Vulnerable by Tymber Dalton
“Uncle. Jesse.” She said it just like that, for some strange emphasis. “Daddy and I are going to Mote Marine with our family membership today. You are family. So would you like to go to Mote Marine with us today?” She listened. “Okay. We will be there around…” She looked at Leo.
“Ten,” he said, utterly fascinated by this whole conversational twist as well as by her.
“Ten,” she said. “We’ll see you there. Do you know how to find it? It’s called M-O-T-E Marine.”
Leo knew he shouldn’t have been shocked that she could spell it. He’d lost count of how many times they’d been there, and she loved spelling things.
“Good,” she told Jesse. “We’ll see you there. Remember, we won’t tell the lady at the counter that you’re not my real uncle, but I’ll call you Uncle. Jesse. Okay, bye.”
She ended the call and handed him his phone before proceeding to attack what was left of her California roll. “Remember, Daddy,” she sternly warned. “We have to tell them he’s Uncle. Jesse.”
He saluted her. “Yes, ma’am.”
He stared at her as he finished his sushi and wondered if there was some sort of test to keep kids from becoming supervillains later in life.
Because if she turned to the dark side when she was older, they were all going to be royally fucked.
* * * *
Jesse, never having a child before, hadn’t realized there was a different set of private Suncoast Society parties.
Totally vanilla, family-friendly affairs where they gathered together for pool parties, barbecues, and even beach outings. Not even with kids all the time, but after two months of dating Leo, they’d started getting invites to those events.
Which was a good thing, because their schedule with Laurel—as well as Jesse’s studying and work and school schedules—hadn’t aligned with any of the sexy private Suncoast Society parties as of late. The men had been to the club twice, and over to vanilla dinners—three times with Laurel—at Keith’s.
Every time so far had coincided with Scott having to work, so they didn’t have to explain Noel having two husbands.
Jesse hadn’t spent any overnights with Leo on weekends Laurel was there, but more and more Leo was having Jesse stay until past her bedtime, gradually getting her used to his presence.
She was even calling him on her own now, when with her mom. Just to talk and tell him about her day.
Considering Laurel was the closest thing Jesse would likely ever have to his own child, he found himself falling madly in love with her, too. Not in a creepy way, but as a…
Well, as a parent.
There’d even been an afternoon when Eva got called into work unexpectedly, and Leo was still on a job he couldn’t just up and leave. Jesse had been studying, so Leo called and asked him to go over.
With a stomach full of nerves, Jesse had headed over there with his laptop and textbooks, and he wasn’t sure what to expect when the woman opened the door. He knew Leo had told her about him, obviously, but they’d yet to meet, mostly because of Jesse’s schedule.
Her furrowed brow betrayed her wariness and made her look older than Jesse knew she really was. Her hair was dyed a brassy red that didn’t look good on her at all and harshened her features.
But then Laurel squealed with delight from somewhere in the house. “Is that Uncle Jesse?” She blasted out the front door at supersonic speed, nearly taking out his kneecaps as she threw herself at him and wrapped her arms around his legs.
Only then did Eva’s expression even approach the hint of a smile. She held out a hand. “Hi, I’m Eva. Nice to finally meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.” Her voice sounded tired, weary.
He actually felt a little sorry for her as he shook with her. “Jesse Morrow. Same here. Nice to finally meet you, too.”
“Thank you for coming over on such short notice. I’m really sorry to inconvenience you like this.”
“No, hey, seriously. Me and the peanut, that’s no inconvenience.”
“I-N-C-O-N-V-E-N-I-E-N-C-E.” Laurel spelled the word out entirely, and correctly. “Inconvenience.” Eva looked shocked as Laurel grinned up at Jesse.
“Good one, peanut,” he said.
“Mommy, did you hear me spell inconvenience?”
Eva nodded. “Yes, I did. That was very good.”
