HH01 - A Humble Heart (9 page)

Mike thought she was teasing and chuckled. “Of course.”

“I’m seeing someone and I was hoping to keep it private. I'm sorry. I really appreciate the invitation that was really sweet,

Mike,” Dana said.

Mike’s smile faded while Edward’s heart broke. “He's a lucky guy.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Couldn’t hurt a guy to

ask.”

Edward saw him to the door. Dana walked past them towards the bedroom. He sat down on the couch and tried to wrap

his brain around it. She was seeing someone else. He hadn’t heard about this before. He was positive that Amy would have

told him if she was. There was one person who would know and she would tell him.

Edward pulled out his phone and called Dana's home phone. “Hello?” Deana answered.

“Deana, it’s Edward. I have a question for you. Who is Dana seeing?”

“Oh, let me check my calendar. I don’t think she has any appointments today,” she mused.

He held back his aggravation. “No, who is she dating?”

That earned a hard laugh from Deana. “She’s not dating anyone. Why would you think she was? She’s practically in love

with you-oh damn, I have to go.” Deana stammered.

“What did you just say?” he pushed.

“Nothing, I didn’t say anything. I really have to go I’m getting the kids ready. Please don’t tell her we talked.” Deana hung

up.

Edward dropped into a chair at the table. Did she mean Dana was in love with him? Was that possible? That would

be……perfect. Now he just had to work up the nerve to ask her out without ending up hanging out with his sister again.

She hurried out of the bedroom before he could figure out how to do it. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Edward. Have a good

night,” Dana said, trying to sound upbeat, too upbeat. He suddenly remembered he was worried about her.

He gently grabbed her arm. “Dana, what’s wrong?”

She looked at the ground. “Nothing. It’s fine, Edward.”

“Dana, you can talk to me,” Edward said softly. Dana raised her eyes to his and opened her mouth to speak.

“I was told to tell both of you that tomorrow we're not shooting.” Amy said as she joined them in the trailer.

Dana looked at Amy. “Oh?”

“Yeah, something about a mistake in shooting permits. We shoot on Monday instead, so actually you have two days off,”

Amy said.

“Great," Dana muttered under her breath. “Just what I need,” she sighed. “See you guys Monday then.”

Edward was forced to let her go. He watched as she made her way to her Jeep and left. “What’s wrong with Dana?”Amy

asked.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know.” And he didn’t like it. He put his arm around Amy’s shoulders. “Come on,

I’ll let you make me dinner tonight.”

She ducked out of his embrace. “Sorry, big brother. I have a date tonight.”

“What? Since when?” He tried not to sound too shocked, but this was his baby sister and she had never been big on

dating, at least he didn’t think she had.

“The photographer,” she said, grinning wickedly.

“The photographer? Is that his name now?” Edward asked teasingly.

She playfully slapped him. “No, it’s Tyler. You are such a jerk.” Edward watched her expression become suddenly

somber. “Hmm, I thought she actually forgot. At least that’s what Deana said. I guess she remembered after all.”

“What?” Edward asked.

“I know why Dana’s upset,” she said, shrugging her shoulders as if it was no big deal.

Edward waited patiently for her to tell him, but after a long moment it seemed she wasn't going to spill. He put his hands

in his pants pocket to keep himself from strangling her. “Well?”

She seemed to come out of a trance. “Oh, her ex is coming today to see the kids. He’s here for the week.”

“I thought she didn’t like him,” Edward said. He felt his stomach twist, dreading her next words.

“No, she doesn’t. They’re on friendly terms for the kids. Sort of,” she said.

“I don’t understand what the problem is. Surely she’s seen him since the divorce.”

Amy rolled her eyes as if it was painfully obvious what was wrong. “This is the first time they’ve seen each other since

that asshole proposed to his girlfriend,
and
he’s bringing her on this visit. He promised not to. Dana wanted him to focus on his

kids, but his little girlfriend put her foot down. Apparently she’s intimidated by Dana and doesn’t trust Jeff around her.”

