Page 70 of Despite It All
“You’re joking.” Adam laughs it off and resets on the bench. “How have you never run into her before?”
I’ve decided to not dwell on the fact that a trip to visit my sister more often would have saved me a lot of time. At this point, I’m accepting this was how it was supposed to play out.
“Every time I’d visit my sister for the holidays, we would meet at our parent’s house in Charleston. I hadn’t been to Anna’s house since I bought it seven years ago.”
Adam chuckles and grabs the bar to start again. “I bet that was a real mindfuck. You just run into her on the street or something?”
This ought to be good. “Not exactly. I went to a kid’s birthday party with Anna for a friend of hers. Turns out, the girl she knew was Wyla, and the kid’s party was my daughter’s.”
I am in no way ashamed of my daughter, she will not be a secret from my team but I do feel a little bad when theshock hits both Adam and Justin. Adam’s arms give out and he drops the bar on his chest, and Justin is too busy with his jaw on the floor to notice.
“Shit.” I hurry over to help Adam get the weights back up with my good arm. Once it’s set, he shoots up.
“A daughter? You have a daughter?”
A smile grows across my face because yeah, I have a daughter. I pull my phone out and find some pictures of my girls. “Her name is Stevie and she’s four.”
Adam takes my phone and scrolls through. “Holy shit. You have a daughter.”
“I do.”
Justin glances around at the phone. “Fuck. What are you going to do?”
“What do you mean what am I going to do?”
Justin looks completely dumbfounded. “About having a kid? It seems convenient that once she found out who you are that she told you it’s yours.”
He did not just say “it.”
“Ignore him.” Adam tosses my phone back. “I’m happy for you, man.”
“Thanks, I’m hoping I can convince Wyla to move up here eventually, but for now I’ll be doing some extra traveling.”
Adam shrugs. “Hey, you do what you got to do, family comes first.”
“Yeah, it does.” My phone vibrates with a text from Wyla.
Anna brought Mom some t-shirts with your team on them and she got a little carried away on the sewing machine. Whatcha think?
A picture comes through next of Stevie with a toothy grin in a t-shirt that’s a little too big but has a skirt sewn on the bottom and my team's logo on the pocket. Another picture comes in with Stevie turned around and there’s my number on the back.
Everybody better be fucking glad I don’t know how to fly a plane or else I’d be hijacking ours taking it straight to my girls.
Chapter 23
Today has been shit. Scratch that, this whole week has been shit.
Work has been so insane. It’s been one emergency after another all week, not to mention Matt has been a total pain in my ass. He put in his notice Monday, and while I hoped we could be adults about the whole thing, he does not agree. I’ve been reminding myself all day today, one more week and he’ll be gone.
To add onto that, Stevie has cried every day to see Jett. It’s been two weeks since he left and the first week we managed somewhat fine. He FaceTimes us whenever he gets a free moment but Stevie’s begged to actually see him “not on the phone” this whole week.
I’ve tried taking her to do fun things after work to help distract her but it’s done nothing but make me exhausted and cause her to ask why her dad can’t come with us.
This morning, when I explained to her for the hundredth time that he would come back and is working right now, she cried crocodile tears and said, “Why do you and daddy have to work all the time?”
It gutted me. Tonight, the whole tub of ice cream is calling my name. And probably a good-ass cry. I miss Jett too. I miss him so much, but I can’t let on with that in front of Stevie. I’m her mother, and I have to be strong.
I climb in my car after another strenuous day at work and feel a definite headache coming on. The need for a mommy minute right now feels 100 percent necessary. I rest my head on the steering wheel and take deep breaths.
