Folding Hearts (3 page)

“Look Miranda, I don’t have time to argue about this right now. We are gettin’ the Chevy ready for the race this weekend.
I need to figure out how I am goin’ to make some fast cash.
I gotta go.”

“Wait! When will we see you? You need to come visit with your daughter. She needs diapers
,
” I said desperately trying to get him to come over.

“
You know
I don’
t have any money for that shit right now. Just ask your mother for her credit card.” He said rudely.

“What happened to your job?”
He was working at a body shop outside of town.

“I quit.
Ain’t
nobody goin’ to tell me what I can and can’t do.”

I felt so angry. We had a child to think about. I was helping part time at the farm, but it
wasn’t
enough to start a life with. Why couldn’t he want to start our future together?
“Now what are you goin’ to do?
You can’t keep livin’ like you are right now.
”

“Don’t worry about me. You just keep livin’ on that ranch with your rich family. I will figure somethin’
else
out
babes
.”

“She is nine months old Tucker. I am startin’ to feel like we are never goin’ to be a family. She needs her daddy ya know.”

I could hear him sighin
g
through the phone. “She don’t know any different. She is just a baby. Listen, I gotta head over to Charlie’s. He is havin’ people over later, so I will just call you tomorrow.”

“I want to go with you,
” I stated.

“It’s just a bunch of guys. Just stay home and hang out with your daughter. I will call you tomorrow.”

My daughter? She was also his daughter….

“Fine, I love you.”

“Yeah, me too…bye.”

I hit end on the phone and set it on the table.
There wasn’t a second to consid
er he had just blown me off, because
I heard Bella
crying and made my way to her room instead.  When I saw her in her crib, just laying there, waiting for me to pick her up, all I could do was cry.

I had been so stupid to think that he would drop what he was doing to come hang out with me and our baby. In the past nine months he had spent the night less than ten times.
I picked up my
beautiful baby daughter and started comforting her to still her cries. “It’s okay baby. Momma’s got you now.
I will never choose anything over you. I promise.
”

She settled quickly and began her daily cooing and raspberry blowing
, while it took me a little more time to calm myself down
.
I hated being a wreck around her.

After I changed her diaper, we headed into the family room to play. Ever since my uncle passed away suddenly, the house just seemed empty. Even with Van moving into Colt’s place and them having
dinner at least three nights a
week here, it just wasn’t the same. My aunt
was an empty shell of a person. She tried to keep herself busy during the day, but nights were the hardest for her. Many times, when I got up in the middle of the night with Isabelle, I found her in my uncle’s study. She would just sit there in his chair and cry.

My mother had a house on the ranch
too
, but she and Conner were fine by themselves. I insisted that Bella and I stay here in the main house. We basically had an entire wing to ourselves since only my aunt and her housekeeper Lucy still lived here in this big mansion. Her daughter had
just left to go to college, so
it was just us girls left here. Because there was little cleaning to do in the
house, Lucy spe
nt her days in front of the television watchin
g
soap operas. During intense parts she would sometimes yell at the television, or come into the kitchen talkin
g
all about these characters as if they were real people. “Can you believe he cheated on her? I knew he was the father. She isn’t really dead ya know.”

I had heard it all.

Today was n
o different. I heard her arguing
with the television again. Friday’s were the worst for her
,
because they always left with some major cliffhanger. She came walkin
g
into the kitchen shakin
g
her head.
“I
just can’t believe he did that,” s
he said as she approached Bella. “How is my favorite baby today?”

“Say
…
..I am just fine A
untie Lucy
,
” I said in a baby voice. Bella smiled with a mouth full of pureed bananas.

“Have you heard from her father lately?” She
started wiping off Bella’s face
.

My family hated Tucker. My mother begged me to dump him, but he was the father of my chil
d. I loved him and h
e loved me too.  He just had his priorities all wrong. One day things would change and we would be a family.

“We talked this morning.”

“You don’t sou
nd very happy about it missy,” s
he said sarcastically.

I gave her a quick fake smile. “I ju
st wish he would grow up. I
want us to be together.” I wiped off Bella’s mouth and turned around to face Lucy. “Hey, do you think you could babysit tonight for me? I want to surprise Tucker.”

“Sure.
Not that I want you hangin’ with that riff raff, but
I would love to spend quality time with this little cutie.” She said as she approached Bella and talked in a sweet voice.

“Thanks Lucy. I don’t know whether my mother would say yes
considerin
’
she wishes he would drop off the face of the earth.
I just wish I could
make him see what he is
missin
’
.”

She patted my shoulder. “Sweetie, I think some men just never grow up. You
r
mom just wants more for you and Bella.
That man is no good for you.
Bella needs a daddy who wants to be around her, not one that can’t make the time to.
”

I gave her a smile and started cleaning up the mess on the high chair. I had never planned to get pregnant and lose out on the college life. I didn’t want to spend my whole life on this ranch.
I wanted more for me and my daughter. I just couldn’t do it alone.

