The Heart of a Girl (2) (9 page)

Chapter 13

             
The rest of September flew by and in the blink of an eye it was the first weekend of October.

             
Hannah’s father never made it up to Haven, so she was travelling down there for the weekend instead. She was nervous and I did my best to reassure her. They’d spoken on a pretty regular basis since getting in touch a month earlier, so meeting was the next logical step. Her new stepmother had a son a few years younger than us, so it was almost like a family reunion.

             
“What if she doesn’t like me?” She fretted as she put more clothes into her bag. The purple streaks in her hair had since faded and she hadn’t gotten around to either covering them or redoing them. This only added to her anxiety.

             
“What if she hates my hair and thinks I’m some kind of freak or something?”

             
I couldn’t help but laugh at that one. “I don’t think your stepmother is going to be too concerned about what color hair you have. You told me yourself that she seemed really nice on the phone. Why do you think she’s going to turn into the wicked stepmother the second you get off the plane?”

             
“I don’t know,” Hannah sighed. “I’m just scared something is going to mess all this up.”

             
“Try not to think like that,” I urged. “Everything is going to be great. You’re finally going to meet your dad face to face. I know how long you’ve wanted this, and you deserve it. It’s going to be great.”

             
Hannah plopped down on the bed and bit her lip. She didn’t seem convinced and all the encouraging words I could speak probably weren’t going to change that.

             
“I wish you could come with me,” she said after a few minutes of quiet.

             
“So do I,” I admitted, sitting down next to her and draping my arm over her shoulder. “We’d have fun.”

             
“Maybe you can,” she said slowly. “I can call my dad and ask him to wire money for another ticket.”

             
“What about Harper?”

             
She shrugged. “She can come with us. I think babies fly for free, anyway.”

             
“I can’t take her to South Carolina for a weekend. She won’t know what’s going on and I don’t think Adam would want to have both of us away for that long.”

             
“Adam’s never even home, Lainey,” she pointed out, and even though she didn’t mean anything by it, it stung because it was true.

             
“I’m sorry, Han.”

             
She groaned and stood up, gathering some more clothes from her drawers and tossing them into her bag. With the way she was packing you’d think she would be gone for two months instead of just two days.

             
“I’ll survive,” she said and flashed me a quick smile to let me know there were no hard feelings. “I just hate doing stuff alone, I guess. Maybe I should find a new boyfriend.”

             
“Maybe,” I agreed. “Has the selection at Haven High gotten any better?”

             
She rolled her eyes. “Not hardly. It really sucks this year. Even lunch is boring now that Scott has his new girlfriend.”

             
I felt my heart skip a beat. “New girlfriend?” I repeated.

             
“Yeah, I didn’t tell you? Her name is Emily and she’s… boring. I think you used to know her, she writes for the school paper.”

             
“Emily Gibson?” I asked, frowning.

             
“Yep, that’s the one.”

             
“I remember her.” It was hard to forget her, actually. We worked on the paper together and she never seemed all that fond of me. She disliked me even more after everyone found out I was pregnant and worked hard to convince Ms. Freeman to relieve me of my editorial duties. That never panned out, but I could only assume she was the new editor now that I was gone.

             
“She’s
boring
,” Hannah repeated with emphasis. “But Scott really likes her so there’s nothing I can do about it. Hopefully he’ll get bored of her eventually or she’ll start to hate his truck. Both of those things will probably happen long before I actually find someone.”

             
“Scott deserves to be happy,” I said, forcing a smile. “Does he seem happy?” I hadn’t spoken to Scott at all since he’d returned to Haven and was determined not to reveal how much that kind of hurt. We’d been on good terms when he’d left for Georgia at the end of the school year last year and so I’d assumed we’d continue on as friends when he got back. Apparently that wasn’t going to be the case. Not that I could blame him. First I all but rip his heart out by cheating on him the first time we spend a second apart, and then I wind up pregnant a few months later. Scott was a better person than I was for accepting me back as a friend after all that.

             
“Yeah I guess so. He asked about you a few times but Emily gets mad whenever you’re brought up so he stopped.” She studied me for a moment. “Don’t be upset that he hasn’t been around, okay? Apparently he and Emily were talking all summer while he was in Georgia, so their relationship kind of started as soon as he got home. That’s why he hasn’t been around. I’m sure he wants to meet Harper, it’s just…”

             
She didn’t finish her sentence, but she didn’t need to. I got it. Scott had a new life now with a new girl that he might even love. I’d force myself to be happy for him because that was what he deserved, at the very least.

             
“It’s okay,” I said with a smile. “I’ve been too busy for friends anyway.” That was partially true. Between keeping the house from falling apart, caring for Harper and getting all my schoolwork done I really didn’t have all that much time for anything. The little free time I did have was usually spent playing with Harper, sleeping or being with Adam. Things had improved in the past month between us. We weren’t exactly back to where we’d started, but we were closer than we’d been since June.

             
I fiddled with my engagement ring. It had gotten looser since I’d lost all of my baby weight and then some. It had fallen off a few times, once a few days ago and I hadn’t even noticed until later that night. I was back to wondering if that were a sign of sorts but did my best to ignore it. I might have believed in the existence of signs briefly during my pregnancy but I was done with that now.

