I just about remember not to flip him off in front of his daughter, but it’s an excruciating hour and ten minutes before the movie is over.
“Sometimes,” Rory whispers. “She makes me watch it twice.”
I shudder just thinking about it, and luckily, Piper doesn’t want to watch the movie again once the credits roll. Instead she declares that she wants to play blocks, which is a relief.
Rory goes to fetch the blocks in question, and Piper eyes me a bit. “Play?” she asks, and I smile at her, hoping it’s an acceptable one.
“Sure. I love blocks.”
I haven’t played with blocks since I was a kid myself and my dad brought home a beat up box filled with all kinds of blocks that he found at a thrift shop. They were all different shapes and sizes and looked like someone had just dumped all the toys their kid had outgrown into a box and donated it, but I loved them.
Piper seems to have the same enthusiasm for her toys, because she practically throws herself on the floor in front of her blocks and starts stacking them into an elaborate configuration. After a second, she glances up at me expectantly, and I hurry to join her, smiling as I settle in.
They’re bigger than Legos, probably so she can’t accidentally swallow one, and I start constructing a tower beside the structure she’s making.
She babbles happily to me while we build things, and it’s actually pretty fun. I haven’t ever spent that much time around kids, but she’s really sweet and seems to be having a good time, so it’s easier than I thought it would be. I answer her questions as best I can, and through the whole thing I can feel Rory’s eyes on me from where he sits on the couch, but I don’t turn around to look at him.
After another hour or so, Jen comes back, sweeping into the house with a grin, still singing some song from the radio. She takes one look at Piper and me on the floor with the blocks, and I half expect her to take Rory to task for letting some stranger play with their daughter.
But instead, she just tosses her purse on the couch and gets down to play with us.
“Rory’s too good for blocks,” she says, voice lowered like she’s sharing a secret between the three of us. “Look at him sitting there on the couch like he’s too good to build things. It’s not like the floor’s dirty. Who does he think he is?”
I laugh, and Piper giggles, glancing up at her dad to shake her head.
Rory just grins and leans back, arms spread out against the back of the couch. “Why would I want to be down there on the floor when I’ve got the best view from up here? Three lovely ladies being creative? Nothing beats it.”
Jen rolls her eyes and tosses a block at him, and he catches it in midair which is… something. He just grins and tosses it back into the pile, knocking over Jen’s blocky house in the process.
“Oops,” he says, sounding anything but sorry.
“One of these days, I’m going to make you pay for that,” she says. “You won’t know when, and you won’t know how, but it’s going to happen.”
“You’ve been saying that for four years, Jen,” Rory replies. “And I’m still in one piece.”
“For now.”
It’s the kind of playful banter that Scarlett and I have when we’re just hanging out, and it’s funny and interesting to see. Rory clearly spends a lot of time here, and he seems just as comfortable bickering with the mother of his child and playing with Piper as he does doing anything I’ve ever seen him do. He doesn’t even seem to mind doing it in front of me, which is still kind of surprising.
It’s something I would have thought he’d want to keep private, especially since he keeps Black Rose business separate from his family, and I’m pretty sure I fall into the category of Black Rose business.
But it’s not awkward, and Jen and Piper seem happy enough to have me there.
Once it starts getting closer to dinner time, Jen gets up and brushes herself off. “I should get dinner going,” she says, cracking her back in a stretch. “Are you two hanging around?”
I glance at Rory who shakes his head. “Nah, we should be getting back. It?
??s my turn to cook at the house, and Levi and Sloan might burn the kitchen down without me there.”
He gets up, and I follow his lead, heading for the door while he hugs Jen and scoops Piper up to smother her face in kisses. She giggles and reaches up to pat his cheeks with her chubby hands. “Bye, Daddy.”
“Bye, kiddo. I’ll see you soon, okay?”
She nods, and he passes her to Jen, who waves at me before we head out.
It’s a short walk back to his car and my bike, and I glance at Rory periodically, trying to reconcile all the things I know about him now with the things I knew before. When I set out to follow him today, the last thing I thought I’d find out was that he has a kid. I was expecting all kinds of sinister shit, and I don’t quite know what to do with the reality.
We split up to head back home, and I follow him more closely on my bike this time since I’m not trying to stay off his radar. When we pull up outside the house, he gets out of his car and waits for me while I climb off my bike. He’s leaning against the driver’s side door, arms crossed as he watches me. He makes no move to head toward the front door, and I stuff my hands in my pockets, coming to stand in front of him.