“Oh.”

“Oh?” She laughed darkly. “This is also the first time they’ve seen each other since it came out that he had cheated on her

for three years. How would you like that shoved in your face?”

Edward ground his teeth. “That asshole. I thought it was just a rumor.”

“Nope,” Amy said making the word pop. “Little girlfriend decided to jump on Dana’s fame and announced to the world

last week that not only had they had an affair, but she screwed Jeff in every room in their house.”

His jaw was painfully tight now. “Bitch,” he muttered.

“Yup, Deana has tried to convince her to have one of her many suitors come to the house today so she wouldn’t be alone.

You know, someone to help take the edge off what they’re going to do to her. But she refused.”

His head snapped back in her direction. “What do you mean many suitors? Deana said she isn’t seeing anyone.”

She rolled her eyes again. “I’m talking about the single guys that ask her out every day. Even Jake asked her out yesterday

when he came by.”

“Jake did?” He was surprised that his friend would ask Dana out, especially since Jake knew how Edward felt about her.

“I feel so bad for her. She wanted to keep busy during his stay, but now she has nothing to do for two days.”

“He’s not staying with her is he?” he almost growled out.

She laughed. “No, even if Jeff came alone he wouldn’t be allowed to stay there.”

“Good,” he mumbled.

Amy studied him for a long moment and then smiled. “You really like her!”

“She’s a good friend. I don’t want to see her hurt, and I definitely don’t want to see those kids hurt.” He really liked her

kids. They were well behaved and funny as hell. It surprised him more than anything since he was never really into kids. Now

he looked forward to seeing Cole and Elizabeth every day. It melted his heart every time they called him Uncle Edward.

“What time is he coming by?” he asked.

“I believe six.”

Edward looked at his watch. It was half past five. “I have to go. Don’t call me for the rest of the night unless it’s an

emergency.” He took off without another word.

**********

“Mommy, Daddy is here!” Elizabeth yelled.

Dana tore her eyes from the mirror to look at her daughter. “Okay, sweetie, let Aunt Deana open the door.”

Elizabeth bounced up and down. “Daddy really came this time!” she said before she ran towards the living room.

Dana took one last look in the mirror and sighed. Thank God she hadn't cried. Not that she was upset that he was here or

with
her
. But when she got pissed she cried a river. No matter what she wasn’t going to let him get to her. They were going to

talk this over like adults and then she was kicking his fat ass out of her house. That made her smile.

She made her way towards her large living room, trying to paste a smile on her face when she heard her kids crying.

“What the hell?” she mumbled softly as she walked into the room.

Elizabeth and Cole sat on the couch, sobbing. Instead of consoling their kids Jeff was comforting
her
. She wasn’t even

crying. She just looked put out. Dana walked over to the kids and pulled them into a hug. She kissed them both on the head.

“What’s wrong guys?”

“Daddy….Daddy said he’s not spending the week with us. He said…said….” Elizabeth broke down into louder sobs.

Deana stepped towards the kids. “Come on, guys, let’s go to the kitchen and have some juice.”

“I don’t want juice!” Cole cried.

“It’s okay, little man, mommy will take care of this,” she promised. She moved to the side and allowed Deana to comfort

them. They remained fixed on the couch, refusing to leave the room, probably afraid their father would run like hell the second

they did. She couldn’t blame them, he did have a history.

She folded her arms over her chest and focused on Jeff. He looked pissed, but not over his kids. It was over this woman.

She forced herself to remain calm. “Jeff, what is going on? This is your scheduled visitation week.”

“I know but something important came up,” he said.

“You came all the way to California to tell your kids you weren’t going to spend time with them?” she asked, feeling

really confused. A phone call or e-mail would have been a hell of a lot cheaper and would have hurt a lot less for the kids.

“Yeah, well and for our honeymoon. We eloped yesterday!” he said cheerfully.

Dana’s eyes went to their left hands, sure enough they were each wearing matching gold bands. “Why the rush?” she

asked, trying to sound normal and not pissed that he was pulling this crap on her kids.

