Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 72196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
They did, twenty minutes later, and I still was no closer to figuring out what to do or say to Hannah than I had been when I walked to their room and sat down on Reggie’s bed to wait for them.
When they came in fully dressed, I pointed to their beds.
They hopped in them and situated themselves, but continued to carry on as if it were midday instead of nearing two hours past their bedtime.
“G’night, girls,” I drawled to the two giggling hyenas. “Don’t make me come in here and turn this TV off because y’all are talking, okay?”
Both girls nodded enthusiastically, and I gave them each a kiss before leaving the room.
When I came out from saying goodnight to them, Hannah was just coming out of TJ’s room.
We both stilled in the hallway, staring at each other.
She much more warily than I was.
“Wanna take this to our room?”
She didn’t say anything but headed in the direction of the bedroom. The moment we both crossed the threshold, I closed the door and locked it for good measure before turning around to study her.
She was sitting in a chair that usually had clothes in it in the corner of the room.
I didn’t know where to begin. There was so much that I needed to apologize for, that I went with my gut.
“I don’t understand why me not celebrating Valentine’s Day is a cause for you to go off on me,” I blurted.
I mean, nobody could ever say that I wasn’t good at words. Right?
She tilted her head.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She crossed her arms angrily over her chest. “I went off on you today because you made Reggie cry.”
My heart thudded against my rib cage.
“I never meant to make her cry, Han,” I told her. “But Joshua isn’t going to be a part of her life. I’ve been in her life for a year now, and not once have I seen him. If he were going to be around, he’d be here by now. I would’ve seen him.” I hesitated in what I had to say next, knowing that it wasn’t going to be nice to hear. “You’re doing her a disservice by not telling her that he’s a piece of shit.”
“I can’t tell my daughter that her father is a piece of shit,” she shot back.
I waved my hand in the air to clear it. “That’s not what I mean, and you know it. You need to stop telling her you’ll call. You need to tell her that it’s a possibility that he’s not going to come, and stop giving her false hope that today will be the day that he actually shows.”
She looked away.
I knew that I’d hit home with that one.
“In the year or so that I’ve been in her life, I’ve watched her cry over the fact that he’s not around, and it fucking hurts to see. I know it does. The problem is that I’m a better father than he ever has been, or will be.”
“Yeah, right,” she snorted. “You forgot my kids today. I noticed how you didn’t forget yours.”
I clenched and unclenched my jaw.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I never, not ever, would’ve forgotten Reggie or TJ on purpose. I was in the garage, I’d left my phone in the house, and I had to take my watch off to work on the pistons in the motor,” I told her. “I’m not used to picking them up, Han.”
She shot me a glare.
“Well, that’s the truth.”
My stomach tightened. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that you don’t have anything to do with picking them up. I have to pay for the daycare. I’m the one that lost my job because of your ex-wife. I’m the one that had to scramble to find something, and take it even though I really didn’t want to do that job.”
“Every time I give you money for the daycare bill, you leave it on the counter.”
She looked away.
“Why?”
She took a deep breath, and then let it out.
“Joshua tried to control our marriage with money,” she said, finally giving me her eyes for the first time since this discussion started. “It started out with help with nursing school, then morphed into him paying for Reggie’s daycare, my car note, the house note. It all spiraled, and when he left, I was financially dependent on him for everything. It nearly broke me.”
I fucking hated Joshua. He was a jerk and a half. As if I didn’t hate him enough for what he’d done to Reggie each time that she waited outside for a man that was never going to show up, now I had to hear this.
“TJ is half my child, Han,” I told her gently. “And my mother would love to watch them for free. Which she offered to you from the beginning.” I held my hand up when she went to argue with me. “And I know that you don’t want to put her out, but my mother would absolutely adore watching him.”