“And you?”
I spoke up about it to Dad about a week after she came home. He told me to give it time. And I did, and I’ll continue to do so. But it still doesn’t make anything easier.
I shrug, and he claps me on my shoulder. “Just keep fighting, son. That’s all you can do.”
I just nod, knowing he’s right.
“Come on. Sitting all the way over here isn’t going to help.”
I agree and walk in step with him to my girl’s table. Giving her space might be the right thing, or it might not. There isn’t a clear manual about this. But I know it’s the right move when I come up behind her and she sinks back into her chair to glance up at me and smile before looking back at her misfit friends.
“So, you guys didn’t know?” Bailey asks them, and I wrap my arm around her, squeezing her shoulder in encouragement. I knew she was going to talk about this with them tonight; it was half the reason she wanted to go out. She didn’t want whatever they say to make her hate the safe areas she has right now.
“That Carolyn is your half-sister?” Kitten asks.
This is followed quickly by Jordan asking, “Or that you were married to that asshole?”
I feel her flinch at his words and lean in closer. She might not like talking about it, but I think it’s good for her to get it out there. Learning that she judged someone so badly is difficult to get over. I try to remind my Troublemaker that she didn’t make Troy do any of this. She did nothing wrong, but it’s still not easy for her to talk about it.
“Both.” They all shake their heads, and she lets out a breath and runs her hand through her hair. “Thanks, guys. He said… well, he said a lot. I know I shouldn’t trust much of it, but I had to know. He said everyone knew who my dad was, and thatheonly dated me because my dad would eventually claim me or something.”
Kitten reaches her hand across the table, and Bailey returns the gesture, their clasped hands resting in the middle. “You’ve got to know that he was probably just saying shit to piss you off ’cause you saw him for the disgusting creature he is. Right? If I know you, you probably even called him out on his shit—something I doubt many do.” Kitten lets go of Bailey’s hand after a squeeze and picks up her Diet Coke. Looking more at the drink than anything else, she keeps talking. “He probably felt like he needed to take you down a few pegs, and what better way than to pull on some old fears of being unwanted?”
“Kitten,” Flint growls lightly behind Kitten, and she glances back to see him. He was just walking by, but he must have been listening enough to catch what his girl said. From this angle, I can see the confusion on her face before he looks back at Troublemaker and keeps walking. Kitten follows his line of sight, and her eyes go wide.
“Oh, sorry, Bailey. I didn’t… I didn’t mean it.”
Bailey sniffs back a few tears, but she nods. “It’s okay. You’re right. It’s a fear that I need to let go of.” She turns to me and smiles. “I’m working on it.”
I kiss her forehead in support.
“Guess that explains the whole jealousy thing with Carolyn,” Jordan says to break the tension. “Her dad was always hard on her but seemed to be too friendly to you.” He shudders at that and makes a foul face. It makes me wish the guy wasn’t dead and I could have a talk with him.
“I rarely spoke to him,” Bailey says with a headshake.
“Yeah, but when you did, he never sneered down at you. He always seemed to have something nice to say, or at least not anything negative,” Miles adds.
“What did your mom and dad say?” Gidget, Miles’s wife, asks as she leans into her husband and sips her ginger ale.
“I haven’t spoken to them yet.”
Something I’ve also noticed since she got back. I’ve only really known my girl for a short time, but I know how many times she spoke to her mom and saw them for weekly dinners. But now? Dinners happen, but she keeps to herself, and it’s become a habit of letting the phone go to voicemail when they call. I never thought that maybe this was a reason why she’s been distancing herself.
“I don’t know if they know,” she says in a lost voice that makes me want to wrap her in my arms and remind her that she’s safe. “They always told me they just knew who birthed me because Mom was her delivery nurse. When I asked about my dad, they just told me that none was listed on the birth certificate, which is true. But what if—” She bites her bottom lip and looks at her friends, her eyes searching each of them for something. Perhaps for them to see it from her side or to tell her something that she doesn’t know to make all this go away. “What if they knew all this time and lied to me?”
“Then they’re damn good parents,” my dad huffs, and the entire table looks at him, just now noticing him there. In typical fashion, he’s silent most of the time, but he makes a big impact when he wants to. “We protect our kids. It might seem harsh from the outside, but we know what’s best for them. If some guy who only did the right thing by not pulling out was never going to claim you, then they probably didn’t want you to carry that with you. Especially when they were more than happy to call you theirs.”
More tears gather in my girl’s eyes as she gives him a watery smile, and her shoulders ease down from her ears. “Thanks, Mike. I never saw it like that, but you’re probably right. If I know anything about my parents, they’ll protect me with every fiber of their being.”
I nod at that. Haven’t spent much time with them, but I know that much. Since that first night when we realized Troublemaker was taken, I’ve kept them in the loop with any progress we made. But just her pops. Dionne is nice, but I didn’t want to get her hopes up. Avery knew the score. He knew and understood that I would get more bad leads than good ones the longer we went. Hell, even since I brought her home, I still keep in contact with them. Not calls, but texts when they ask how she’s doing. Usually, they text after a phone call that goes unanswered by Bailey. They’re just as worried about her as I am, probably more so since they don’t get to see her all the time like I do. No one will let her get taken again, not a single soul.
“Yo, Gator.”
I look across the room and see Bass’s chin lift at me, which I return. “Got to talk to Bass. Be back soon. Try to stay out of trouble.” I kiss her lips quickly, and she smiles.
“Where’s the fun in that?”
She and I might have some unknowns, but her teasing and smiling at me like this gives me hope that we’ll be okay.
