I leaned back against my chair and turned to the window, looking out to the overcast gray sky. “Yeah. I have.”
“And?”
“She is exactly who I thought she would be, but also not at all.”
There was a brief pause on his end before he said, “What does that mean?”
“It means, I always thought she had kind eyes… sad eyes, but kind, and that’s exactly right. Elliot seems to like her, from the short amount of time they’ve spent together.”
“Elliot? He’s met her already? Does that mean you told her?”
“No. Not exactly. I still need to figure her out before I tell her anything. I can’t just rush this, not with my son’s happiness and well-being at stake.”
“I still don’t get it. So how are they spending time together?”
“I hired her to be Elliot’s nanny.”
I was met with a long silence, and I would have thought he hung up on me had I not checked the phone to see that we were still connected.
I waited for him to gather his thoughts.
“You’re an idiot.”
“I see you’re holding nothing back,” I responded drily.
“Well, I’m just telling you the truth.”
“How am I an idiot?”
“This is going to blow up in your face man. Sooner or later, and you’re not going to know how to deal with it.”
“Despite what you just called me, I have thought it through. I’m not an idiot.”
“Oh sure, you’ve thought it through. What happens when Elliot falls in love with her, and she doesn’t want him? He already has abandonment issues; you want to add on to that?”
I didn’t have a reply to that. He wasn’t telling me anything I haven’t thought about myself. But I was going with my instinct here, and my instinct told me Evelyn wasn’t like that. She wasn’t anything like Camila, and I knew she was still messed up over all that happened six years ago.
“I know what you’re saying, but I have to see this through. Everything is telling me to take her back to New York with us, and this is the only way I could think of to get her to come.”
“It’s the only thing, huh?” And even though I couldn’t see him, I knew he was rolling his eyes at me. “How about telling her the truth?”
“And if I’m wrong about her and she decides she wants Elliot? It’s not hard to believe that she’s one of Camila’s victims. What if she goes to the press? How can I explain this to Elliot when he gets older?” My instinct told me Evelyn wouldn’t abandon Elliot, but I couldn’t be sure if she would fight for him or not. And I didn’t want my boy dragged into all the drama and shit that started because of Camila’s greed.
The buzzer rang in my makeshift office at Silas Construction. Belinda’s voice came out through the intercom. “Mr. Reed. Your son is here to see you.”
“I gotta go, man. Elliot’s here.”
Jensen let out a small sigh at the other end. I knew he was only looking out for me and Elliot. “Okay. Just… be careful, okay? I would hate to see you or Elliot hurt over this.”
“I know. I’ll see you when I get home.”
“See you. Say hi to the little man for me.”
“Will do.”
I hung up the phone and placed it on top of my desk, on top of all the papers I had to read through before I could fly back to New York. I pressed on the intercom instead.
“Please send them in,” I said, my gut feeling like it was going to drop down to my feet at any given moment. And I knew it had nothing to do with the fact that I was seeing my son after only a few hours apart.