I stopped immediately because the chipped and peeling paint poked me in the forehead, and I was reminded that lead poisoning wasn’t good for you.
Poor Holt only had one parent. I couldn’t be putting my life at risk like that.
I reluctantly pulled my head away from the peeling paint that lined the crappy wall next to the park I’d intended to take Holt to since it was such a nice morning.
“Dad…”
My phone beeped, and I pulled it away from my head and glanced at the screen.
I grimaced when I saw it was Joey.
Again.
Joey:
You’re such a fuckin’ bitch, sending that man to collect child support. I don’t even see the kid, so what’s the point of paying?
Joey:
If I see you at the wedding, I’m going to fuckin’ never let you hear the end of it. Might fuckin’ kill you while I’m at it.
“Dad,” I said carefully. “Did you go to Joey and make sure that he paid the child support like I asked you to?”
I’d been struggling, and the only way that I could make ends meet with the rent on the house I was renting was if Joey paid his child support.
I had no clue babies were so expensive, and Holt was draining me dry. Food, clothes every other week. Diapers.
“I didn’t go exactly…” Dad hedged.
“Who did?” I asked, hoping that he hadn’t done what I’d thought he did.
Of course, my luck wasn’t that good.
“I asked Copper if he and some of his boys could do it,” he said. “Did he not tell you when he dropped the money off?”
The money hadn’t been dropped off at the door.
It’d been placed on my kitchen counter with a Post-it Note that said ‘CHILD SUPPORT’ in big, bold, slashy letters.
I should’ve known that it’d come from Copper.
Though, the letter arriving wasn’t the first thing that’d happened in my house.
It was only the last in a long string of events.
The first time I’d really noticed the weird things happening, it’d been an empty bottle. A washed, and dried, empty bottle that’d been upside down in the bottle cleaning rack.
Then, when I knew that I was out of cereal for Holt, it’d been a brand new, value sized box, sitting on my counter ready for me to use with his cereal the next morning.
When I’d dressed Holt in a sleeper that I’d had to cut the feet out of, I’d woken up the next morning with Holt wearing a brand-new sleeper that fit him well.
Fuck.
Who was I kidding?
I might not have actively set eyes on Copper, but he hadn’t left me behind.
“Dad,” I said softly. “Would you be mad if I tried to pursue something with Copper?”
