Page 99 of Merritt and Her Childhood Crush
“She’s having the baby!” Isabelle screams, thrusting the phone at me. I take it, holding it to my chest as Izzy hugs me, then hugs Mom, then Merritt, who is starting to back away, her eyes down.
“Mom wants to talk to you,” Isabelle says, still dancing around the yard, kicking up little clouds of dirt.
Sighing, I put the phone to my ear, giving Merritt a pleading look.Don’t go.
She pauses, but her lips are pressed in a tight line. All the joy has been washed from her face, like it was never there at all. She hugs her arms around herself, and I hate the vulnerability this phone call is causing.
“Cass?” I say.
Her words come through the line in a desperate rush. “It's time and Adam’s in surgery across town and the doula went to the wrong hospital and I’mall alone.”
The last part goes from fast talking to a groan. I don’t know what a doula is, but it’s clear what Cassidy wants from me right now. She curses quietly and then gives a small sob.
“I don’t know that I can be there,” I say.
“Hunter, please. I know it shouldn’t be you, but I need someone. I don’t want to be by myself.”
She needs Adam, but I can hardly fault the guy for being a surgeon. Or fault Cassidy for wanting someone to be with her.
“What about your parents?”
She laughs. “You think my mom and dad would be helpful right now?”
No—they absolutely wouldn’t. Her parents are germophobes. I doubt they’ll even go to the hospital to meet the baby. They’ll just wait until Cassidy is home.
“I wasn’t helpful the first time,” I tell her, dragging a hand over my beard.
“I needsomeone,” Cassidy pleads, and even though I want to kill her for this, I also know I can’t leave her alone.
“I want to go to the hospital, Daddy,” Izzy says. “I want to meet the baby.”
Vroom starts barking as Mom wraps an arm around Izzy and leads her away a few steps. “Honey, your mom needs to focus on the baby right now. You come with us just like we planned. Dinner and ice cream, remember? Then you can meet the baby tomorrow or the next day.”
Cassidy lets out another groan, only slightly louder than Vroom and Banjo who are chasing each other in circles around the yard. My stress level ratchets up a little higher. Merritt is still standing a little ways off, waiting.
Isabelle shrugs out of Mom’s arms. “But I want to see Mommynow. She’s having the babynow.”
Mom reaches for Izzy again, but she lunges away and makes a beeline for me, grabbing me around the waist before bursting into tears. “Daddy, what if Mommy loves the baby more than me? And what if I hate the baby or the baby hates me?” she bawls. “I’m s-s-s-scared.”
“Please,” Cassidy begs in my ear. “You know I would only ask this in an emergency … ahhhhh.”
Her pleading words move into another long groan, telling me she’s pretty far along in this process. So far that if I don’t go now, I may not make it at all.
I am slowly sinking into what feels like emotional quicksand. Pulled deeper by my ex-wife’s voice in my ear and my daughter’s small hands clutching the back of my jeans as she sobs.
Glancing up at Merritt, I know she’s already as good as gone. Giving me a quick nod and a wave, she calls, “It’s fine. She’s having a baby. What can you do?”
Her shrug looks like an admission of defeat, and it’s only Isabelle glued to my body that keeps me from chasing Merritt to her car, giving her a kiss she won’t forget and a promise to reschedule our date.
It takes a minute after Merritt’s car starts for me to realize Cassidy hung up. My mom clucks her tongue as I lower the phone. Her look is pure disapproval. My parents have long been telling me I do too much for Cass, especially now that she’s married, and I didn’t realize until Merritt how right they are.
But is the time to deal with that really right this second as Cassidy has a baby?
Maybe if I realized this before or handled it earlier, Cass wouldn’t even think of asking me to come to the hospital. But now, I’m kind of stuck. Surely, Merritt and I can push off our talk for a day. Or two? I watch her tail lights, a sinking sensation settling in the pit of my stomach.
“Come here, Izzy,” Dad says as he tugs her arms from around my waist and lifts her into his arms. “Let’s take Vroom and the rest of the animals inside.” Isabelle is almost too big to be held like this and would usually shimmy away in protest, but right now, she buries her head in Dad’s shoulder and wraps her limbs around him like a baby monkey.
“Funny,” Mom says as she watches them move away. “Something about this situation feels familiar. It was at dinner, right? That you left Merritt and ran off to do another woman’s bidding?”