Leo had encouraged Jesse to find something special to do with Laurel that could be their thing. Lucky for him, she enjoyed spelling.
Eva led Jesse inside and showed him where everything was. “She usually eats about seven. There are leftovers in the fridge. She can go swimming if she wants to before dinner but only if she finishes her math homework first.” Eva said the last part focused at Laurel. “And, obviously, only if you’re out there with her.”
She grabbed her purse and knelt down to hug Laurel. “Behave yourself, okay? Daddy will come by later and spend the night and take you to school in the morning.” She stood and offered Jesse one last handshake. “Hello, good-bye, sorry. Thank you again.”
“Hey, no problem.”
“It’s not an inconvenience, Mommy,” Laurel said with the eye roll Jesse was becoming all too familiar with. “He’s family.”
All that was missing was the duh.
Eva smiled, but Jesse thought it looked strained. “You’re right. He is family.”
Once they were alone, he headed for the couch. “Get your homework, peanut.” He turned off the TV. “You want to go swimming, you heard your mom.”
She grabbed her homework and bounced onto the couch next to him. “Are you doing homework, too, Uncle Jesse?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Okay.”
And that was that.
When Leo arrived a little after eight, looking exhausted and with an overnight bag slung over his shoulder, Jesse felt the urge to pull him into his arms but settled for a quick peck on the lips.
“Did you eat?” Jesse asked him.
“No, I’ve been scrambling.”
“I’ll make you something.”
“Sorry about this.”
Jesse stopped him and waited until Leo met his gaze. “Dude,” he quietly said, “it’s okay.” He smiled. “Besides, this is something I’ll be doing on a regular basis if we’re living together, right? And moving day’s next week.”
He’d told Leo he’d give him a decision by that Friday.
Okay, so he was a few days early.
Leo’s smile slowly widened. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” he softly said. Eva had been showing signs lately of backing off her challenges and delays with the divorce. If she didn’t blow her gasket tonight, then moving in together probably wouldn’t trigger her, either.
Jesse suspected there was a subtext he wasn’t privy to, but if it was something he was supposed to know, he knew Leo would tell him.
Meanwhile, he was irretrievably in love with Leo and with Laurel. He wouldn’t mind it at all if she would one day call him her stepdad instead of “Uncle. Jesse.”
He wouldn’t mind it at all.
Chapter Eighteen
Typhoon Laurel started their Saturday morning off with an unexpected twist. While they were getting their leftover sushi breakfast ready, she spoke up.
“Can we ask Mommy to come to Mote with us today?”
Leo and Jesse both froze, Jesse looking up at Leo, to him, waiting for the judgment call. In the six weeks they’d been living together, it was a look Leo now knew all too well. Something between panic and terror.
Yes, Jesse was starting to take more of a decisive stand with Laurel but he still desperately feared overstepping his bounds with her no matter how much Leo told him he wanted Jesse to take an active parenting role.
And Leo loved the man even more for his caution. Everything Jesse did proved he wanted to put Laurel first in their lives, too. Including he never, not once, complained when they had to make last-minute changes to their plans because of Eva or Laurel.
Everything Jesse did also proved his love and d
Eva hadn’t mentioned anything to Leo about it, and hadn’t brought up any other boyfriends of her own, so Leo was going to keep working on the assumption that Eva was okay with this new status quo and wasn’t going to try to make their lives miserable.
When Laurel started first grade, Leo had even added Jesse to Laurel’s school records as someone approved for making emergency decisions, or for picking her up, if Leo and Eva weren’t available.
Leo took a deep breath and opted for the adult decision. “Why don’t you call Mommy before it gets too late and ask her, sweetheart?” He pulled his phone out of his pocket, unlocked it, and handed it to her. “We’ll be there around ten, if she wants to meet us out front. She won’t have to pay for her ticket that way.”
“Thank you, Daddy.” Laurel pulled up her mom’s number and dialed.
