Page 115 of Falling in Love with Two

This time, she shakes her head while tears pour from her eyes.

I encourage her to sit up so I can have a seat and put her head in my lap.

When we are situated, I say, “Tell me what happened.”

“I went over there to talk to her, and it all blew up in my face.”

“How so?”

She wipes a tear from her cheek. “She fucking hates me.”

I run my fingers through her hair, ready to let her explain everything at her own pace.

It doesn’t take long for her to open up and tell me everything. “When I first got there, she assumed I needed money. Then, she said she was surprised this was my first kid. I guess she thought I didn’t know how to use a condom or something. She scolded me for having a baby out of wedlock and told me she knew the baby’s dad was a loser. That pissed me off more than anything.”

She falls silent.

“Leah? Talk to me, gorgeous.”

She sits up and looks at me with a quivering lip. “Because I’ve done a whole hell of a lot of dumb shit in my life. A lot. My mom probably has a lot to be ashamed of, but you aren’t in that category. You are so good to me…and the baby. She doesn’t get to insult you.”

An extreme sense of pride fills my chest, knowing that she was ready to go to war for me even though her mom was being awful to her.

Through her tears, she says, “She doesn’t know anything about you. And she would barely even let me talk.”

“I’m sorry, baby.” I wipe a tear off her cheek. “I love that you stood up for me, though.”

She sighs. “I just don’t get how she can hate me so much.”

“Sounds like she has some shit she needs to work out. What did she say when you told her you wanted her to be a more involved grandma?”

“She doesn’t want anything to do with me or our baby. She said some people are just bad for each other, and she doesn’t need any of my drama.”

Anger courses through me. How can someone be that cold and callous to their own kid—especially when that kid came to make amends?

She pushes her hair out of her face. “Maybe she’s right. I’m the one that walked out.”

I stop her. “Hey, this is not your fault. You left a bad situation. Instead of trying to get her daughter back, she just let you go. It’s not like she reached out over the past decade. You’re the one who wanted to make it right. That takes guts.”

She sighs. “I guess you were right. Going over there was a horrible idea.”

“I didn’t want to be right.”

Her eyes fall to her lap. “She told me she hopes our daughter is a huge disappointment to us like I am to her.”

I grind my teeth, trying to figure out how to censor myself. “Leah, you are, by far, the toughest woman I’ve ever met in my life. You’ve had so much shit thrown at you, and you still manage to handle every bit of it. You’ll kick anyone’s ass, and you’re witty as hell. If she’s too blind to see that, then, fuck her.”

Okay, I didn’t do so great at censoring myself.

She leans forward to kiss me. “You’re the sweetest. I just wish that I would’ve had that bad-ass attitude when I was over there. I should’ve went off on her and told her all the shit that she did wrong, but…”

“You were hurt.”

“Yeah.”

“And you wanted things to work out for our daughter. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

She groans. “I feel like an idiot.”

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