Elusive Love (26 page)

“You’re really not going to try to take her from me?” he asked skeptically. “Especially after today?”

I shook my head. “She’s your child, too, Joey. I wouldn’t do that unless you started treating her the way you treated me. The way I see it, you’re gone all week. I can have her then, and you can have her every weekend.”

He nodded. “I think that’s our best option. What happens if I find work locally and can spend more time with her?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” I told him.

“This is really it, isn’t it?” he asked. There was no anger in his voice, only defeat.

“Yeah, it really is,” I said.

For a moment, I felt a pang of sympathy for not just him, but for myself as well. We’d spent years together, growing from teenagers into adults. We’d transitioned into this world of adulthood together.

“We had some good times, Joey, but the bad outweighed the good. Now, we can both move forward and find happiness.”

“I want us to be friends. Is that even possible?”

I hesitated before answering, “Yes, I think it’s possible, but it will take time. I’ve spent so long hating you that it’s all I know. For now, I think we should just aim for being cordial with each other, especially where Amelia is concerned.”

“It’s a start,” he said.

“It is,” I said. “Why don’t I come over to the apartment tomorrow, and we’ll fill out the paperwork together? We can file next week.”

“All right,” he said as he pushed away from the banister. “I guess that’s my cue to make myself scarce, isn’t it?”

I grinned. “Yes, I believe it is.”

He stood there awkwardly for a moment before nodding and turning away. I watched him walk down the porch steps and across the lawn to where his car was parked.

As he started the car and pulled away, I felt a tiny bit of loss. Deep, deep,
deep
down, Joey was a good man. Unfortunately, he’d lost that part of himself somewhere along the way. I hoped that he could find it one day and be the kind of man I’d always hoped he could be.

I sat out on the porch swing long after his car had disappeared from view, my mind too full to think of anything else but the way my life had changed so dramatically in such a short amount of time.

It was dark when the front door swung open. Ethan stepped out and walked over to the porch swing. He was silent as he sat down next to me. I noticed that he’d found a new clean shirt, free of blood. From the size of it, it looked like my father had loaned it to him. That made me smile. If my dad approved of Ethan, I knew I’d have no problem with my mother.

“Joey and I are over,” I told him after a while. “He has agreed to the divorce. I’m going over to the apartment tomorrow to fill out all the papers with him.”

“How do you feel?” Ethan asked.

I shrugged. “Relieved. A little bit sad, too. I mean, we’re both walking away from years we’ve spent together. That’s hard to swallow.”

“You have every right to be sad,” Ethan said. “But just know that you’re definitely not alone in this. You have me. Your dad is there for you, too.”

“I know, and I’m thankful for both of you. I hope you know that.”

He smiled. “I know.”

“Maybe, one day, my mom will come around, too. But I’m not holding my breath on that one.”

“I don’t know. The way she was muttering about Joey, you might just have her on your side, too.”

“It has been a crazy day full of surprises. Maybe she’ll shock me and actually be decent,” I mused. “Still, I can’t wait to get away from this house. It’s only a matter of time before one of us kills the other.”

Ethan laughed. “She can’t be that bad.”

“You just wait. You’re going to be around her a lot more now. You’ll see what I’m talking about.”

We fell silent, both of us simply enjoying each other’s company and the moment of peace after so much havoc today. After a while, I knew it was time to go inside.

I looked over at Ethan, a shocking revelation crossing my mind. “You’ve never met Amelia, have you?”

He shook his head. “No. Well, I saw her today for the first time, if that counts.”

“It doesn’t. Come on, I’ll introduce you to each other.”

I laced my fingers through his as we stood. I led the way back inside and to the living room.

Amelia was lying in my mother’s lap, eating her evening bottle. My mother’s eyes fell to my hands linked with Ethan’s, but for once, she kept silent. I let go of Ethan and walked over to Amelia. My mother stood and handed her off to me.

“I need to go check on dinner,” she said before leaving the room.

My father stood and followed her out without a word. I knew they would question me about what had happened with Joey, but for now, they were giving me time alone with Ethan, something I very much appreciated.

“Sit down with me,” I said as I settled down onto the couch with Amelia on my lap.

Ethan cautiously sat next to me.

“Amelia, meet Ethan,” I said as I carefully handed her over to him.

His entire body was stiff as he took her into his arms.

“You don’t have to sit so stiffly. You’re not going to hurt her, and I promise she won’t hurt you.”

He relaxed his body a tiny bit. “Better?”

“Much.” I grinned.

“Hi, Amelia. I’ve heard a lot about you,” he joked as he looked down at my daughter in his arms.

She started to fuss, and a look of terror crossed his face. I grinned as I handed her bottle to him.

“She’s hungry.”

“Oh, right,” he muttered as he held the bottle so that she could suckle on it.

