Six

SIX

Mia

Undeniable heaviness.

Unbearable, too.

It had been two days since things were made official between Todd and me, and he'd admitted he no longer wanted any part of the relationship we'd built or the child we'd made together.

As strong as I knew I had to be, as strong as I told myself I would be for the sake of my child, it all felt so incredibly heavy. This newest change in my life made me feel like I was carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders.

After leaving Todd's place two days ago, I'd been doing my best to come to terms with my new reality. And while I hadn't cried as much as I did during the week I was off from work for the holiday, I certainly shed a couple of tears.

It wasn't easy.

Making the decision to purchase my new home had been a long process, and it was something I had to prepare myself for. In theory, nine months felt like a long time, but I knew it was going to fly by. Before I knew it, I'd be a mom, and I'd have a brand-new baby to take care of all on my own.

I could do it.

I knew I could do it.

I just hated to think that the other person involved in creating this life wanted nothing to do with him or her. Maybe I was mostly upset about the fact that I'd been so wrong about the kind of man I believed Todd was. Never in a million years had I envisioned him walking away from me in a situation like this, no matter how unexpected it had been.

But in the end, I guess it was like my dad had said. It was better that I knew now where he stood than to have gotten in even deeper.

Even if I understood the logic behind that, it didn't change the fact that I was still having a difficult time coming to terms with it. The only saving grace for me had been work.

It seemed work was the one place where I could set aside the heartbreak, emotions, and fear I felt about what was ahead for me, and I could just focus on doing my job to help kids. I never thought I'd see the day where I looked at going to work as the blessing that I did now. Sure, I'd always loved my job, but it now felt like something I needed for my sanity and emotional stability instead of just financial security and a sense of purpose.

It was the times when I was alone that were the most difficult to cope with. My thoughts would run wild, and I felt stuck. Because there was a part of me that knew I should have been taking small steps toward preparing for the baby. But the thought of doing anything on my own, no matter how small, seemed daunting. And yet, on the other hand, I felt unbelievably foolish for allowing the days to pass without accomplishing anything.

I was so frustrated.

I was incredibly sad.

And now that I was in my car and on my way home from work again, I was dreading another night alone, without anyone to lean on for support through this.

That was also my fault.

For some reason, I just couldn't bring myself to tell anyone else about the pregnancy. I thought my family should be the first to know, but they were already worried about me because of the breakup. With them being a couple of hours away, I didn't want to lay this on them when I wasn't in the best place. Maybe I'd feel different a week from now.

I turned onto my street, making my way to my house, and wasn't surprised to see Brock's truck parked at the end of the driveway as he stood at his mailbox. Other than a brief hello or the occasional wave, I hadn't really had an opportunity to talk to or have a short conversation with Brock since before Christmas. Then again, considering I hadn't left my house for that entire week during the Christmas break, I guess it was to be expected.

When I pulled into my driveway, Brock looked up from the mail he was holding in his hands and waved.

I brought my car to a stop, got out, and said, "Hi, Brock."

"Hey, Mia. How are you doing? It's been a while since I last spoke with you," he returned.

I grabbed my mail out of the box to find Brock had started moving in my direction. I walked toward him, closing that distance, and said, "I'm okay. As I was driving down the road and saw your truck, I was thinking the same thing. I'm pretty sure it was before Christmas when we last had an actual conversation."

"That doesn't seem possible, but I think you might be right."

I was.

There wasn't much I'd been able to forget about the last two weeks or so of my life.

"Well, did you have a nice Christmas?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yeah. It was okay. I spent some time making the rounds with family. How about you?"

I swallowed hard. This had been the worst Christmas I could ever remember. But I refused to sit in it or dwell on the things that brought me down. This was a moment to cheer myself up and be distracted, so I wanted to take advantage of it. "Unlike you, I didn't make any rounds. I stayed here, but my family came to visit me on Christmas Day."

"That's nice. Where do they live?" he asked.

"They're only two hours north of here in Mount Laurel," I shared.

With a nod of understanding, Brock said, "That's not bad. Was it your parents or extended family, too?"

"Oh, it was just my parents and my older brother."

"Was this their first time at your house?" he pressed.

"Well, my brother helped me move in, so he had already seen the place," I shared. "But this was my parents' first visit here. It was nice to have them all here with me for my first Christmas in the new house. They spent the night here, left the next day, and I hate to admit it, but I didn't leave my house for the rest of the week."

Brock let out a laugh. "That explains why I didn't see you much. I thought you might have left to go visit family that week."