Leo glanced at Jesse and mouthed, “Sorry.”
Jesse smiled and shrugged, then leaned in to whisper in his ear. “It’s okay, Sir. It’ll make her happy.”
Leo couldn’t hide his smile. Yes, Jesse was very careful in front of Laurel. Still, it made Leo happy to hear Jesse call him that.
Especially knowing that Jesse was also willing to put Laurel and her needs first.
He couldn’t ask for a better stepdad for his daughter than Jesse.
Leo kissed him. “Love you, boy,” he whispered.
Jesse’s wide grin was all the answer he needed as Laurel let out a happy squeal.
“Thank you, Mommy! We’ll see you there.” Laurel ended the call and brought the phone back to Leo. “Thank you, Daddy! She said she’ll meet us there at ten.”
“Good.” He slipped his phone back into his pocket. He really needed to change the ICE settings on his phone. He’d added Jesse, but he hadn’t gotten around to changing Eva’s listing yet, since Laurel used his phone to call Eva.
Maybe now that Laurel was okay with Jesse in his life, he could change it to just say ICE-Eva instead of ICE-Wife. He’d tried to make little changes, incremental ones when possible, to avoid slamming Laurel with too much change all at once.
Like at home. When he’d first decided to leave Eva, he’d started sleeping in the guest room, and did that for a couple of weeks until he found an apartment he could afford that wasn’t in a crappy neighborhood. Then he took Laurel with him to look at apartments so she could see them and be part of it.
So far, they’d avoided massive meltdowns.
His pragmatic little girl never failed to amaze him, but it saddened him that at her age she could already relate her experience in a positive way compared to the parents of some of her classmates.
On the other hand, his own parents should have gotten divorced years earlier than they had. They’d both been miserable and he had easily seen it, glad to escape to school every day to get away from their silent, simmering resentment toward each other.
And he wouldn’t even think about Eva’s parents.
* * * *
Jesse knew he needed to keep his mouth shut. This was about Laurel, not him. Anything he could do to get along with Eva meant they would all have an easier time of things. Every time he saw the woman, he was careful to be pleasant to her, friendly.
She still seemed reserved around him, but Leo assured Jesse that was how she acted with nearly everyone.
He’d have to take Leo’s word for it.
When they arrived at Mote, she was waiting for them. As the morning wore on, Eva seemed to loosen up a little but Jesse still sensed tension from her. And maybe more than a little sadness.
When Eva took Laurel to the bathroom before they went to eat lunch, Jesse turned to Leo. “Is Eva all right?”
He shrugged. “As all right as she usually is. This is normal her around people she doesn’t know very well. Don’t take it personally.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure.” He hugged Jesse. “You’re doing great, and Laurel is happy, so that’s all that matters.”
“Okay.”
Leo had to use the bathroom after they’d grabbed food at the café, leaving Jesse to try to carry on a conversation with Eva.
“Have you been here a lot?” he asked.
“Just a few times. This is Leo’s thing with her. And sometimes I have to work weekends, depending on my shift.”
“Oh.”
“Thanks again, by the way, for all your help with her,” Eva said. “It’s great having someone I can trust who I can call to help care for her.”
“Yeah, I guess having her grandparents living up in Tampa is a pain.”
Eva frowned. “Yeah,” she said.
He thought he might have stepped in something, but he wasn’t sure what and gave up trying to figure it out.
By the time they ended their afternoon and Eva had left, Jesse exchanged a glance with Leo over the car roof after getting Laurel belted in.
Jesse shrugged. Leo shrugged back.
He would try not to worry about it. Life was good, his guy was better, and he got to help raise an adorable and precocious little girl who might or might not be on her way to poisoning Gotham’s water supply at some future date.
He was hoping for not, but that remained to be seen. Supervillains could be tricky as hell to pin down in their early years.
Chapter Nineteen
It was Sunday night, and Leo was driving Laurel to Eva’s because he had an early welding job to do Monday morning. Eva had Monday off and could take Laurel to school.
