Page 13 of Daddies' Holiday Toy
Margaret and Carson… Jeez. I still can’t get over it.
Now that I think about it, after all these years of Carson raging about how Maggie stole Holly away from him…now he’s sleeping with her again?
Isn’t that strange.
Of course, Carson’s version of the story has always been dramatic.
According to him, Maggie took their kid and ran because she couldn’t handle his free-living lifestyle.
But I remember the younger Carson, the restless, self-absorbed, and more interested in his car than diaper changes, who never seemed to get the hang of settling down.
He’d been young at the time when he and Maggie had their daughter, but to me that wasn’t exactly an excuse to fuck off and do whatever he wanted because it was easier than playing house.
He’d committed to having a kid with his then girlfriend after they got pregnant during a drunken New Years affair.
Quickly getting married to her right before their daughter had been born had been his way of “owning up to” his mistake and doing right by the woman, and newborn, he had decided to commit himself to.
However, the second things got tough, as they always did with families, he bailed.
I remembered the fights and Margaret’s tear-streaked face when she showed up to one of our many poker nights asking if any of us had seen her husband because he’d disappeared for the weekend without a word.
Carson has always chased something—success, freedom, another thrill—without ever actually finding the happiness he believed could be guaranteed on the other side.
It never sat right with me, but then again, it also wasn’t my business to dig my nose into.
Him and Maggie were two grown ass adults who needed to handle their issues themselves.
But then there was their daughter.
I’d only met her a handful of times back in those days, but from what I could recall she’d been full of energy.
The time Maggie had surprised us all up at the cabin with their kid in tow is a distinct memory.
I could still picture her: skinny little kid with big brown eyes and two messy braids, sitting cross-legged on the dock with a life jacket that swallowed her whole.
She dangled her bare feet over the water, watching the ripples with that quiet intensity kids get when they’re trying to figure out the world.
She was a good kid.
Too good for the hand she’d been dealt in life.
“What was that all about?” Reece asks.
“Apparently Carson wants to host a boys trip up at the cabin this weekend. You two in?”
“Hell yes. It’s been too long.” Liam stretches his arms over his head.
Reece raises his glass, the liquor inside of it swishing again. “Cabin, beers, no cell service? I’m there.”
I laugh, easy enough.
But as I grab my phone to text Carson back that we’re all in, I can’t help wondering something…
What ever happened to that little girl?
She’s probably grown now, living her own life somewhere far from here.
I wonder if she ever patched things up with Carson.
