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Skylar never minded helping, especially lately, since her dad had been working so much. But she hated seeing her mom so tired.
Skylar stilled, mid-way up the staircase. She’d seen her mother act like this before—exhausted, rundown, at the end of her emotional wits.
As if conjured by her thoughts, her mother reappeared in the hall and paused at the sight of Skylar lingering on the steps. “I thought I told you to go—”
“You’re pregnant.”
Her mother’s eyes bulged. “What?”
“You’re pregnant, aren’t you?” Jesus, she knew McCulloughs were into big families, but at some point it began to seem a little irresponsible. “Mom, how could you let this hap—”
“Oh, give me a break, Skylar. I barely have the energy to dress myself let alone have another baby. And your father sleeps at the lab more than he sleeps at home, lately. Get real and get those diapers up to your brother.”
“Have you taken a test?”
“No, and I’m not going to. I know my body. I’m not pregnant.”
“But without a test—”
“For the love of God, Skylar, I know you worship your father, but the man is, in fact, human. Unless I’m working on the second coming of Jesus, there is no way in all of God’s holy land that I’m pregnant! Are you satisfied?”
Satisfied, and a bit chastised, she huffed. “Fine.” Maybe her mom’s foul mood was the result of needing to get laid. She marched up the steps to find James.
With Frankie away at Penn State and her dad’s busy schedule, they were short two men. Skylar didn’t have an abundance of time, but she helped out when she could.
However, lately, she’d been working on focusing a little more on herself. If Skylar were able to actually get ahead on her plans, she might be a greater help to her overpopulated family as a whole. But prisoners of Alcatraz had an easier time escaping than the females in her family.
Classes at the local community college ate up a great deal of her schedule. Finals were around the corner, so she sometimes crammed at the library until it closed. With so many relatives always buzzing about, quiet places to study were extremely hard to find.
She’d been a student at the community college for more than two years, but her time there was finally coming to an end. By the New Year, she’d be in possession of one associate’s degree and half way to her bachelor’s. Things were about to get very expensive.
When Skylar didn’t have her nose stuffed in a book, she was racing around town delivering pizzas. With the holidays approaching, and a ton of relatives on her gift list, she’d been picking up as many hours as possible at her grandfather’s Italian restaurant.
Money equaled freedom. The more financially stable she became, the easier it would be to finish her degree.
Yet, somehow, the direct focus on herself with little thought of others always filled her with guilt, as if she should be thinking of her family first. Maybe she should dial it back to help out more at home.
Her stomach pinched at the thought. How would that work when everything inside of her wanted to move forward with her dreams of becoming a teacher?
She wanted to help her family, but she also needed to think about herself. Hopefully, her dad would get approved for the grant and things would go back to normal soon, because no matter how strong her mother was, she was never quite as happy as she seemed when her dad stuck by her side.
When Skylar found Vinnie, he seemed put out at having to watch his brother for all of twenty minutes. “Mom wants you to give her a hand shucking the corn.”
He scoffed as if this was an extreme hardship. Skylar was certain he had other crucially important thirteen-year-old things to do.
“Go help her, Vinnie. And don’t complain.”
“Why can’t you help her—”
Before he could finish the sentence, she sent him a scathing glare that said she helped plenty and he better get his butt down stairs and shuck some corn.
“Fine,” he grumbled, closing out whatever game he played on his phone.
She shook her head and scooped James off the floor. “Where’s Hannah?”
Vinnie shoved his feet into his shoes and stood. “Who knows? Probably sexting Jason.”
“Ew. Don’t say that about our sister.”
“She drools over every random that contacts her. Her phone’s a cellular biohazard.”
“Vinnie, stop it! You would punch anyone else for disrespecting your sister, so don’t you talk about her like that.”
He shrugged and went down stairs. She carried James to the daybed against the wall. “Does your belly feel better?”
“My truck!” He pointed to the toy truck on the carpet.
Skylar retrieved the toy and handed it to him, earning a great big smile. “If only everyone’s problems could be solved so easily.”
James needed the most care, but he still held the rank of the easiest sibling at the moment. Her younger sister, Hannah, was at that age where the world felt like it was caving in, and the slightest inconvenience earned a massive, dramatic meltdown. It also didn’t help that Hannah had never been the sort to suffer in silence.
