Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Hadley

Just my luck.

I wanted to look up to the sky and yell why me? Instead, I kept my panicky gaze locked on the giant man across the lawn from my car.

Even with grocery bags in his hands—mundane stuff—he scared the living daylights out of me in the Piggly Wiggly. I wasn’t comfortable around intimidating guys like him—tall, surly, and heavily tattooed. I could feel his testosterone a mile away. Heck, I could feel his glare squashing me like a fly from this distance.

Was he really the guy that bought the house? It had been on the market almost a year. I thought that maybe in another few months I’d be able to nab it before it was sold. Of course, that became a fantasy when the For Sale sign was removed last month and the movers were here earlier. Who was he? I refused to believe he was the owner.

I closed my eyes and chanted, only four more months, only four more months. Graduate nursing school. Pass my exam. Get a job at the hospital. Leave these apartments. I was getting antsy being so close to having all of my goals checked off.

As if Eli could sense my anxiety, he kicked me right in the bladder, and my legs bent inward. I turned away from Bad Man-Devil-Demon Worshipper and rushed to the opened trunk. “Help Mommy carry these. I’ve got to pee.” I took a deep breath and frowned at Lucy. “Stop staring, and for heaven’s sake, stop pointing!”

She dropped her hand and walked over to me. I knew better than to grab too much from the store. One, because I was too pregnant to carry too much up three flights of stairs. Two, I was too broke to afford much more than the frozen pizzas and juice that had to last until payday in two days. I gave Lucy the pizzas to carry while I got the juices, then shut the trunk and rushed as quickly as a pregnant lady could move.

By the second flight of stairs, I was singing, “Gotta pee, gotta pee, gotta pee so bad.”

So Lucy followed up with, “Mommy’s gotta pee, gotta pee, gotta pee so bad.”

I slammed through the door and dropped the juice on the floor. “Make sure the door’s shut!”  I yelled at Lucy as I ran for the toilet. My back hurt constantly. My vagina hurt. I couldn’t stop peeing. I went to the doctor last week and was already dilated two centimeters. I had to be careful at this point. Eli needed to stay put at least one more month even if I was ready for this pregnancy to be done.

I washed my hands and glanced at myself in the mirror. Fudge, I looked so horrible, but I didn’t have it in me to do anything about it. Maybe after Eli was born… Hadley, you’re a terrible liar.

Truth was, I barely had time for myself when Scott lived there. These days, I definitely didn’t have the time to take care of myself.

It would get better.

Just like Scott’s betrayal didn’t hurt as much as it did months ago…almost. After I kicked Scott and Briana out that night, a terrible numbness came over me. It took a few hours of Lucy coaxing words out of me before I finally broke down and cried. What more could I have said or done? Everything I thought I had was ripped out from under my feet. God, I was so stupid. So foolish. So ashamed of myself. It was amazing how fast a person matured when someone destroyed your fantasy. I found out quickly that Prince Charming was only a toad, first loves were just a scam, and love only existed with one’s parents and sister.

I could never love another man like I loved Scott. I wouldn’t even give anyone the chance after him. No one else would hurt me again.

Good thing I was a mom. The last thing on my mind was a man. Well, except for the little man in my stomach. I rubbed it soothingly as I waddled to the hallway. Lucy had already carried everything to the kitchen.

“Pizza again?” Lucy whined.

“Just a couple of more days until Mommy gets paid,” I told her while patting her head. I paused a second. “Want to go to Mamaw’s and let her feed us?”

Lucy bounced on her heels. “Yes!”

I called my parent’s house and Dad answered, “Y’all coming over?”

I smirked even though he couldn’t see. “We want spaghetti and peach cobbler.”

“You mean you want peach cobbler? Don’t be using Lucy to get what you’re craving when you know your mom will make it if you simply ask. You wanted to be a mom that’s just the way it works.”

I rolled my eyes. “Fine. Tell her I want peach cobbler.”

“Tell her yourself.” He hung up.

Cranky old man.

_____

Dad did tell her I wanted peach cobbler. She was sticking it in the oven when Lucy and I arrived. When we entered the house, Dad got out of his recliner and took Lucy in the kitchen with him. I knew it was just a ruse to get up and let me have his seat. I groaned in relief as I laid back and propped my feet up. I didn’t get a chance like this at the apartment. I was always noticing all the cleaning that had to be done. It was a small reprieve from being on my feet all night too. I was trying to work for as long as I could before Eli came, but I didn’t think I’d make it much longer. Being a CNA at the nursing home was a lot of heavy lifting—a lot of everything to be honest. Although I lifted no one without an assistant, I shouldn’t be doing it at all this far along in my pregnancy. Georgie didn’t even know that sometimes I still did it because other workers moped around. I couldn’t handle not getting things done when they were supposed to. I’d admit the nights I worked with Georgie though, she forced me to sit around and would hardly let me do anything.