I never expected to get pregnant with Bella when I did. I met Tucker at a party. He broke up a fight between two guys that were fightin
g
over a girl. Everyone was pretty drunk and I was the sober person to clean up his bloodied nose.  We hung out after that, taking shots and gropin
g
all over each other. That night he looked at me like nobody else ever had,  and after a few hours, we ended up in the back of his pickup truck.

It was hard for me to date with my brother and Colt always threatening everyone that was interested.
Those two were like the coun
try songs about fathers waiting
at home with a shotgun loaded up, ready to tear a guy a new ass.

Tucker wasn’t afraid of anyone, but I didn’t show him off at first anyway. Instead, I snuck out to meet him. I found out I was pregnant about a month later. I knew it was Tucker’s baby because I hadn’t been
with anyone else in months
. We had been having such a good time that I thought he was really into me. When I told him, he freaked out and begged me to get an abortion. After I refused, he didn’t speak to me for three months. When he did start coming back around again, he was distant.

He made wise cracks about my weight and the stretch marks that I had across my stomach. He refused to have sex with me during the rest of my pregnancy
,
even after my doctor confirmed it was perfectly healthy to do so.

I heard from one of my friends that Conner saw Tucker out one night racin
g
and gave him hell. He must have really laid into him, because after that he came around a lot more.

My family still begged me to just dump him. Every
day they had some new reason that it needed to happen. I couldn’t help but hope that one day he would see how important family was to me. I lost my dad when I was a little girl. We did everything together. It was so hard for me to believe that I would never see him again, or sit on his lap again. I remember coming home from school and waiting for him to get home at night. When I heard his car pulling into the gravel driveway I would run to the front door and open it up. He would pick me
up
over his shoulder and plop me down on the couch and tickle me. He did that every night.

When he died I refused to sit on that couch. The memories were too painful for me.
Soon after, my mom moved us to the ranch
. My aunt and uncle put a nice double wide on the property so that we wouldn’t have to worry about money. We had been here ever since.

Tucker knew what losing
my father did to me, so I couldn’t fathom how he couldn’t understand why I needed him to be here for me and Bella.

I realized I had
completely
dazed out. “I just want Bella to have her daddy. It means so much to me.”

“Bel
la will be loved no matter what,
” Lucy said as she stood up and started washing a dish. “Before I forget to tell you, Tyler is coming to stay for a week. He will be staying in one of the guest rooms here.”

I knew he didn’t want to stay with Colt and Van. Those two couldn’t keep their hands off of one another. “Okay. I am sure Bella will like the attention.”

“It still a
mazes me how he acts around her,
” Lucy admitted.

“Yeah, it weirded me out at first. It isn’t even like we were really close before. I guess it all changed after he helped deliver her.”

“You be careful with that boy. I hear how he is
with women
,
” She warned.

I laughed. “Seriously Lucy, we are just friends, almost cousins even. I have never considered him anything but family. I am sure he feels the same. He even has me telling Bella to call him Uncle Ty. I hardly think there is anything more to our friendship in his eyes.”

She didn’t need to know that Ty would listen to me cry over Tucker sometimes late at night. We video chatted a few times a week and it was almost always so that he could talk to Bella and act like
a
moron to get a smile out of her,
but several times we stayed connected and talked for hours. He gave good advice, probably because he was such a womanizer himself. I heard what he did to Van and I also knew he still loved her.

“When is he gettin
’ here?” I asked.

“This afternoon I think.”

“I guess I wi
ll see him before I go out then,
” I said as I carried Bella out of the room. I needed to pick out something hot to wear. I had tried everything else. Maybe seducing her daddy would get him to see what else he was missing. I was willing to try anything at this point.

Chapter 4

Tyler

I packed up my Jeep
and headed to Kentucky. Part of the reason was to hang out with Colt and Van, but the other was to see Izzy. She was getting so big. All of the pictures I had from text messages and internet
video chatting
did nothing compared to how she was in person. She was turning nine months old and her cheeks were so chubby. I swear the child smiled constantly. She had two matching dimples on either side of her cheeks
that made you just want to kiss them
.
That little girl was the only thing to take my mind off of my totally fucked up life. Maybe using a baby to bury my problem was selfish, but things were difficult.

I’d lost everything. I just needed something to look forward to.

Van and Colt had expected me for dinner at the cabin, but I had stopped at the main house first.
I wasn’t sure if she would recognize my voice, but when I walked into that house and said hello, in my best baby talk voice, she got the biggest smile.
After
it got dark, I realized I had been there for hours. Miranda kept me company, and called me a weirdo for playing with Izzy
for so long
.

When Miranda said she had to get ready for a night out, I volunteered to hang out with Izzy. We sat watching a video with a bunch of brightly dressed adults dancing and singing. I moved her hands around to act like she was dancing. She giggled and made
squeaking
sounds the faster we danced. Her little teeth were the cutest thing about her smile.