She instantly attacked it.

He laughed. “I guess she really was hungry.”

“She’s always hungry. I think she gets that from me,” I joked.

He glanced over at me before returning his attention to the baby on his lap. “She’s beautiful.”

“Yes, she is.”

A smile covered my face as I watched Amelia and Ethan for the first time. It was strange to see two of the most important people in my life together at last.

Since I’d reconnected with Ethan, he’d been separate from my normal life. I wasn’t sure that I’d ever expected him to meet Amelia face-to-face. Now that he was, it was like my two separate lives were now crashing together, becoming one.

My smile widened. I liked the sound of that.

“Caley,” a voice whispered close by.

I moaned and opened my eyes to see my mother staring at me.

“Hmm?” I asked, still half-asleep.

“I made up the guest bedroom for your friend. You might want to wake him up. If he sleeps on the couch after the beating he took today, he’ll definitely be stiff in the morning.”

I sat up and stretched, finally waking up. “Okay.”

“I’ll put Amelia in her crib.” She gently pried Amelia from Ethan’s grip.

He began to stir as my mother walked away with Amelia curled up, sound asleep, in her arms.

“Ethan, wake up,” I whispered, hoping not to startle him.

His eyes opened slowly, and he looked around. “Crap. I fell asleep, didn’t I?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I did, too. Even Amelia passed out.”

He sat up and rubbed his eyes. “I need to head home.”

“No, you can stay here. My mom made up the guest room for you.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I thought you said she was evil.”

“She is, but apparently, she’s decided to shelve that attitude for the evening.”

“Wow, I don’t know what to say. Tell her thanks, I suppose.”

“You can tell her yourself in the morning.” I stood and held out my hand. “I’ll show you where you’ll be sleeping.”

He stood and followed me out of the living room and down the hallway to the spare room that was next to mine.

I helped him get settled before whispering, “Good night,” and slipping from the room.

I walked to the kitchen and grabbed a glass out of the cabinet. I filled it with water and ice from the refrigerator. When I turned around, my mother was standing in the doorway, watching me.

“I just want a drink, and then I’m going to bed. I don’t want to fight tonight,” I said, hoping she’d let me go without a fight. I was too drained to deal with her.

“I don’t want to fight with you. I just want to talk.” She crossed the room and sat down on one of the kitchen chairs.

“Talk?” I asked, bewildered.

“Yes, talk. Sit down,” she said.

I cautiously walked across the room and sat down on the chair across from her.

She watched me for a moment before sighing. “I owe you an apology.”

I nearly choked on the sip of water I had just taken. “I’m sorry. What?”

“You heard me,” she grumbled. “But you have to understand where I was coming from. I was thinking of Amelia first. That little girl deserves all the happiness in the world, and I thought that you were being selfish and taking that away from her for your own happiness.”

“Amelia will always be my number one priority,” I told her. “She’s my daughter, and I will always try to do right by her. My decision to leave Joey wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. It had been building for years.”

“I realize that now.” She hesitated. “I’m sorry that he cheated on you. That must have hurt.”

I shrugged. “Surprisingly enough, it didn’t hurt all that much. That alone should tell you how much I’ve distanced myself from Joey already. I was more upset that some strange woman was holding Amelia than I was over Joey cheating on me.”

She chuckled. “You’re a strong woman to face that and not let your emotions get the better of you. I’m proud of you for that.”

I looked across the table at my mother, unsure of what to say. My mother had
never
said she was proud of me.

“Uh, thanks,” I finally said after a moment.

“You’re welcome.” She cleared her throat. “Anyway, I just wanted to apologize and to tell you that your father and I are both here for you while you deal with all of this.”

“I appreciate that,” I said, stunned.

She nodded before standing. “I think it’s time for bed. I’ll see you in the morning.”

I watched her walk away. When she was gone, I finished my water and put my glass in the sink.

I chuckled to myself.
Today just keeps getting stranger and stranger.

As I lay in bed later that night, I thought about everything that had happened in the last twelve hours. My precariously balanced life had taken a nosedive. Things had fallen apart, and within hours, they had repaired themselves.

For the first time, I felt like I finally had a chance to start over. Joey would no longer be holding me back.

I smiled. Joey and I would go our separate ways, and I could move on with my life, move on with Ethan. If that wasn’t something to smile about, I didn’t know what was.

THREE MONTHS LATER

Three months—that was how long it had taken for my divorce from Joey to finalize.

That was thirteen weeks or ninety one days or two thousand one hundred ninety hours.

Our years together had ended in what felt like no time at all.

We hadn’t fought, not even once. That would have been an unbelievable feat a few months ago.

The thought of Joey and I getting along back then had been laughable. Now, it was our new normal. It was strange. When we weren’t constantly around each other, all the petty shit that had driven each of us mad had finally faded away.