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She blows on her tea. “I lost my mother young, too.” She reaches across the table to squeeze my hand. “It’s hard.”
“Some days it feels like it doesn’t hurt as bad anymore, and then—”
“Bam! Some days it hits you.”
“Exactly.”
“Today one of those days?”
“Kind of.”
Maureen looks over to where Olivia is sitting on the couch and sees that she’s still into her movie. “Are you sure your mood doesn’t have anything to do with our friend across the street?”
I shrug and look away. Don’t have the energy to deny it anymore.
“He’s just about the best young man I know.” Now she’s got my attention, because Maureen doesn’t dish out accolades very often. “My two sons together don’t make one half of the man he is, and that’s something I hate to admit.”
She looks out the window to see him hauling my bedding into the garage, probably on his way to the mudroom where the washer and dryer are.
“That one he married,” she whispers, “was terrible to him. I’d see him drive off for work in the morning only to see her letting some other fella in not an hour later. Big pregnant belly and she was still at it.” She nods in response to the open-mouthed stare I’m probably sporting. “And after the baby came she got worse. I had to let myself in a few times when I could hear Olivia screaming from across the street.” She shakes her head in disgust. “On the couch passed out drunk at noon, the baby upstairs laying in a dirty diaper. I finally told Leo I’d have to call child services if he didn’t do something about her.”
“What did he say to that?”
“Poor thing. He was maybe twenty-five? He started working from home a lot more and I volunteered to watch Olivia whenever he needed me.” She sips at her tea. “And then Carrie died soon after. Left him with a baby to raise and a scandal to deal with.”
“What do you mean?”
“The man who was driving the car when Carrie was killed went on trial for manslaughter. From what I understand he had more than just alcohol in his system. I’m sure she did too but they don’t speak ill of the dead.” Maureen rolls her eyes because she’d think nothing of speaking ill of anyone living or dead if they deserved it. “Well, stand-up guy that he was, the man gave an interview to a reporter and claimed he was the real victim in all this.” She lets out a cheerless laugh. “Claimed he was Olivia’s father and mental anguish or some other BS drove him to abuse drugs and alcohol.”
“Holy shit,” I whisper.
She nods. “Yep. So here’s Leo, trying to raise an infant all by himself, and showing up to court nearly every day of the trial for what reason I’ll never understand. Knowing Carrie the wayIdid, I didn’t care if the guy hung or got off scot free, but Leo’s more honorable than I am. Apparently that piece of trash gave some half-assed apology statement in which he said that he hoped to have a relationship with his daughter when he got out of prison someday. Leo got the paternity test, though. Proved Olivia was his. But can you imagine going through that ordeal?”
“No. I can’t”
She takes our cups to the sink, peeking her head back in to look at Olivia when she says, “So be easy on him, ok?”
I nod and then force a smile. “Ready to go, Libs?”
“Can we go in the pool?”
“Yeah, it’s hot. A swim sounds like a great idea.”
Holding my hand as we cross the street, Olivia looks up at me and says, “Daddy is mad at me.”
“Why do you think he’s mad?”
She tugs on my hand so I’ll look down at her. Making a scowling face she says, “He looked like this before.”
I laugh to lighten the mood. “He looks grumpy lots of times. Doesn’t mean he’s mad at you.”
“He is. I said something mean.”
“Hmm…When I say something that’s not nice, I apologize. I’m sure your dad will understand. We all get cranky and say things we don’t mean sometimes.”
“I told him I was gonna run away from home.”
I can’t help but wince. “Ooh, Libs. That would make your father sad more than anything else. Did you mean it? Do you want to run away?”
