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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.
