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She parked on the street and made her way through piles of slush the warm day had produced. “You said you were coming tomorrow.”
“What a way to welcome your mother.” Destiny Reed stood aloof, leaning her back against her driver’s door. She reeked of cigarettes. “Surprise, Baby. I came a day early.”
Melody tried to put on a brave face. This was the last thing she needed any day, least of all tonight. “So I see. I’m sorry I haven’t gotten the house ready yet.”
“Figures. As if I didn’t give you enough notice. Well, what are you waiting for? Get my bags.”
Like a robot, Melody obeyed, hauling two large suitcases, one in each hand. The strain made cramps shoot up and down in sharp strikes like lightning, but she made it to the door before dropping the bags to her cement step. “Were you waiting long?”
“Longer than I should have. You didn’t answer my calls.”
Melody had silenced her phone so she could focus on Jeremy. Anew, the loss of tonight washed over her. TJ’s deceit, bad as it was, wasn’t the worst of it. It was the reality that did her in. She had never been good enough for TJ. He just didn’t realize it yet.
“Sorry about that. Make yourself comfortable.” She went straight to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom for another dose of Tylenol. Hopefully tomorrow would be the last day. The cramps usually settled enough by the third day that she could reduce the medication intake.
“Still a drama queen, eh? Didn’t expect that to change.”
Melody turned and found her mom had followed her into her tiny bathroom. Feeling stifled, she tried to slip around her, but her mom blocked the doorway. Her eyes scanned the contents of the open medicine cabinet, and then she reached for a bottle.
“That’a girl. Makin’ sure you don’t end up a single mom like me.”
Melody wanted to knock the prescription of birth control from her mother’s hands. She didn’t know that Melody hadn’t used it in a year and a half. She didn’t know that the prescription was expired. Why had Melody even kept it?
“You sure didn’t make single parenting look fun.”
“You know why?” Her mom slapped the bottle on the counter and left the room. Melody trailed behind her. “Because it wasn’t. Not a bit.”
Here came the part about how she should have listened to Melody’s father, whoever the poor soul was, and aborted her pregnancy. Melody had heard it on repeat her whole life until her mom left. She was immune to it by now. Sometimes she wished her mom had done it.
No one would really care if she didn’t exist. Not her mom. Not God. Well,maybenot God.
TJ would.
“You can have the bedroom,” she said, shoving thoughts of TJ away. “I’ll take the couch. How long are you staying?”
“I don’t know. We’ll see how things work out.”
Her mom was here to freeload. Despair sank through Melody. Didn’t she have any say in this? Wait, what had Jeremy said about setting boundaries?
But that had been TJ. Jeremy didn’t exist…
Melody’s face burned with shame. Since the day she met TJ Halverson, one of her biggest goals was to keep him from knowing what a despicable person she was. What kind of girl couldn’t get her mom to love her?
“Make me some dinner. I’m starved. Where are your manners, girl?”
Melody scuttled to the kitchen, searching through cabinets, slamming drawers, her pulse increasing until she feared for her very real heart. “What do you want to eat?”
“Still can’t cook, huh? Not surprising. You never did it well.”
Melody closed her eyes, leaning her head against the cabinet. “Pasta?”
“Whatever.”
Her hands shook while she cooked, and when she tried to hand her mom a plate, it slipped and crashed to the floor, spilling shells and red sauce in every direction. Curses spewed from her mother’s mouth, and Melody withered back.
“Stupid, stupid girl! Can’t you do anything right? You’ll never learn, will you?”
She was ten all over again, cowering under her mom’s rage. “I’m sorry, Mom. I’m sorry.” She dropped to all fours with paper towels and a sponge. “I’ll get you a new plate.”