While his comment was probably meant to be friendly and conversational, I couldn't ignore one thing about it. Even if there was nothing behind it beyond it being merely an observation, Brock had thought about me. He'd noticed I hadn't been around, and in a weird way, that brought me some comfort. If for no other reason, it was nice to know I had a neighbor who paid attention.

For the first time since I heard my baby's heartbeat at that doctor's appointment, I smiled a genuine smile and felt something warm hit the center of my chest. "No, I didn't do any traveling. I was just lazy and exhausted, so I used the time to catch up on sleep. And I did a fair amount of eating, too."

Brock laughed again. "It sounds like you enjoyed yourself, and that's what really matters, right?"

I gave him a nod. "Exactly. And now we're back to the routine, aren't we?"

He sighed. "Unfortunately, that is the truth. But on the bright side, maybe I'll see you here again tomorrow."

The bright side.

He thought seeing me at the mailbox and having a five-minute conversation was something to look forward to.

I guess, now that I was standing here with him, feeling the best I had in days, I couldn't say I disagreed much with that sentiment. Maybe I could start doing that—looking for the silver lining in everything. Perhaps I could find it easier to get through the days and accomplish some of the things I knew I needed to start tackling.

Loving that Brock gave me that new perspective, I beamed at him. "Yeah. You'll definitely see me here tomorrow."

"That sounds like a plan to me. I'll let you go now, but I'll look forward to having a chat with you tomorrow after work," he said. His tone was light and teasing, and somehow, it seemed to lift a bit of the heaviness I'd been feeling for the last two days from my shoulders.

Giving myself permission to lean into that feeling, I teased back. "Don't be late."

Brock laughed and promised, "I'll be here on time."

Still smiling at him, I hesitated a beat before I said, "Goodnight, Brock."

His voice dipped low. "Goodnight, Mia."

Brock had said those two words to me before, but tonight, they felt different. I just couldn't quite put my finger on the reason why.

But when I got inside my house and was alone again, I realized that I didn't feel the same sense of doom and gloom that I hadn't been able to shake for days now.

Was a simple conversation with Brock all I'd needed?

Brock

We were finally in the thick of it.

While the cold temperatures had been around for a while, we'd had a relatively uneventful winter in terms of snow.

Until last night.

We were in the last third of January, and we'd finally had our first big snowstorm of the winter season.

It snowed all night and through the early morning—coming down at a rate of one to two inches per hour during a four-hour stretch at one point—until it eventually tapered off around nine o'clock this morning. If I had to guess, we'd gotten a good eight or nine inches by the time it was over, so even though it was a Thursday, my job wound up closing.

I took advantage of it and allowed myself to have a slower morning this morning. I stayed in bed a little longer before heading downstairs to grab some breakfast. It would have been nice to have the whole day with nothing pressing to do, but that wasn't an option.

Once I'd noticed the snow easing up, I'd decided it was time to get myself ready to head out and start clearing the walkway in front of my house, the driveway, and the sidewalk.

By the time I'd gotten myself dressed in my gear and went to put my boots on, I glanced outside again and was shocked to see Mia was already out and working on clearing the snow at her place.

I smiled at the mere sight of her and the prospect of being able to talk with her while it wasn't getting dark out right before dinner, when we'd both had long days at work.

As quickly as I could, I got my boots on and walked out through the garage, opened the door, and grabbed my shovel. I had a snowblower, and I'd likely pull it out at some point, but since I hadn't gotten a workout in this morning like usual, I figured the shoveling would be a great way to get some exercise.

I began shoveling out a pathway and worked hard at it for a solid twenty or thirty minutes, when I glanced up and saw Mia looking in my direction. I smiled and waved at her. "Hey, Mia."

She waved back, but there was no smile on her face. "Hi, Brock."

I was going to return to shoveling, but I noticed she had started to trudge through the snow in my direction. Deciding to meet her halfway, I made my way through the snow toward her.

Once we were close enough to be able to speak without the rest of the neighborhood hearing us, Mia declared, "I figured it out."

Confused, my brows drew together. "You figured it out?"

Nodding and out of breath, she clarified, "The downside to homeownership."

Immediately, it clicked. "Shoveling snow."

"Yep. I was in an apartment complex before, and the snow removal was always taken care of, so I never gave it a second thought," she shared. "Ever since I moved in here, I've been nothing but happy about the house. I love living here, and I enjoy every other aspect of owning my own place. But I totally didn't think about this part."

