Trent (Season Two: The Ninth Inning #4) (5 page)

I smile brightly, glad for
the subject change. “It’s adoption day. Four of my kids are being
adopted.”

“Wow, sound awesome.” His
face lights up a bit.

“I had two this morning, a
brother and sister. A great family took them and I couldn’t be
happier. I have two more this afternoon.”

“It must be a great feeling.”
Trent grins at me.

“Indescribable. I take these
kids from drugged out, worthless parents who see them as nothing
but skin and bones. Then I find them a home and watch them thrive
into normal children with clean clothes and food. It’s
awe-inspiring to watch them grow. When they get adopted, it’s
almost like they’re reborn in a way, you know.”

Trent is still smiling at
me.

“Sorry, I tend to ramble.” My
cheeks heat up.

“No, it’s not that. It’s nice
to see someone who loves their job and helps a lot of people. It’s
great.”

When I look into his brown
eyes, I can see the deep sadness in them. A loss no one will ever
be able to replace. It breaks my heart to know that someone I knew
took the light from him. It rips at my soul to know it was my
brother.

“I need to get going,” I rush
out the words and shove my tablet into my bag. “I have to get back
to the courtroom.” I turn and look at him. “It’s nice seeing you,
Trent.”

“Doesn’t it seem like we keep
running into each other?”

I stop shuffling around at
his question. “It does.” There’s a pause between us and I don’t
know what else to say or do. We’re not supposed to be seeing each
other all around town. All I wanted way to apologize and never see
him again. Nothing more and nothing less.

“Well, see you around then,
Scarlett.”

I nod and almost run out the
door.

At the end of my amazing day,
I head back to the office and finish up a few reports and grab more
files. Tomorrow is my home visits and I have a love-hate
relationship with them. I’m trying to decide if I should go to the
gym or not. I need to run, but I don’t want to see Trent again.
Macy’s right; I can’t get attached to him.

The sorrow I feel for him is
because of what Dominic did. He and I didn’t have childhoods we
want to remember. Most of my time in therapy was to help move on
from my past. I worked hard to stay off the streets and away from
drugs. Having no friends made it easier. Dominic was different. He
was smart and funny, which made him a lot of friends. I thought we
had been doing well for a while, but I don’t know what happened.
Soon, he became withdrawn and the drugs became worse.

When I came home a couple of
times during college, I saw how bad it really was for him. I tried
to help, but it never worked. Now, look at where he is. No matter
how many times I tried to help him, he always refused, yet I kept
giving him money because I didn’t want him to rob anyone for it, or
hurt himself.

This is my partially
fault.

A husband lost his soulmate
and a daughter lost her mother because I didn’t give him enough
money. To this day, no one knows where the gun came from. No one
knows why he shot her. She gave him the purse; there was no reason
for him to do it. The doctors at the hospital diagnosed Dominic
with all sorts of mental illnesses and his long abuse of drugs
certainly didn’t help, but it’s not an excuse. He could have
changed.

When I walk into my house, I
make sure all the doors are locked. I know Dominic is in jail now,
but I’ve always kept them locked so he wouldn’t break in and rob
me. He’s my brother, but I know what drugs do. Look what he did
because of it.

I toss my things in the
living room chair and collapse onto the couch in tears. I cry for
Dominic, Deborah, Trent’s daughter, and Trent. I even cry for me.
The helplessness and loneliness I feel is because I can’t fix this
problem and I don’t know what I’m doing.

“When was your last date?”
Macy asks. We’re meeting up for a quick lunch. She has to do a
couple interviews downtown, and I finished my home visits
early.

“Good Lord, it’s been a
year.” I’m almost shocked at how time flies by. “I didn’t realize
it’s been so long.” I take a bite of my sandwich.

“So, why don’t you at least
try this guy out?”

“He isn’t a pair of shoes,
Macy.” I roll my eyes at her.

“Just go out with him. If the
date sucks, let’s hope you at least get a nice dinner out of it.”
She giggles.

“Fine.” I give in to her too
quickly, but there’s no point in arguing. Going out shouldn’t be a
big deal anyway. Instead of staying home and feeling sorry for
myself, I need to interact with adults and have a life.

Right now, I’m surrounded by
sadness: the heartbreak of taking children from homes, seeing their
horrible parents, trying to get them adopted and/or saved from the
system, and let’s not forget my murderous brother. I need
happiness. I need some light in all of this darkness around me.

I think of Trent. He is
consumed with darkness too. I hope he finds light soon. He deserves
it. He seems like such a nice guy. I’m sure eventually he’ll find
someone outstanding for him and his daughter.

Macy continues going on about
the guy and gives me his number. I debate for the rest of the day
and even into the evening how I should approach this. It’s been
awhile since I’ve asked a guy out and even though this is somewhat
arranged, it still can be nerve-racking.