Jeff looked guilty. “Well, I had this week already planned for vacation and Bea wanted to come out and shop and stuff. So

she-I mean we thought we should get married and make this our honeymoon.”

Elizabeth cried louder. “Jeff, this is your court ordered visitation. You aren’t even supposed to have her around the kids.

You only have a week with them, the Judge said it was important that you make this week about just you and them, no

interference.” She remained calm.

“Don’t be such a bitch,” Bea snapped. “He’s allowed to get married.”

Dana snapped her attention to Bea in an instant. “Watch your mouth in front of my kids.”

Bea rolled her eyes. She placed her head on Jeff’s shoulders and batted her eyes. “Jeff, are you going to let her talk to me

that way?”

He swallowed loudly and nodded. “Show my wife some respect,” Jeff said firmly.

Dana was flabbergasted. He chose this woman over his own kids. It was more than obvious. What wasn’t obvious was

why. The woman was fatter than Jeff and she looked cheap. All of her clothes were too tight and she was literally hanging out

of them. She must be good in bed or stroke his ego. That was the only thing Dana could come up with because it certainly

wasn’t her winning personality that held Jeff.

“Jeff, do not try fronting to me for her benefit. We both know I’ll tear you down to size,” she said harshly. Jeff flinched

and then slowly nodded. He knew she wouldn’t play any games when it came to her kids.

“Mommy?” Cole said.

She looked back to see him sitting in Deana’s lap. “Make him be with us, peese!”

“Jeff, you need to tell them. I want to go! We have reservations,” Bea said coldly.

She ran her hand through her hair. This was beyond frustrating. There was no way her kids were going to bed without

crying themselves to sleep tonight. Tomorrow would be even harder.

“Jeff-” She was cut off by the sound of the doorbell chiming. She sighed heavily, hoping whoever it was would be easily

sent away. “Excuse me,” she said. Jeff and Bea took that as an invitation to sit down on the love seat.

She yanked the door open to find Edward standing in the doorway with flowers, two teddy bears and a large box of

chocolate. She was slightly confused. He stepped inside and kissed her cheek. Make that she was pretty sure she was

delusional. She heard Jeff and Bea gasp the very second his lips connected with her cheek.

********

Without a word he stepped inside. His eyes took in an overweight man with a nasty looking woman on his side. He

suppressed a laugh. He was more shocked than anything that something like him had landed Dana in the first place, but his

attention quickly focused on the two crying children on Deana’s lap. This was wrong. He knew the kids were excited to see

their father. There was no way they would be crying right now not unless it was tears of joy and they certainly weren’t that.

Edward walked over to the kids and knelt down. “Hey, guys. I have these two teddy bears that need a home and I was

thinking that you two would be perfect to take care of them. Could you do me a favor and take care of them for me?” he asked

them gently.

The kids nervously reached out and took the teddy bears from him. “Thank you, Uncle Edward,” Cole and Elizabeth said

through quiet sobs.

He felt his heart break. It had only been a few weeks since he met them, but he loved them a great deal and didn’t like

seeing them hurt. If Jeff was the reason he was pretty sure he was going to strangle the man, but first he needed them out of the

room. It was clear that they needed to leave.

“Cole and Elizabeth, I bought these pretty flowers for your mommy. Can you do me a favor and help Deana put them in a

vase?” He handed the flowers to Elizabeth who hugged them. She gave him a weak smile. He handed Cole the box of

chocolates. “Do me another favor and check out these candies and make sure they taste good, okay?”

Cole nodded. “I will, Uncle Edward. Don’t worry,” he said seriously, earning a smile from Edward. He kissed them both

on the forehead. “Okay, off you go,” he said, standing up.

Deana mouthed “thank you” to Edward before she followed the kids out of the room. Then he turned his attention to the

adults. Dana stood in the middle of the room, watching the kids leave. Jeff was wrapping an arm possessively around his

girlfriend as if Edward wanted any of that. The woman was licking her lips, staring at him, making him wish for lead