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Ryan wasn’t sure but since he had no experience with raising a kid decided to let it drop for now. But each time the girl called him that he wanted to walk out of his skin. He was sure that there was some sort of expectation behind that shit, and he wished like hell that her mom would tell her to quit it. He was no one’s dad and never planned to be.
CHAPTER 2
Misty heard them coming in as she was putting the finishing touches on dinner. From the tone of their voices, everything seemed to have gone okay; no one sounded upset. She flashed a quick little smile before settling down again. Things were coming along just fine, just the way she’d imagined. And she was glad that with each passing day, things were getting better and better, putting her doubts and fears of failure to rest.
In the beginning, she’d had some trepidation and worry that Ryan would walk away from her because of her child, but after years of being alone, she was adamant that that wasn’t going to happen. She’d made up her mind that she’d stop at nothing to hold onto him. She’d already lost at love once, and though she tried hard every day not to resent her daughter for it, she wasn’t sure how she’d have felt if the same thing happened again.
Not to mention the fact that she was way more in love with Ryan than she’d ever been with her high school sweetheart. Nathan was nowhere near Ryan’s caliber. She’d ignored and rightfully so, the admonishments from her best friend and her mother who had both scolded her for not coming clean about her motherhood right off the bat, but she knew that that was the surest way to send men running hard in the opposite direction and she’d been right.
Hadn’t Ryan balked at the mention of Connie? And that was after they’d gone to bed together, something that had pissed her off but which she’d hidden very well. She’d had to do some fast talking to keep him from running out of her life, but this time she’d come prepared. She wasn’t about to let a good man get away from her.
She’d sacrificed her youth and her happiness long enough, and now that Connie was older, it was her time to get back in the game. She’d lurked around Tinder looking for the right fit, and Ryan was it. It had taken her months, but as soon as she saw his photo and read his profile, she’d felt that clutch in her chest, and her girly bits had gone haywire. It hadn’t taken her any time at all to contact him and get the ball rolling.
She knew that given some time, Ryan would come around. Connie is a very sweet girl, and anyone would love to have her for their daughter. So what if she had to use some little underhanded tactics to land her man, he’s been hers for two years, and he doesn’t seem any worst for wear.
No one seems to understand how hard it is to be young and alone with needs. To have the whole world know your life story and look at you with pity. Or how it feels to hear the whispers even though people try to keep them from reaching your ears. She’d grown tired of being the town’s laughing stock, and even more so of the way people questioned why her ex would rather start a whole new family while ignoring the one he could’ve had with her.
For the first few years after Connie was born, it had been easy to let the narrative that Nathan was a deadbeat who didn’t want his own child flow. But once he got married and showed everyone that he was an upstanding man who was willing to take care of his children, well then, tongues started wagging once again.
It had been heartbreaking these last few years the way her ex had just ignored his own child. Fine, he hates her, the mother, but why did he have to take it out on the child? They’d gotten pregnant young, too young to be sure, but times have changed, and he’s no longer the same scared little boy he was back then.
She’d carried the burden on her own, with help from the government and very little from the community, and was able to put herself through school at night while taking care of her child all on her own with very few offers of babysitting. Nathan, on the other hand, had gone off to college with the help of his parents, landed a good job after graduation, and promptly married someone else and started a family. All within sight of the daughter, he didn’t want.
Misty felt the searing pain her thoughts usually brought on and tried not to let anything show on her face as her family came through the door. The animated way in which her daughter spoke almost broke her heart all over again, but her eyes were on her husband. She was checking to see if he was really okay or if he was hiding his annoyance so as not to hurt Connie’s feelings.