I pick up my cell phone and
decide maybe a text would be better. Just in case he’s a royal jerk
and Macy’s trying to be nice about it. I hate ‘pity’ dates.

After a few back and forth
texts, Nathaniel and I agree to see each other on Friday night. He
told me where to meet him and doesn’t seem like a huge asshat. Now,
I have a date and I’m going to focus on getting my life back to a
good point. I have to do this for me. I have to leave my past
behind.

***

IT’S FRIDAY AND with an
afternoon free, I tell Granny I’ll pick Kaelyn up from school.
Since my schedule can be hectic and Kaelyn was often with Deborah
24/7, I decided the best way to allow her to have a day to herself
and give me some time with Kaelyn was to have daddy/daughter play
dates. I have kept up the tradition to give Granny her time as
well.

We go to the park, to the
movies, go shopping, whatever Kaelyn wants to do. The only constant
is that we always go for ice cream afterward. The line of cars of
parents picking up their children is ridiculously long. I bypass
them to park. They have the kids standing in groups based on their
grade, and the kindergarteners are the farthest from me, of
course.

It doesn’t matter though
because once Kaelyn sees me, she starts running.

“Daddy!” She leaps into my
ready arms with a huge smile. “I thought Granny was coming.”

“I decided to surprise you.”
I cross while the cars are stopped. “How was school?”

She shrugs her shoulders.
“Same old, same old.”

I laugh. “Same old, same old,
huh?”

Kaelyn grins. “That’s what
Granny says sometimes when you ask about her day.”

After getting her settled in
the car and getting in myself, I look in the backseat. “Well, I was
thinking today seemed like the perfect time for a daddy/daughter
play date. What do you think?”

“Yes!” she shouts. “Let’s go
shopping. Please, Daddy?”

“Shopping and ice cream is
the plan.”

Kaelyn is officially excited
and begins to recount her entire day in great detail while I drive
to our first stop, a toy store. Every shopping trip can only result
in five items at the most. Kaelyn holds my hand as we walk down
every aisle. She has to see everything before she can make a
decision.

“We need more crayons and
markers,” she says with decisiveness when we reach the arts and
crafts section.

“You already have
plenty.”

“But we need more. Oh! What
about paint? We haven’t painted before.”

Paint sounds messy. But
Kaelyn looks up at me with hopeful eyes, and I nod. “Paint sounds
like fun.” We pick out the colors she wants and then we need
brushes and paper. “Is this all you want from here?”

She nods. “Can I have a new
dress, Daddy?”

“If that’s what you
want.”

She starts dragging me to the
checkout, so we can go shopping for a new dress, which also means
new shoes of course. That will make her reach her limit. We visit
three stores before she finds any dresses she even likes.

“You’re just like Mommy, you
know that,” I tell her as we flip through dresses on a rack. “She
liked shopping for a long time, too.”

Kaelyn smiles. “It has to be
perfect,” she echoes what her mother used to say when we went
shopping. It didn’t matter what it was, a gift, clothes, or
anything else; Deborah would also say that when I mentioned how
long we had been shopping.

I force a grin. “That’s
right. Which one of these dresses is the perfect dress?” I hold up
the three she’s given me.

“I have to try them on
first!” She laughs. “Mommy says you always have to try it on.”

“Yes, she did and Mommy was
always right. Let’s go then.”

She slips her hand in mine
and we make our way to the fitting room. The perfect dress ends up
being yellow, covered with flowers. Kaelyn quickly finds shoes and
then we are done shopping.

“We need dinner before we can
have ice cream,” I tell her when we get back to the car. Plus, it’s
dinnertime already. “What do you want, Kaelyn?”

“You can pick.”

“All right. How does pizza
sound?”

“Yummy! I’m
starving
.
I think I need one pizza just for me.”

I laugh, glancing at her in
the rearview mirror. “You must be really hungry then.”

She goes on and on about how
much pizza she’s going to eat until we arrive at our favorite pizza
place. We find us a booth and order a large pepperoni pizza. It is
a crime to put anything else on it, according to Kaelyn and
Deborah. For all her talk, I’m actually impressed when she says she
wants another slice.

“Are you going to save any
room for ice cream?”

“Hm. I’ll wait. If I’m still
hungry after ice cream, do I get to have more pizza?”

“Of course.”

I pay our bill, get a to-go
box, and then we’re off to the ice cream parlor, which looks to be
the place to be tonight. The line is rather long and the place is
crowded. I pick Kaelyn up, so she can see the pictures on the menu
on the wall better.

“I want to try something
new.”

“Really?” I ask.

“Maybe. That one? It’s
green.” She points to the pistachio ice cream. “Or the blue one.”
This time, it’s cotton candy. “Which one do you think, Daddy?”
Kaelyn looks at me expectantly.

“I think you’ll like the blue
one better, but you can taste the green one if you want.”