“Hey, baby. How was your day?”
“Not good.” She pouted. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go up to my room.”
As Hope walked up the stairs, I looked at Jack.
“What’s wrong with her?”
“I don’t know. She wouldn’t tell me.”
“Did you talk to your mother?”
“No.” He walked into the kitchen and I followed behind. “She was in meetings all day. She’s avoiding me and Coco. I know she is.”
I could tell how stressed Jack was. I couldn’t imagine finding out something like that about my mother.
He placed his hands on the counter and his eyes grazed over me. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m doing much better.”
“Good. Then you’ll be able to get back to your apartment in a couple of days.”
Ouch. That stung.
“Yeah.” I gave a small nod and went upstairs to check on Hope.
Chapter Forty
Lorelei
Sitting down on the edge of Hope’s bed, I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
“Why don’t you tell me what happened today.”
“Addison is moving and changing schools,” she spoke in a sad voice.
“Where is she moving to?”
“Her and her mom are moving in with her mom’s boyfriend. All she talked about was how they were going to be a family.”
Damn Addison’s mom. “I’m sorry she’s moving, baby, but you can still keep in touch with her.”
“It’s not the same and I don’t want to talk to her anymore. She said some mean things.” A tear fell down her cheek.
“What did she say?”
“All she talked about was how they were going to be a family and do family things and that I was jealous of her.”
“Why would she think you’re jealous of her?”
She looked down and another tear fell from her eye.
“Because I told her I didn’t care. I don’t care.” She folded her arms.
“That’s not nice, Hope. She’s very excited about something and you just dismissed it. That’s not being a very good friend.”
“I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Can you please just leave me alone for a while?”
“Sure, baby.”
I walked out of her room and saw Jack coming down the hallway.
“How is she?”
“Upset because her friend Addison is moving and switching schools.”
“That’s too bad. I’m sure she’ll get over it. I have some work to do in my office and I don’t want to be disturbed.” He walked down the stairs.
About an hour and a half later, Jack walked into the living room where I was sitting down working on one of my designs.
“I’m going out for a while. I’ve ordered you and Hope a pizza and salad for dinner. It’s already paid for, so don’t worry about that.”
“Where are you going?” I asked as I followed him to the elevator and the scent of his cologne drifted back and crossed my face.
“I have a date. I’ll see you in the morning. Tell Hope I said good night.”
“You can tell her yourself.”
“I’m going to be late as it is.” He stepped into the elevator.
A date? He had a date? Was he kidding? A flood of emotions filled my body and tears sprang to my eyes. Tears that I couldn’t explain. Tears that never should have crept up in the first place. He was nothing to me. Jack Sutton was nothing but my boss and a couple of nights of hot sex. I was nothing but the mistake he made. The more I heard his words in my head—“I have a date”—the angrier I became. I stomped over to the couch, grabbed my laptop from the coffee table, and brought up Match.com. Maybe it was time I dove back into the dating world. If Addison’s mom could meet Mr. Right, then so could I.#p#分页标题#e#
I created my profile, and when I was finished, I closed my laptop. What the hell was I doing? The pizza was delivered and I went upstairs to get Hope for dinner. When I walked into her room, I noticed she was sleeping. I walked over to the side of her bed and gently called her name. She opened her eyes and then closed them again.
“Baby, what’s wrong?”
“I don’t feel good and my throat hurts.”
I placed my hand on her forehead and she felt really warm. Oh God, what if she had caught my illness? Jack was out on his date and I was here alone with nothing. No children’s Tylenol. Nothing. I wanted to go home. It wasn’t like asshole was here taking care of us. I stood up from the bed and put all of Hope’s things in her bag, then walked across the hall to my room and did the same. Running downstairs and grabbing my phone from the table, I called a cab. After ending the call, I went back upstairs to get Hope.