Page 35 of Haunted
“Jesus,” I muttered, feeling the weight of the future trying to crush me. Sabre steps over and puts his hand on my shoulder. “It will be okay. Head out now. Check in with the club from there. Stay with Daphne and work through it all. Get it done.”
I nod. It’s not like I had a choice. I had to do this quickly. Daphne loved me. She’ll understand. I repeat that in my head over and over like a mantra as I get up and go to my room here at the club. She’ll understand and not judge me. She’ll give me a chance to prove my worth to her and Cammie. Despite thinking it, I still wondered if she truly would.
God, I hope she does.
Chapter 27
Daphne
When I wokeup this morning, I was alone. That made me immediately sad. Then, I realized I was wearing Eli’s shirt, and the smile hasn’t left my face all day long. I force myself to get dressed. I take his shirt off, carefully bring it to my face, and breathe in his musky scent. I fold it and place it gently under my pillow for later. I’m sleeping in it again tonight. I don’t see me giving it back to Eli. He’ll just have to deal with it. The thought makes me smile.
“Mama!” Cammie called out as I stepped out of my room. I’d left her with her “eggies” and biscuits to eat while watching Bluey. I wasn’t surprised to see her running toward me holding her biscuit and grinning at me.
“What is it my baby?” I ask, squatting down so I’m on eye level with her.
“I out of eggies and I still hungry,” she giggles.
“You are?” I fake gasp. “What shall I fix you to eat?”
She laughs harder. This is something we do every morning that she eats at home. It’s a good thing Cammie loves chicken nuggets and cheeseburgers. If not, the child would never get protein. She’d live off bread.
She takes a final bite of her second biscuit and with her mouth full she grins, “Want more biscuits!”
I shake my head. “If you promise to eat slow, not talk with your mouth open and chew slowly with your mouth closed, I’ll get you another biscuit.”
“Yay!” she says, jumping up and down, completely ignoring what I said about keeping her mouth closed.
She settles back down in front of her now empty plate while I grab the extra biscuit that I saved for her and put it in her plate with a grin. I make sure her milk cup still has plenty, then I start sorting out what I need to do today.
My gaze moves back to Cammie. The first thing on my agenda is to see if I can make moving to Corbin sound more appealing to my daughter. If not, I’m going to have to open a shop here. I could run a catering business outside my home. That would probably be the cheapest option. Both ideas are there, but they wouldn’t make me happy. I want to be closer to Eli. Waking up without him today was very hard for me. I wanted him there. I know that feeling is only going to increase. He sent me a morning text to tell me he missed me and that he’d be over as soon as a club meeting concluded. I know I should probably wait until the ink is dry on my divorce—or at least get the actual divorce—before I live my life with Eli, but why should I? Dane’s not. Hell, he didn’t even leave me before he began a whole other life. I want to be happy.I deserve it.
With all that in mind, I sit down beside Cammie and when she looks at me, I ask her if we can turn off the television and have a talk. Her features change, definitely more pensive and I hate that look on my daughter’s face. She had the same look when I had to tell her about her father and again at the diner when she thought of Ms. Grayson.
“Do you like Eli, baby?”
“Pez!”
I laugh. “Do you like Pez?”
“I wuv him,” she says with a big smile.
“Did you know that if we moved to Corbin that we’d be closer to Pez and we could see him every day if we wanted to?”
“We could?” she asks with her eyes as big as saucers.
“Yeah, and he could eat dinner with us and be there with us for holiday dinners with Papaw and your grandmother.” I wince as I call Mom that. She’s not a fan of that word or Mamaw. She does love Cammie though. It’s a different kind of love, much like the one she gives me and Drew, but it’s real. Mom really tried. Drew told me she was different when Latch, her, and Dad were altogether. I really wish I could have seen that.
“What ‘bout Nana Cory?” she asks, still worried.
“We’d visit her and invite her to our house for holidays. She could even come for sleepovers if she wanted to,” I answer at once. I think of Cory Grayson as family. I want to keep her in mine and Cammie’s lives. Besides, I think she’d really like Eli. I’m actually anxious for them to meet.
“I want to live with Pez,” she demands, her face stubborn.
I fight a smile because it’s the same thing I want, but I can’t promise that to her—at least not yet. I’m not even sure what kind of relationship Eli is looking for. “Hey, don’t you think it’s time you call him by his name or something? He thinks of you as family. I don’t think he’d like you calling him Pez all the time.” I felt safe saying this, because I know he loves Cammie, and he told me Pez was for the club. Besides, it’s getting hard to keep talking with her about Eli and her referring to him as Pez. She taps her fingers against her chin as she thinks about it. Before she can answer me, the doorbell goes off. “You think about it,” I say with a laugh as she taps her finger against her chin and scrunches up her face. She once told me that’s her thinking face because that’s how her Papaw always looks when he’s thinking about stuff. “I’ll go get the door.”
“I’ll come with you!” she cries, jumping down to trail after me.
I look through the side panel glass and smile when I see Eli’s truck through it. I open the door quickly. He already has the screen door open and the minute he can he takes me in his arms. “Damn,” he groans into my neck. “I missed you, Skittles.”