“I had a lot of fun this weekend, Daddy.”
He glanced in the rearview mirror. “I had fun, too, sweetheart.”
“Thank you for letting me invite Mommy with us to Mote.”
“You’re very welcome, sweetheart.”
“Is it okay for me to say I love Uncle Jesse?”
It took every last ounce of willpower Leo had not to burst into happy tears. “It’s very okay for you to say that, sweetheart. I love Uncle Jesse, too.”
“Are you gonna get married?”
“Maybe. That’s still something to decide in the future.”
“Okay.” There was a moment of contemplation on her part. He could see it in her face and waited her out. “Will I still get to be your flower girl?”
“Of course you will. Who else would?”
“Okay.” Another pause. “Do you think Mommy will be mad at me if I love Uncle Jesse, too?”
He opted for the high road. “I know that I would be okay if you love whoever Mommy ends up with in the future. So I would think she’d be okay with you loving Uncle Jesse. People can love more than one person like that. Just like you love Great-grandma.”
He deliberately didn’t mention Eva’s parents, or his. Laurel rarely saw either set of grandparents.
Especially Eva’s.
“Oh. Okay. Good.”
Leo pulled his car into Eva’s driveway. It was getting easier to think of it as Eva’s house, and not “their” house.
Especially with Jesse now living with him, sharing his bed and his life.
They were going to have to sell the house sooner or later. He couldn’t maintain a house and an apartment indefinitely, even with Jesse helping him pay monthly expenses at the apartment. Eva didn’t make enough money on her own to pay all of the house’s expenses. In their divorce agreement, he would help pay for half of the mortgage, taxes, and insurance for up to one year from when the divorce was final. That was in addition to child support.
Unless Eva got a roommate to help pay for everything, they’d have to sell it, splitting the equity fifty-fifty. Or at any time, she could try to get financing and buy him out for his half of the equity.
Something he seriously doubted she could or would do.
After getting Laurel’s suitcase out of the trunk, he walked her up to the front door. Eva stood there, her face a blank mask. When he sent Laurel inside after a final kiss and hug, he waited for her to get down the hall before asking.
“Are you all
Eva crossed her arms over her chest and studied her shoes. “Yeah, I’m okay. Just SSDD. I’ll be fine.”
He hesitated, finally reaching out to touch her arm, waiting until she looked up and met his gaze. He hated that there were tears in her eyes.
“I’m sorry, Eva. I take full responsibility for all of this. You didn’t do anything wrong in our marriage to get us to this point.”
“I know. Doesn’t make it any easier.” She let out a sad laugh. “I guess I hoped that, after a while, maybe you’d change your mind and decide you were wrong and come back to me.”
“You’re a good woman. I know I’ve hurt you, and I’m sorry.”
“I know you’re sorry.” She let out a long breath. “I realized Saturday, when I saw you and him together and how much she loves him, that this is how it’s meant to be. I get it now. I get why the counselor keeps telling me I was using ‘magic thinking’ all this time.”
This was news to him. Yes, they’d both talked to the counselor privately, in addition to the joint sessions for Laurel’s benefit, but they never discussed those sessions with each other.
“What are you talking about?” Leo asked.
Her shoes interested her again.
Greatly.
She wouldn’t look at him when she eventually started speaking again. “She told me I was living my life for the way I wanted things to be instead of the way they really are. That I keep hanging my hopes on you coming back. That I was deliberately trying to sabotage the divorce, thinking that if I made things hard enough for you to fully detach that you’d give up and come home.”
Her gaze skipped up, then away again. “I’m sorry about the custody stuff before,” she whispered. “I was angry and thought maybe it’d make you come back to me if I pushed hard enough and made things difficult enough for you. That you’d give up. That wasn’t fair for me to do.”
He pulled her into his arms, hugging her. “I’m so sorry.”