I pulled my phone out and shot Scott a text.

Are you still coming to get Lucy this weekend?

Scott kept her every other weekend. It used to be every weekend. Lately, it was none at all. There for a while, I thought he’d give me a hard time over custody. He preached about how he was always with Lucy at night when I worked, and he didn’t want to put her through it. Boy, he fooled me again.

It started out as delayed pickups to skipping entire weekends. But that was seven months ago when Lucy saw her dad every single day. Now she was lucky if she saw him once a month. Scott didn’t hesitate to point out that the situation was my fault. He mentioned we should work it out. I couldn’t believe how the words still came out of his mouth like a normal conversation.

I supposed he expected me to be okay with him screwing my cousin while he was with me, especially in our room with our daughter listening in. He’d been with Briana after that night for a month, maybe two. Dad called her every name in the book when he saw her at another cousin’s party last month. They weren’t still together, but there had to be someone. Why else would he not come and see Lucy?

Scott: Yeah. How about I take us to the movies?

Hadley: You and Lucy? Yes, she’d love that. She misses you.

Scott: She wouldn’t miss me if you’d just let me come home. Our son is about to be born soon.

Hadley: I’m not keeping them from you. You can come and see Lucy whenever you want. It will be the same way when Eli is born.

Scott: Well, whatever.

I dropped my phone on my lap and rubbed my forehead. Scott was good at trying to make me feel guilty for kicking him out. I’d do anything for Lucy but taking her father back was something I couldn’t do. Not even if it meant she’d see him more. I could forgive his laziness along with his knack of not wanting to work. I took him as he was, but I could never take being cheated on. I still couldn’t understand what he didn’t get from me. What did I do so wrong to make him lay with another woman when all I expected from him was to be faithful to me?

I let my head fall back and closed my eyes only to wake up sometime later by Lucy climbing on my lap. “Come eat!”

“Careful around her belly, Luce,” Dad told her as she climbed off of me. I pushed myself up and walked into the kitchen where Mom was setting the table. She handed me a plate and made Lucy’s so I didn’t have to get up once I sat down.

“Does Bubby like peaches that much?” Lucy asked me as she eyed the peach cobbler Mom placed on top of the oven.

I nodded. “Yeah. Can’t get enough.” That was why Mom kept the ingredients on hand. I smiled as I dug into the spaghetti.

“Have you heard from Olivia?” Dad asked me.

My sister moved out of state a few years ago. She was a high school teacher and my best friend despite being so many miles away. It was unexplainable. I didn’t need to see her as long as I got to hear from her every day. “Yeah, this morning,” I told him.

The night I found out about Scott, Olivia had been the first one I called. What did she do? Drove all the way home, used some of her days at work, and saved me from me. She stayed with Lucy and I that week while she built me back up with chocolate and hugs. It was impossible for her to heal me, but she gave me what was needed to push myself through the long month after kicking Scott out. Olivia gave me the strength required to keep him from weaseling his way inside my head again. His family was mean, but they only got worse toward me. I hoped whatever they said about me when they were around Lucy went in one ear and out the other. I didn’t talk to people about Scott when Lucy was around, though, I could. Even Dad knew to keep his mouth shut about Scott.

“When is she coming home to visit?” Dad inquired.

“Instead of asking Hadley, why not call her up yourself?” Mom asked. She got a grunt in reply.

“She’ll be in this summer,” I told him.

And that was that. The rest of the dinner we talked about random things until it was time for Lucy and me to go home. Of course, Dad bent down to Lucy while Mom was putting on her shoes so that I didn’t have to. “Want to stay with Papaw tonight?” he asked her.

She shook her head and rushed to me just so she could wrap her little arms around my waist. I rubbed her head affectionately. “No, I’m going home with Mommy.”

“Are you sure?” Mom glimpsed down at her with a smile. “Mamaw will cook gravy and biscuits in the morning.”

Lucy shook her head again. “No, come on, Mommy.” She hurried to the door and opened it for us.

“I’m fine,” I told them as I hugged them goodbye and left. They were trying to keep Lucy tonight just so I could get some rest on my day off. They were so easy to read.