Anything For Grace

Chapter 35

"You're right," Elijah eases up. "I guess I'll be asking too many questions, right Grace?"

"Yeah." Grace nods her head, looking at me. I give her an unease smile and Grace picks up on it. She checks her invisible watch. "I think it's getting late."

Elijah chuckles, nodding his head. "How could you go home without ice cream?"

I sighed. Oh great, ice freaking cream.

Elijah takes us to an ice cream parlor. I let Grace play an arcade game while Elijah and I had a moment to ourselves. I kept my eyes on her, since I wasn't familiar with the area and its residents.

"So you were hatched?"

"No, I wasn't freaking hatched." I rolled my eyes. "Grace is a curious little girl. It was like she was born with a questionnaire."

Elijah looks down as he nods her head. "She's very bright. She's very intuitive."

"How was I supposed to answer it? There are some questions you just can't answer for her. Not when she's this young. You see she's an open book."

"Did you not have parents?"

I looked at him through slit eyes. "Of course I had parents. I had to come from somewhere. It's just all I know is the foster system."

"You were raised through the foster system?"

"Yep." I admit. "I've travelled to fifty-six homes in sixteen years." My shoulders shrug as I've grown accustomed to the feeling of isolation. I scoffed, "It's not a big deal."

"I can see now why you don't want Grace involved in the system."

"She's everything like me. I mean, the curiosity, the grit, the everything."

"Your parents never tried to find you? You never tried to find them?"

My stomach flipped at the very question I asked. "They didn't want me," I look at Elijah. He looks away from the hard truth. "They didn't want me and I didn't want them."

"I had no clue."

"Well you don't obtain a certain set of skills living in a stable household. You could've connected the dots. Or did my record not show that? That I didn't have parents?" I turn back to Grace as she collects tickets and inserts more coins into the machine. "My mother didn't even sign the birth certificate."

Elijah leans forward. "I think your story is incredible."

"Don't make this into a sappy moment, ugh." I rolled my eyes.

Elijah shakes his head. "I'm not pitying you, just surprised that's all."

"It sounds a lot like pitying." I keep my focus on Grace as she extracts more tickets. Elijah gave her five dollars worth of quarters, which is obscenely insane of how many quarters he just carries around. "When Grace was born, I had to make it my life's mission to avoid what happened to me, happening to her. I'd die for Grace. No one would take her away."

"I can see that."

"What about you? How come marriage or even kids haven't crossed your mind?"

Elijah takes a deep breath. "Well my dad's business always came first. It was dangerous, no place for kids. I don't particularly like the idea of women being thrown in the mixture." I scoff, but he shakes his head. "It wasn't until Alexa was involved that I changed my mind."

"You're great with kids," I compliment. "Grace likes you and that says a lot. She doesn't come within fifty feet of strangers if I'm not there."

Elijah nods his head, smiling pleased at the comment. "Nice to know." He snaps his fingers, bringing up a point he was dying to make. "So Alexa and I have been brainstorming about Roman."