Page 9 of Haunted
“I’ll call and ask. Just a couple of hours, right?”
“Tell her three to be safe, but nothing more than that. I don’t like Cammie being without you for too long,” he adds.
That makes me smile. He worries about Cammie all the time. It’s a welcome change from her father who barely cared if she was around.
It takes about thirty minutes for Ms. Grayson to show up and then, I find myself alone in Eli’s truck with him. Conversation flows pretty easily—as it always seems to with him. I feel comfortable and even safe. It’s only when I notice he’s driving me into Corbin that I tense up.
“What are you doing, Eli?”
He frowns as he looks over at me. We’re on the old road that leads from London to Corbin, so he finds an easy place to pull over and once he throws his truck into park, he stares at me. “What’s going on, sweetheart?” he asks, softly, like he’s talking to a frightened child. It’s ironic because that’s exactly what I feel like right now.
“I don’t want to go to the club house, Eli. My father doesn’t want to see me. I don’t plan on forcing my presence on him. He turned his back on me years ago. I’ve accepted it. I hope eventually that he will want to be a part of my daughter’s life, but if he doesn’t, then that’s his failure, not mine.”
“Is it important to you that he be part of your daughter’s life?” he asks.
“Not for myself. It’s just my daughter deserves to have a family around her that loves her. If he can’t do that, I’d ratherhe just stay away.” Honestly, I didn’t strike gold in the parental department. I never hear from my mother except for Cammie’s birthdays and Dad has been radio silent longer than I can remember. If it wasn’t for my daughter, I’d prefer they both just stay away.
“I can understand that,” he says carefully.
“Once my father was a really good man, the best, Eli. I still have memories of the way he’d come in my room to read me stories and run his fingers through my hair, calling me his little princess. I want that for my daughter. She won’t have anyone in her life that’s good but my brother who is rarely in town, you—if your wife or old lady allows it—and my father. Lord knows she won’t have a good role model in a father who barely gives her the time of day—and that was before he knocked up his mistress.”
“I don’t have an old lady or a wife, Daphne.”
“I know, but you will someday. It would be understandable if she asked you to stop coming around me and my daughter. Very few women would want someone she loves to hang out with another woman and her daughter—knowing our kind of relationship.”
“What kind of relationship do we have, Daphne?” he asks and my heart stutters in my chest. My palms go sweaty, and I suddenly feel like I’m walking a tightrope.
“We’re friends,” I say at once, but I know that doesn’t quite sum it up. “We enjoy spending time together. We’re close. You’re like a second brother to me. A lot of women would find that type of relationship threatening.”
“You’re on dangerous ground right now, Skittles.”
“I am? Uh … What do you mean, Eli?”
“You’re going to keep on until you bite off more than you can chew.”
“You’re speaking in riddles, Eli.”
His large hands grip his steering wheel tight as he turns to stare forward, then slowly lowers his head. “Daphne, I will never let another woman keep me from being there for you and Cammie,” he says quietly, sending a small shiver of fear down my back.
“You can’t say that. You don’t know what the future may bring,” I try to explain, even as the words put scars in my heart that I will never recover from.
“You don’t need to worry about it. I don’t want a relationship. Nora did me so bad, I fully expect to be alone the rest of my life.”
“That’s sad,” I whisper. He may not want me, but he deserves a woman in his life who will love him completely.
“Life can be sad. You and I know that firsthand. I think your parents may know that too. They’re just idiots who made their daughter suffer instead of sucking it up and being there for you.”
“We should get going. I have to get back so that Ms. Grayson can get home to watch The Family Feud. She gets very upset if she misses Steve Harvey. She’s kind of in love with him,” I explain. “If you were planning on taking me to the club, maybe we could just turn around now. That’s probably for the best anyway. You seem to be in a strange mood and I’m just really tired.
“I’m not taking you to the clubhouse.”
“You’re not?” I ask.
“Nope. I want to show you something that I think you’re going to like.”
“Um … okay,” I murmur, not sure of what else to say.
This weight settles in my gut. I feel like something shifted between me and Eli and whatever it is, it’s not good. The problem is, I don’t know how to fix it.
