Page 26 of His Bittersweet Regret

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Opal

“Opal, honey, you know we’d love to have you here, but there’s just nowhere to put you and a baby. We only have the one bedroom. Things are more expensive out here, so your father and I had to downsize the housing situation.”

“I understand,” I told my mother. It wasn’t just lip service. Going to stay with them, until I could get on my feet, was a longshot at best.

“When is the baby due?”

“A little less than two months to go now,” I confirmed, because knowing my mom, she wasn’t asking for exact dates. They wouldn’t matter to her. My parents weren’t bad people. They’d been good to me when I was younger. They just weren’t of the opinion that kids remained your responsibility once they hit that magic age of eighteen. They still cared – just not enough. Not like Marsh’s family always cared about their adult children.

“I see. Well, I’m not sure if we’ll be able to make it out there. Maybe, by Christmas, you’ll be in a position to fly out with the baby so we can meet her.”

“Him,” I corrected.

“Right. I forgot, you already found out it was a boy.”

“It’s your only grandchild, Mom. How could you forget?”

“Oh, stop. You know how I am,” she excused away her behavior. “I’ll tell your dad that you called. Love you. Take care of yourself, sweetheart.”

“Yep, you too,” I returned, but it was to the dial tone because Mom had already hung up the phone. I sat there, listening to the tone because I was just too tired to move. The doorbell ringing startled me out of my stupor. For some stupid reason, my heart kicked into fifth gear, thinking that it would be Marsh coming to explain that what I thought I saw wasn’t real. I knew it was, and yet, my stupid heart wouldn’t give up hope that my relationship with him wasn’t well and truly over.

I opened the door to find a Kennedy standing there, even though it wasn’t the one my heart pined for. “What are you doing here, Ryker?”

“I thought you might need me,” he suggested.

“He told you that I saw him coming out of Monica’s place, and that she kindly came down in her robe, to give him his underwear that he left behind?”

“That motherfucker!” Ryker fumed.

“Oh, I guess not, then,” I mumbled as I stepped back so Marsh’s brother could get into the apartment.

“Opal?” Ryker asked as he stepped inside.

“Yeah?”

“Why are there boxes everywhere?”

“I can’t afford to stay here after this month,” I admitted yet another defeat. It was something I didn’t bother telling my mother because it would have made no difference.

“What? I thought Marsh paid the rent up?”

“He did. He paid it six months out, which was the rest of our lease. I can afford it with a roommate, but no one wants to room with a newborn. I’ve interviewed a few people, or tried to, and the minute they see I’m pregnant, they say this isn’t the living situation they’re looking for. I can’t blame them.” I shrugged my shoulders. “When Marsh was here, we split the bills. Without the help, I can’t keep this place.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I was hoping to go move to Oregon,” I admitted.

“You said you wouldn’t,” he argued.

“I don’t have a lot of choices, Ry.”

“You can stay at our house. I’m sure Mom would tell you the same thing.”

I laughed. “Yeah, because I really want to sit through family dinners while your brother brings his dates around and ignores our son,” I growled.

“Opal, I need you to hear me out here. I honestly don’t think he knew about the baby until today.”

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