Just like me.
“I think I’ll go in the garage,” I said and pointed at the door.
That made my grandmother laugh again—a laugh that soon turned into a rough cough. I smiled and wondered how long we would still have her around. I hoped it was many years more. I wanted to get to know her better.
Barely had I opened the door to the garage before there was a knock on our front door. I walked to open it, then froze to ice as I did.
Outside stood a woman in yoga pants and a pink running top.
“K-Kim?”
“Can I see him?” she asked, tears springing to her eyes. “I really want to see him.”
Chapter 54
Lily couldn’t get her arms down. She had just hung up with her agent, who told her she would go on tour as soon as her album was released. The record company was so impressed with her work that they wanted to roll out the big PR machine and make a star of her. She had everything, they told her. The voice, the right music, and she was commercial, which her agent said meant she was pretty.
Now, she was standing in her living room, holding the phone in her hands, still staring at the display, heart thumping happily in her chest, unable to know whether to scream in joy or dance around or maybe cry.
She felt like doing all of it at once.
“They like it; they really like it,” she said into the room that suddenly felt too empty. She realized she had no one to share the good news with. She was all alone.
What about Peter? You could call him and let him know?
She thought it over and then found him in her contacts, but she regretted it as she was about to press call. She had broken up with him because she didn’t want him to hold her back. If she brought him into her life again, she would end up hurting him. She wouldn’t be able to bear that. Breaking up with him was hard enough as it was. Seeing those sweet eyes grow teary had just about crushed her heart.
No, she couldn’t let him think he had a chance with her. It would destroy him all over again.
Lily put the phone down, then went to look inside the fridge. Did she have any champagne or even just a bottle of wine?
Nope. Not even a beer.
Lily closed the door to the fridge again, then grabbed her keys and walked outside. She could buy a bottle of champagne at Publix and then celebrate on her own. She didn’t need anyone here with her—this was her victory anyway. She did this on her own.
My way.
Lily walked out on the porch with her purse in her hand. The screen door slammed shut behind her, and she took two steps down when she suddenly paused, frozen in motion. Her eyes had fallen on something across the street from her, and it made her heart stop.
It was him.
He was sitting inside his car, staring at her.
Are those binoculars in his hands?
“What in the…?”
Lily felt the rage rise inside of her but didn’t exactly know what to do. She couldn’t believe he had come back. What a nerve this guy had. Had he learned nothing from the last time? She had told the police she didn’t want to press charges against him, mostly because she didn’t want to go through the trouble, and she didn’t want her name involved in anything, not now when she was on the verge of her big breakthrough as a singer.
The man across the street now realized she had seen him and started the engine. He drove off, but not fast enough. She was still able to take a series of pictures of his car and the license plate as it left her street.
Then, she called the police.
Chapter 55
I took Kim to the nursery, where both babies were still sleeping. Under different circumstances, I would never have taken Owen up from his bed since I believed it was important to respect a child’s sleep, but I did it this time, for Kim’s sake. And for Owen’s. She was showing a genuine interest in the child, and I had longed for that.
I walked out of the nursery with him in my arms, and we took him to our bedroom. Matt was still watching a movie in there, but when I told him what was going on and that Owen’s grandmother had come, he turned the TV off and left.
I sat on the bed with Owen, and Kim sat next to me. She exhaled and bit her lip, probably to push back tears. She seemed different somehow, more emotional.
“He’s adorable, right?” I said and held him so she could see him better. She leaned in over my shoulder and looked at his face closely.
“He…he looks…” she trailed off, and her shoulders slumped.
I gave her a look. “Do you want to hold him?”
She shook her head. “Oh, no, no. I really can’t.”
I didn’t listen to her protests. I simply handed her the baby and put him in her arms. She mumbled something yet took him anyway, and now, she was sitting with him in her arms.
“What’s going on, Kim?” I asked.
She looked at the baby in her arms with tears in her eyes and didn’t give me the time of day.
“What do you mean?”
“A few weeks ago, you didn’t even want to know of him.”
She shrugged. “And?”
“And now, you suddenly changed your mind and want to see him?” I asked. “Has something happened?”
She shook her head. “No. Nothing. Can you maybe take a picture of me with him? Here, use my phone.”
She handed me her phone and opened it for me. I took a couple of snapshots, and she smiled, holding him up for the camera. I felt more confused than ever. What had suddenly changed?
I was about to shut off the phone when I accidentally saw another photo taken recently and paused. I looked up at her.
“This picture, taken in front of the church. It was you? You took Owen that day in the parking lot?” I showed her the picture of Owen in his car seat carrier on her phone.
Kim blushed, her cheeks turning completely red.
“I…I…no.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “Kim. I have the picture right here. Why would you do something like that? I thought he had been kidnapped.”
She looked at me, visibly embarrassed. “I…I’m sorry. I just wanted to see him for a second and hold him and take a picture of him for…and then I panicked. I didn’t want you to see me.”
I shook my head in disbelief. Was this woman for real? “So, you put him on the steps and ran? Who does that?”
She shook her head with a tsk. “You found him, didn’t you?”
“Why didn’t you just come and ask me if you could hold him?”
“Well, after the last time in Publix, I wasn’t sure you’d let me. Besides, I just wanted to take his picture, so…”
She paused, and I sent her a glare.
“So, what, Kim?”
She shook her head and handed me back the baby. “I should get going now. It was wrong of me to come.”
She started to walk toward the door. “She’s with you… Isn’t she? Amy? You know where she is, right? The picture was for her, so she could see how big he had gotten. And now, you wanted a new one today so she could keep track of him and know that he’s doing okay.”
Kim’s eyes hit the carpet. She shook her head, then opened the door. “I…I need to go. Thank you for letting me see him.”
And with that, she closed the door and left. I sat back, holding Owen, unable to figure out what the heck just happened and what to make of it. These people made no sense to me. None at all.