“Please, Evelyn! Pleeease! I promise to wear my jacket, and even gloves, even though only babies wear gloves.”
“Hey, not only babies wear gloves.”
“You don’t. And Daddy never wears gloves.”
“I’m sure he wears gloves sometimes,” I said. Though I wasn’t even sure how we got to this conversation or what point I was trying to prove.
“No, he doesn’t. And I want to be just like Daddy.”
He already looked like his dad. It wouldn’t be such a bad thing if Elliot took after his dad as well.
We walked over to the car, where Simon was waiting for us. He held the door open for us, and I helped Elliot climb in, buckling him into his car seat before settling in next to him.
Then I grabbed a bag of goldfish crackers I kept in my purse and opened it, handing it over to Elliot’s outstretched hand. It was routine to give him something to eat on the ride home, because there was less chance of him fussing over being forced to stay in one spot for so long.
I met Simon’s eyes over the rearview mirror. “Ready?” he asked.
I smiled. “Ready.”
Elliot smiled as well. “Ready.”
A strange look passed over Simon’s face then. “What?” I asked.
He opened his mouth as if to say something, then clamped it shut again.
I raised an eyebrow in question.
“Sorry, I—” he shook his head.
I shot him a bemused look. “You’re being weird, Simon.” I turned to Elliot and mock-whispered, “He’s being weird, huh?”
Elliot giggled, and his eyes lit up with amusement. “Yeah, Simon. You’re being weird.”
Simon shook his head and shifted gears, driving out of the school. I half-listened to Elliot’s senseless mumbles on the way home, half thinking about why Simon looked at me like that.
* * *
Fifteen minutes later,we pulled into a large estate.
Richmond House had been in Jace’s family for five generations. It had belonged to his grandmother, until she passed away three years ago, and passed it on to Jace.
With six bedroom, seven and a half baths, a pool house, a garden that looked like it came straight out of a magazine, and about two acres of land in the backyard for Elliot to roam free in when the weather permitted, it was beautiful, but it was also intimidating as hell, considering I was the only staff member living here. That meant there were only three people taking residence at Richmond House: Jace, Elliot, and me.
One would think this meant I got to see Jace often, but by the time he came home from work to dismiss me from mine, I would spend the majority of my time in my room. I never really saw Jace in the morning, either. I usually left them alone so that Jace could have some bonding time with Elliot before he went to work.
If I hadn’t known better, I would have questioned whether Jace really lived in the house, too.
And it was plaguing me that I still had the feeling Jace was ignoring me.
Simon parked in front of the large house and got out, holding the door open while I unbuckled Elliot from his seat.
He looked at me with tired eyes.
“Poor baby. You’ve had quite an exciting day, huh? Are you tired, sweetie?”
“What?” He looked like he didn’t have the energy to walk to the house. Give it an hour or so, and he would be full energy again, once I got an after-school snack into his growing body. “I’m not tired, Evelyn,” he insisted stubbornly, though he didn’t protest when I carried him up in my arms.
Simon helped me with our stuff while I made my way inside the house, Elliot wrapping his little arms around my neck.