled up her little nose at me, but smiled. “Did you have a sleepover?”
“We did.” I tapped a finger to her nose. “But you fell asleep for it.”
She giggled. “Is Mommy still in the hospital?”
“She is, sweetheart.”
“Is she getting fixed?”
My eyes flashed to Paula. “Yeah. She’s getting fixed.”
“Are you going to stay with me until Mommy comes home?”
“I was planning on it. I thought maybe you could come stay at my house one night.” I leaned forward and whispered in her ear. “I have a dog.”
Her eyes widened. “Can we go now? Can we go now? Please?”
“I need to do a few things. But we can go later. How does that sound?”
Paula took Ella into the kitchen to help her make breakfast, and I used the time to rearrange some meetings I had scheduled for the day. When I went to check on how things were going, Paula offered me coffee.
The two of us spoke quietly on the side while Ella was busy stirring the pancake batter.
“Max has had a few overnight stays in the last year. She doesn’t usually let Ella visit her. She thought it was too hard to see her with all the needles and monitors attached. Of course, I’m not telling you what to do. But I figured you might want to know what Ella expects.”
“Wow. Okay. That’s great. Thank you. She took it pretty hard at the hospital last night. I assumed I should bring her up to visit today. But I was worried it would be tough again for her. Max is intubated.” I looked over at Ella and sipped my coffee. “She seems a lot better this morning, but I’m probably better off not bringing her then.”
“I’m here all day. You can just go about your regular day, if you’d like. If you stop up to see Max, please give her my best.”
Breakfast with Paula and Ella set my mind even more at ease. They had a routine that included Ella standing on a stool and rinsing the plates. I could tell she was crazy about Paula. When the appointment I’d called earlier to cancel called me back, I decided to push it a little later in the afternoon rather than cancel it all together. Ella had her schedule, and I was going to need to learn how to balance shit at some point anyway. Plus, the hospital was near the appointment, so I could check on things with Max beforehand.
***
That night, I poured a glass of scotch and leaned back into the couch. Ella had finally fallen asleep, and I was wiped out. Single parenting was definitely not an easy fucking job.
I’d had two meetings today, stopped into my office to do a few hours of paperwork, visited Max and talked to her doctors, gone back to Brooklyn to pack up Ella’s stuff and bring her to my place, then cooked us some dinner and played with her and Freckles until she started yawning.
At that point, my dog and his trusty shoe had abandoned me. I couldn’t get him to leave the foot of the bed in the guest room where Ella was staying. Couldn’t blame him, I guess. Lately he’d spent more time with the kid downstairs I’d hired to walk him than he spent with me. Plus, Ella was a hell of a lot more excited to roll around on the floor and let him lick her face than I felt by eight thirty.
I took a few gulps from my glass and picked up my cell. Layla and I had exchanged a few texts during the day, but I needed to hear her voice.
She answered on the third ring. “Hey. Can you give me just a second? I have someone in my office.”
I looked at my watch. Nine o’clock. “You’re still at work?”
“Yep. Give me a minute. I’ll be right back.”
I heard voices through the muffled receiver, and right before she came back on the line, she must’ve uncovered it, because I heard a woman’s voice say, “If you change your mind, you know where we’ll be.”
“Thanks, Maryanne.”
She came back on the line. “Sorry. Some of the associates are going out for drinks, and a friend of mine was trying to drag me along.”
It reminded me yet again how different her life would be with me now. Even though I hated the thought of her beautiful ass sitting without me in a bar, I couldn’t be a dick.
“Why don’t you go? Whatever you haven’t gotten done at the office by now can wait until tomorrow.”
She sighed. “I suppose. But I’m tired, too. I was actually looking forward to going home and taking a bath. I didn’t sleep so well when I got home last night, so I came into the office at the crack of dawn to catch up.”