             
“Is my dad driving you to the airport?” I asked, hoping to avoid any more talk about my life and past romantic entanglements.

             
“Nope, Mason is. I think Michael has some paperwork to do in the office.”

             
Poor Mason. I knew that paperwork just meant my dad was locked away in the office reading the newspaper or doodling down some thoughts. He used to fancy himself something of a writer, but it never really panned out into anything.

             
It was now more than a month since Mason was supposed to go back to Delaware. He and Cynthia talked daily, sometimes on the phone and other times through webcam, but I knew it wasn’t the same. I could tell by the sadness in Mason’s eyes sometimes that he missed his wife, but for whatever reason he chose to stay behind. He must have some sort of twisted loyalty to our father, something I couldn’t really bring myself to understand.

             
Almost as if on cue Mason poked his head through the door. Harper was in his arms, smiling and content. She loved Mason and had a connection with him that she didn’t really have with anyone else other than me. Sometimes I worried she was more attached to him than she was to Adam. Mason was just around more and willing to spend the time he was holding Harper and doing whatever she needed done at the time. Adam worked five days out of the week and tended to choose other things to do besides staying at home and caring for Harper. I couldn’t change that and there wasn’t much of a point in holding anger towards it. I knew he loved Harper. He probably wouldn’t still be here if he didn’t.

             
“About ready to go?” He asked and I walked over to him, taking my daughter and kissing both cheeks excessively. She giggled and squirmed, trying to get away, but I didn’t allow her.

             
“I’ll never be ready,” Hannah complained. “I don’t think I even packed anything right.”

             
“It all looks okay to me,” Mason said, turning to me with raised eyebrows. “A little excessive but I guess it’s better to have too much than not enough, right?”

             
“I don’t know,” she whined. “I think I’m going to cancel.”

             
“You can’t, Hannah,” I insisted. “Your dad already paid for the ticket and the plane is leaving in two hours. It’ll be okay.”

             
“It will not,” she protested. “You have no idea how scary this is, Lainey.”

             
“You’re right,” I agreed. “I didn’t exactly have a choice when my mom showed up. But even though that turned out badly, I don’t regret spending that week with her and you won’t regret spending time with your dad, either.”

             
“You don’t think?” She asked, looking skeptical. “What if he turns out to be a real jerk, like my mom always said?”

             
“Your mom is the big jerk in just about any situation, last I checked. Don’t worry so much,” Mason cut in, smiling. Hannah smiled back at him, and I could swear I saw stars forming in her eyes.

             
“Okay, I think we’d better get all this in the car before you change your mind!” I announced, holding Harper with one arm and grabbing the smallest bag with the other. I led the way out the door, hoping both of them followed.

             
The last thing Hannah needed was to develop another crush on Mason. Now that Nora and my dad were almost certainly headed to divorce court and Mason was living very separate lives with his new wife, it seemed almost inevitable. I didn’t know why I hadn’t added this to my list of things to worry about sooner.

             
It took twenty minutes to load all of Hannah’s belongings into the car and nearly ten for her to say goodbye to my dad. Things hadn’t really improved between us since our brief conversation when he’d first gotten home and we smiled awkwardly at each other as Hannah threw herself into his arms and practically began to cry.

             
“You’ll have fun, sweetheart,” he encouraged her, patting her back. “And we’ll all be here waiting for when you get back. It’s only a few days.”

             
Mason and I left after a few minutes, deciding that Hannah was probably just looking for more ways to put off the inevitable. We headed back to the car and Mason leaned against it, studying me.

             
“You seem unhappy,” he remarked.

             
“Who, me?” I laughed. “I’m just tired, that’s all.”

             
“Late nights with Harper?”

             
“Always.”

             
“You should make Adam get up and do it every once in a while.”

             
“No, he needs his sleep. He’s the one who had to get up in the morning and go to work. I have school work, but I can do that whenever.”

             
“Plenty of people have to get up early for work and they still wake up with their kids when they need them. And besides, he has enough time to go out on work nights.” I could hear the tension in Mason’s voice.

             
“It doesn’t bother me,” I insisted.

             
“It bothers me.”

             
“Why?”

             
“Because you’re my little sister and Adam is supposed to be taking care of you.”

             
“He is,” I replied. “He pays for everything. We might not have to worry about rent or anything like that, but he pays for all Harper’s clothing and all our food and anything else. Plus, Harper is covered under his medical insurance through work. All of that alone is more expensive than you probably think.”

             
Mason sighed. “I feel like you’re trying to make things appear better than they actually are.”

             
“Why would I do that?”

             
“I don’t know, Lainey. I have no idea why you would, but I definitely get the impression that you are. I know I don’t know Adam all that well but he doesn’t seem like the same guy he was before Harper was born.”

             
“He’s the same as he always was,” I defended him, even though I knew it was a lie. Adam had changed and it wasn’t for the better. But what was I supposed to do, complain about it? He graduated high school and became a father a week later. That was enough to change anyone.