I sent a look of understanding in her direction. "I get it. When I moved into my place, it was July, so I didn't think much about the snow at first. Then again, my mind was focused on something else when it came to home maintenance."

Surprise and curiosity washed over her expression. "Oh, no. Did you have something that needed to be repaired after you moved in?"

Shaking my head, I answered, "No. I don't want to alarm you, but once spring hits, the grass cutting begins."

"That's going to continue through the summer when it's sweltering hot outside, isn't it?" she questioned me.

"I'm afraid the grass grows in the summer, too," I returned.

Her shoulders fell as she dropped her head back and closed her eyes. "Maybe I'm not going to like this as much as I thought."

Laughter spilled out of me. "It's not so bad. The snow can be a bit cumbersome, but the grass cutting isn't horrible."

Mia shook her head. "I don't think I'm cut out for either of them."

Surely, Mia had to have considered that she'd need to do regular maintenance around her property. It was an obvious part of homeownership. Or, well, it should have been. Maybe she had believed her boyfriend would help her with tasks like snow removal and grass cutting—it's what I would have done for her if she was mine—but considering how selfish I knew her boyfriend to be, it didn't surprise me that he clearly hadn't told her he'd come by to help her today. He was probably still pissed that Mia bought the house without him and decided this would be the perfect way to show her how he felt about it. He likely thought he'd be teaching her a lesson.

It blew my mind.

I couldn't imagine having a woman like Mia in my life and not bending over backward to do everything I could to show her how much I cared for her.

Hell, she was merely my neighbor, and she always made me feel happier whenever I had the opportunity to talk to her. It was only when I had those lingering bouts of jealousy or bitterness about her being with a bad guy that I ever had a negative thought. And those thoughts were never directed at her.

Unwilling to put myself in a bad mood by even mentioning her boyfriend and asking her if he planned to come and help her, I reasoned, "Well, there are people you can hire if you decide you don't want to do it."

"Yeah, I can't do that. It would feel like such a waste of money right now, especially when I'm completely capable."

I couldn't disagree with that sentiment. I'd always felt that way, too. "You're like me. Though it'd save me time by not having to do it myself, I have this thing about paying people to do something I'm more than capable of doing on my own."

Nodding her agreement, Mia's eyes scanned the area she needed to shovel. "There's so much left. If I don't get back to it, I'm afraid I might not ever get it done."

There was a battle happening inside my head. I'd given Mia a suggestion to hire someone, but she wasn't willing to do it. I thought her boyfriend should be here helping her, but it wasn't my place to say that.

And the words my brother had said to me were lingering in the back of my mind. If the guy she was with was such a dick, it was likely he wouldn't be around much longer. Showing Mia the kind of guy I was could work in my favor.

"I'll tell you what," I started. "I'm going to get my space cleared over here, and once I'm finished, I can come over to help get your space cleared for you."

"Oh, Brock, that's very sweet of you to offer, but I can't ask you to do that," she replied.

"You didn't. I offered."

"Technically, yes, you did. But even if I could bring myself to accept that offer, there's so much snow to shovel. You'd be out here all day."

I shook my head. "It's not as backbreaking as you might think, because I've got a snowblower."

Her eyes widened. "You do?"

"Yep."

"So, why are you using a shovel?"

I shrugged. "I wanted to get some exercise."

She shot me an incredulous look. "I swear, I'm convinced I'll never understand men."

Maybe that was because she was with a man who acted like a spoiled brat. "We're not that complicated. Trust me."

Mia tapped her finger on her chin and eyed me with a glimmer of amusement in her eyes. "And yet, you stand there with a shovel when you have a working snowblower."

Laughing, I promised, "I'm going to pull it out in a bit. I'm just getting a path cleared, and I'm going to shovel out the walkway from the driveway to my front door. So, honestly, if you want me to take care of your snow for you, I can do it."

Mia allowed her eyes to roam over my face for a bit, and I could see the questions lingering there. But she never asked them. Instead, she stated, "I'll work on my walkway for now and clear out what I can. But if you really wouldn't mind helping, I'd be so appreciative."

I dipped my chin. "Of course. Let me get back to working on this, and I'll be over soon to help."

"Thank you, Brock. It really means a lot to me."

"You're welcome, Mia. Don't worry about it."

With that, I got back to work on clearing out the snow at my house. It didn't take long, since I decided to spend less time using the shovel, so I could get it done faster and help Mia sooner.

I only hoped my brother was right. With any luck, Mia was going to see that she deserved better than what she had.